After the Brinshore-Michaels joint venture got the nod for the Robert Taylor pre-development contract, a working group of the committee decided it could not handle a second Chicago Housing Authority project.

While Brinshore-Michaels gave operations and facilities committee members a lengthy video presentation of its social services programs in East Coast public and market housing developments, Eastlake vice president and general counsel Leroy W. Bannister Jr. stressed the background of his group's team: Foremost among them was Jeff Boyle, a former commissioner of transportation and planning in the Daley administration before returning to the development industry. It also includes Ben Kendrick of West Side 2000, a group already providing social services in Rockwell Gardens. The team also includes members with strong finance, architectural, development and property management backgrounds, Bannister says. "We have the people with the horses to deliver the product," he stresses. "We have an intimate knowledge of Rockwell."

Although there are has some upscale Downtown and Near North properties in its 10,000-unit management portfolio, Eastlake also is familiar with "economically deprived" neighborhoods where they often were the first developers to venture in.

However, at least one committee member, commissioner Andrew Mooney, had doubts about the group. "You've added strength to the team," he told Bannister. "But the issue here is building a new neighborhood." Mooney's doubts disappeared when CHA executive director Terry Peterson indicated the Eastlake team was qualified to deliver a satisfactory plan.

Eastlake's social service component will be provided largely by consultant Barbara Glass, who also heads the Seattle Housing Authority.

The CHA board's operations and facilities committee also recommended signing Hope VI demolition grant agreements, which includes $2.4 million to raze 419 Rockwell Gardens units. It is part of a $28.8-million project to demolish 5,233 CHA units.