POW Lofts at McKinley Park?

Next to McKinley Park Lofts on Pershing Road (near Western Boulevard) is a slew of old brick warehouses that once made up the largest (and first, we’re told) centralized manufacturing district in the United States. These buildings (as seen here, across McKinley Park) have had various uses over the years. During World War II, the buildings were utilized by the U.S. Department of War and may even have housed prisoners of war, according to John Molloy of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. The city owns the buildings, most of which are vacant, and there are no adaptive reuse plans for them at the moment, although Molloy says the idea of converting them to condos is occasionally floated. Anyone fancy the sound of POW Lofts? Hey, we can think of some less aesthetically pleasing buildings for first-time offenders – er, buyers.