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CHICAGO-A group that includes a company chaired by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros plans to build 387 multifamily units on 6.3 acres in a Pilsen community wary of gentrification. The plan commission endorsed the $125-million project by a limited liability corporation that also includes giant private builder Kimball Hill Homes.

Four condominium buildings containing 286 units, 14 townhouses and 87 units in three-, six- and 12-flat buildings will replace warehouses occupied by a melon wholesaler, vacant warehouses and an area used by a construction company for staging. Most units will range from $270,000 to more than $600,000, 18th and Peoria LLC president William Purcell tells GlobeSt.com. However, his group is voluntarily earmarking 82 units--21% of the total--for buyers qualifying under the city's affordable housing initiative. The decision was voluntary as the developers, 18th and Peoria LLC, are not seeking city financial assistance or density bonuses. Those units would range from $151,000 to $215,000, prices not considered affordable by grassroots activists opposing the project who point to a median income in the area of $27,000.

Pilsen has been considered a "port of entry" for immigrants seeking low-cost rental housing, opponents claim. However, low rents as well as low property taxes are likely to go by the wayside with a large project gentrifying the neighborhood.