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Park Blvd. Developers Hope to be Copied

CHICAGO-The 1,316-unit mixed-income community along State Street from 35th to 39 streets could be used as a model across the US, Mesa Development principal Richard Hanson suggests.

By Mark Ruda | Updated on April 05, 2005

CHICAGO-When work on Park Boulevard is complete, Mesa Development principal Richard Hanson is thinking of taking his show on the road, pitching the benefits of mixed-income developments to other real estate professionals as well as government officials. For now, though, the development team creating the 1,316-unit community on 34 acres along State Street from 35th to 39 streets is poised to start leasing at an 80-unit rental building at 39th and State Street, the first units replacing the former 1,600-unit Stateway Gardens public housing project.

Also in the near term, negotiations could produce the first retail lease at Park Boulevard, which would being a Starbucks to 35th and State Street. “We hope before the time we’re done there’s a power shopping center there,” says Hanson during a presentation at the Counselors of Real Estate midyear meeting. Adds Stateway Associates LLC development director Charles Young, “I think we’ll have a good variety of services.”

Park Boulevard is just one of several projects as part of the Chicago Housing Authority’s $1.5-billion “Plan for Transformation,” which has resulted in the demolition of high-rise multifamily towers on the South, North and West sides in favor of low- to mid-rise mixed-income developments. Hanson concedes plenty of naysayers suggest the mixed-income developments will become blighted areas, but he disagrees. “You have to believe people can create a wonderful community,” he says, suggesting money spent on mixed-income developments such as Park Boulevard may be more cost effective for federal housing officials.

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