Yo gets a kick out of poking fun at developers who try to coin new names for neighborhoods. But we are a little easier on developers who create and name those insta-neighborhoods, such as The Arches at Oakwood Shores. The Arches is part of a broader, 3,000 unit mixed-income project on a former Chicago Housing Authority site in the (North) Kenwood-Oakland neighborhood. Joe Williams of Granite Development, which is one of several entities involved in the ambitious project, hopes the city will some day adopt “Oakwood Shores” as the moniker for the broader CHA development-cum-neighborhood.
Yo doesn’t object to “Oakwood,” and the jury’s out on the “Shores” part – it’s not lakefront property, but it’s close to it. Neverthless, the name is preferable to that other mash-up, “KenLand,” which sounds like some Mattel-inspired utopia for Barbie fans who haven’t moved on.
Sales are underway on the second stage of The Arches, and a third stage of 44 units, including condos and single-family homes, will open sales in September.