Uptown activists occupy development site for luxury housing

A group of affordable housing advocates have occupied all week the planned site of a luxury apartment tower in Uptown, a last-ditch effort to halt construction of a controversial development.

Developer Lincoln Property Co. plans to construct a 12-story, 314-unit building on the site at 4600 N. Marine Drive, a former parking lot for Weiss Memorial Hospital, which is located just to the north.

Derailing the project seems unlikely, as Lincoln secured a green light last year from city officials for its plan, and just began moving construction materials and concrete barriers to the site. The protesters remain defiant.

“We’re still here, and we’re going to stay here until we win or are put out,” said Marc Kaplan, an Uptown resident and board member of Northside Action for Justice, one of the groups occupying the lot.

But their action is about more than one development, he added. The groups, which also include ONE Northside, an Uptown nonprofit, want to call attention to the loss of affordable housing throughout the neighborhood, and they plan to keep pressuring city officials and developers on the issue.

“If we lose this battle, and Lincoln starts construction, our next fight will be to demand the company put more affordable housing in their new building,” Kaplan said.

Officials from Lincoln Property Co. did not respond to requests for comment.

Rents at the new building will range from $1,700 to $2,200 a month for one-bedroom apartments, and $2,900 to $3,000 a month for two bedrooms, according to written responses from the developer published by 46th Ward Ald. James Cappleman after a community meeting held last year to discuss Lincoln’s plan.

Lincoln agreed to provide eight affordable units in its new apartment tower, less than 3% of the total. That’s also less than the 10% typically required by the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance, but the company took advantage of a loophole that allows developers to supplement their affordable housing commitment by paying in-lieu fees into the city’s affordable housing fund.

In 2021, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration changed the ordinance, boosting the affordable housing requirement to 20% for many new developments, and curtailing the use of in-lieu fees. Lincoln’s Uptown project was finalized before the changes took effect.

City planners agreed the developer’s $3.1 million in-lieu payment would help fund new housing being developed by Sarah’s Circle, an Uptown nonprofit that provides housing and other services to hundreds of chronically homeless women.

Cappleman, who supported Lincoln’s proposal for the 314-unit tower, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a spokesperson said the deal will ultimately boost the neighborhood’s affordable housing portfolio.

“Ald. Cappleman feels fortunate that $3.1 million of in-lieu fees was able to be provided to Sarah’s Circle to create 28 units of 100% affordable housing for women experiencing homelessness or who are at high-risk for experiencing homelessness,” she stated in an email.

Sarah’s Circle Executive Director Katherine Ragnar said she hopes to start developing the new 28-unit, five-story building at the corner of Sheridan Road and Lakeside Place, which also received funding from the state and private donors, by the end of October. Called Sarah’s at Lakeside, it will be the group’s third facility in Uptown, giving it a total of 101 apartments.

“There is a great need for such housing because on any given night, there are 2,000 women who are homeless,” Ragnar said.

Kaplan said he supports the mission of Sarah’s Circle, but that the service provider’s expansion can’t fully address the impact of gentrification over the past decade on Uptown, a diverse neighborhood that for years provided low-cost options for thousands of immigrants new to Chicago.

“We’ve lost about 1,000 units of mostly affordable housing, much of it in single-occupancy hotels, and what we’ve gotten in return are about 2,000 new units, and pretty much all are luxury apartments,” Kaplan said. “That puts a real crunch on renters, pushing out low-income people and middle-income people.”