Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly said the city issued a request for proposals for these sites. The story has been changed to clarify that developers won’t be invited to submit proposals until at least this fall.
ROSELAND — More homes and spots for businesses and shopping could be coming to Roseland as the city looks to redevelop three large sites in the neighborhood.
The city’s Department of Planning and Development soon will open the process to pitch redevelopment ideas for the closed Gately’s Peoples Store, the former Roseland Theatre building and the site of the proposed Michigan Red Line station, a station that would be built as part of the suggested Red Line expansion.
A request for proposals could go out as soon as the fall, officials said.
The projects would have to build on recent investments in the Roseland and Pullman areas and create more residential options, Michael Penicnak, a project coordinator for the development department, said at a Tuesday meeting of the Community Development Commission.
The Far South Side neighborhoods have long faced disinvestment, with their once booming commercial corridors now struggling.
The Department of Planning and Development wants to see a mixed-use building along Michigan Avenue and single-family homes along Edbrooke Avenue at the site of the Gately’s Peoples Store, Penicnak said at the meeting. The business was once a popular department store, but it was demolished in 2019 after a fire.
The Community Development Commission also approved a request for acquisition for properties at 11331 S. Michigan Ave., allowing the city to try to buy the property, the home of the now closed Roseland Theatre.
The city’s development agency wants the theater’s building to be restored so it can potentially be reused in a variety of ways: for businesses and shops, as a shared kitchen and for food production, for cultural uses, as an office and incubator space, or something else, Penicnak said. Officials would also want nearby vacant land to be used, he said.
And officials would want a developer to dream up a mixed-use building with large retail space for the site of the possible Michigan Red Line station, Penicnak said.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) said he wrote a letter of support for those plans in exchange for development Commissioner Maurice Cox supporting a 100-room hotel in his ward.
Help Block Club Get
500 More Subscribers!
Subscribe to Block Club now and you’ll get a free 16-by-20-inch Chicago neighborhood print of your choice, helping us reach our goal of getting 500 more subscribers before 2024. Click here to subscribe or click here to gift a subscription.
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:
