This commercial and residential construction project in the Bronzeville neighborhood will be the Shops and Lofts at 47. Construction is expected to be completed in 2014. It will feature a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market and mixed-income housing units. (Photo/Ali Trumbull)
By Ali Trumbull and Sadé Carpenter
After seven years of changes and setbacks, The Shops and Lofts at 47 at the corner of 47th Street and Cottage Grove in the Bronzeville neighborhood have broken ground.
The project should be finished sometime in 2014 with a 41,000 square-foot Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, 14,000 square-foot of local retail space and 96 rental apartments.
An effort to improve and transform the Bronzeville neighborhood, the rental apartments will be mixed-use with 28 units receiving both Chicago Housing Authority and Low Income Housing Tax Credit subsidies, 44 units receiving low-income tax credit subsidies, and 24 units will be market price.
“From a community perspective the deeper question is, was there or is there a community benefit from the agreement that in fact empowers the lower income community from a bottom-up perspective, “ Harold Lucas, the President and CEO of Black Metropolis Convention & Tourism Council said. “I assure you that was not there.”
Lucas is also the Director of the Bronzeville Visitor Information Center. He’s thankful that something is happening to improve the Bronzeville neighborhood’s housing and retail options, but does not think this project is empowering lower and middle class.
“For the city of Chicago to put an anchor project on Cottage Grove that doesn’t tell us how it fits more broadly with the other things that are happening west of there, it is to me like putting a Trojan horse into a community and taking that community over,” Lucas said.
The Elite Club 