The Cabrini-Green neighborhood sure looks different today, and a new massive mixed-use development is going to transform the community even more. From the North Branch Industrial Corridor rezoning and modernization to the office and residential boom north of the Chicago River, the entire Near North Side is one of Chicago’s most dramatically and rapidly changing neighborhoods.

The City of Chicago announced its plan to knock down the Cabrini-Green high rises and overhaul the entire public housing system in 2000, and the area has transformed into a hub of development. Since the buildings were completely demolished in 2011, a Target, Whole Foods, and the NewCity development have all unlocked an entirely different community.

The area that once was home to Cabrini-Green sits between River North, Old Town, and the newly rezoned North Branch and Goose Island neighborhoods. That’s overlooking the booming communities even farther to the west such as Wicker Park and River West.

Rendering courtesy of Gensler

Now, the 10-acre lot at the corner of Clybourn Avenue and Larrabee Street is set to make way for a mixed-use development featuring a high-rise building, new public green space, and hundreds of mixed-income residences. Curbed Chicago reported on the development originally announced last February and the more recently released rendering from planner Gensler Chicago. Texas-based Hunt Development Group will lead the next phase of construction for Cabrini-Green, which will include 500 total residences, 32,900 square feet of retail space, and 1.2 acres of open park space. 

The project covers just a fourth of the 40 acres of Cabrini-Green land that the Chicago Housing Authority is redeveloping. It covers the site previously occupied by the Near North Career Metropolitan High School, left vacant since 2001. Anchored by a 21-story residential tower at the southeast corner of the site, the project also includes several mid-rise buildings and low-rise townhomes. There will be 217 market-rate units, 82 affordable housing units, and 183 units for CHA tenants. 

Hunt will work with local developers Imagine Group and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives on the project, which could see construction begin before the end of the year.

The nearby lot at the corner of Oak and Larrabee streets is slated for a development as well. Curbed reported in August 2017 that Northbrook-based Brinshore Development plans to construct a seven-story apartment building, rental six-flats, and 18 for-sale townhomes. The $33.5 million project will deliver a total of 104 units by 2020.

The Rebirth of a Neighborhood

Rendering courtesy of Brinshore Development

Within months of the North Branch rezoning, the announcement of Cabrini-Green  redevelopment brings the story full circle. Ben Austen recently released the book “High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing,” discussing the history and future of the housing project. While the Cabrini-Green portrayed in the media and the real Cabrini-Green aren’t one and the same, the Near North Side housing project may have been set up for failure.

Before Cabrini-Green, the area was called Little Hell, a slum near the city’s dense manufacturing warehouse district, known today as the North Branch. While the plan was to revitalize the community, it ended up just replicating it. Today, the redevelopment of the area looks a bit different. Old buildings are being renovated, the Chicago River frontage is transforming into a public park, and the once industrial area is open for residential, retail, and office development.

There are still some hurdles to jump and redevelopment isn’t all gravy for residents in the rapidly changing neighborhood. In the nearby Atrium Village, between Cabrini-Green and the Gold Coast, current residents of the mixed-income building filed suit with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over the developer’s plan, according to the Chicago Reader.

Canada-based Onni Group announced its plan to redevelop the 309-unit building into luxury skyscrapers with 1,500 units. The plan included preserving all the affordable units in the new project. Four years later and tenants of the Atrium Village say the developer backpedaled on the commitment to preserve the units as promised. Despite getting approval in 2016 by the Department of Planning and Development and the City Council, Onni proposed significant changes to the plan.

Instead of the planned integrated mixed-income buildings, Onni proposed keeping the old nine-story building with 211 affordable units and dispersing 89 others throughout the third high-rise planned for the property.

The tenants of the building say that Onni is going against the terms of agreement of purchase, and that the company and the city are violating the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974.