WOODLAWN — A project to bring more than 40 affordable apartments to a vacant lot next to the Cottage Grove Green Line station is a go after getting City Council approval.
Aldermen signed off on plans for the Park Station development at 835-861 E. 63rd St. in Woodlawn during Tuesday’s council meeting.
The five-story building will host 56 apartments, 41 of which are affordable; two “live-work” units with retail and residential aspects; and three retail spaces. The $30.8 million project is led by DL3 Realty and Michaels Development.
Park Station is the first project subject to the requirements of the Woodlawn Affordable Housing Ordinance, passed last fall after years of community organizing to keep existing residents in the neighborhood.
The ordinance requires at least 30 percent of apartments built on vacant, city-owned lots in the neighborhood to be made affordable to “very low-income households.”
This means at least 17 apartments at Park Station must be reserved for residents making less than 50 percent of the area median income, or $46,600 annually for a household of four.
The remaining 24 affordable apartments will be accessible to residents making less than 60 percent of the area median income, or $55,920 per year for a four-person household. Fifteen other apartments will be market-rate.
Park Station will complement $300 million in planned and completed developments near 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, planning commissioner Maurice Cox said last month.
They include Preservation of Affordable Housing’s Woodlawn Station, completed in 2018; the Jewel-Osco opened in 2019; the ongoing Friend Health headquarters project; and the stalled redevelopment of the Washington Park Bank building.
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