Rental towers to rise at Central Station

Central Station is set to see its first rental buildings now that the Chicago City Council has approved funding for two apartment highrises at the massive mixed-use project in the South Loop.
The city agreed to provide $109 million in bond and tax-increment financing for the project by Forest City Enterprises, Inc., which will reserve a third of the buildings’ units for low-income residents.

Forest City is the master developer of Central Station, an 80-acre development south of Grant Park that includes a wide variety of townhouse and condo projects. The community originally was slated to include hotels, rentals, retail, office and other uses, but until now, has comprised exclusively for-sale housing.

The new $122 million rental development will contain a total of 502 units at 13th and Michigan in two apartment towers. Of the 502 units, 176 will be affordable for renters who earn no more than 60 percent of the metropolitan area’s median income, or about $36,000 a year.

The Department of Housing has pledged $95 million in tax-exempt bonds for the project, and the city is providing $14 million in TIF funding.

The taller of the towers will rise 40 stories and contain 411 units, 85 of them affordable with rents of roughly $650 to $800 a month. The smaller 10-story building will be earmarked for seniors and include 91 affordable one-bedroom apartments priced around $728 a month.

First occupancy is anticipated by fall of next year.

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