An official ribbon cutting was held yesterday for the completed first phase of Encuentro Square in Logan Square. Made up of two buildings at 3759 W Cortland Street and 1844 N Ridgeway Avenue, the project sits at the western end of the 606 Trail and at the nexus of Logan Square, Hermosa, and Humboldt Park.
Ribbon cutting of Encuentro Square via Ian Achong
Originally idealized before the 606 was even completed, local representatives worked to purchase the former industrial site and pursue TIF funds to remove the factory and remediate the land while searching for development partners. The goal was always to create affordable housing for the families being pushed out of the area by rapid gentrification.
This led to a partnership between the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), Latin United Community Housing Association (LUCHA), and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) with local developer Evergreen Real Estate Group, who has worked on affordable projects across the city.
Phasing massing rendering by Canopy Architecture
We first covered the project’s announcement in 2021, with canopy / architecture + design serving as the architect’s for this first phase along with Site Design Group. Together they developed a design language for the buildings with soft rounded corners, orange accents, and interconnected community spaces inspired by the migration of Monarch butterflies.
Encuentro Square via Ian Achong
First Phase – Now Open
Within this initial build out are the two-aforementioned buildings, rising four and six stories tall respectively. In total they contain 89 affordable units made up of one-, two-, and three-bedroom layouts. With families being a focus for the project, 70-percent of the apartments contain two or more bedrooms, many with skyline views and additional closet space.
Unit within Encuentro via Ian Achong
Children’s play room within Encuentro Square via Ian Achong
Supporting this are laundry rooms and lounges on each floor, with all residents sharing other amenity spaces like a community room with a teaching kitchen and a children’s playroom located across the street from a new playground on the ground of the McCormick YMCA. The development is also a block from McAuliffe Elementary and Marine Leadership Academy.
Additionally, families will have access to on-site financial counseling and home-based early head start with Children’s Place Association. A Small parking lot and courtyard space round out this first phase.
Encuentro Square via Ian Achong
Encuentro Square via Ian Achong
Financing
The first phase completed by Leopardo Construction cost $67.5 million in total, a bit higher than when initially announced. This was covered by $32 million in Low-Income Tax Credits (LIHTC), $1.6 million in state tax credits, $9 million in TIF funds, $14.8 million in loans, $6.7 million in mortgage debt, and other smaller sources.
All of the units are affordable for those making 60-percent of the AMI or less, with 55 of these homes benefiting from long-term project based rental assistance via CHA. These are part of HUD’s Restore-Rebuild initiative that allows Public Housing Authorities to restore rental assistance subsidies that were lost as public housing was demolished or sold. With this project being one of the first five projects nationally to utilize the initiative.
Encuentro Square via Ian Achong
Encuentro Square via Ian Achong
Future Phase
With 74-percent of the units in phase one already leased, sights are now set on the next phase which is set to rise just south of the first two buildings. This slightly taller structure will be designed by local firm JGMA and contain 98-units with additional amenity spaces, enclosing the courtyard built in phase one. There will also be around 100 parking spaces built.
Additionally, the rest of the southern end of the site, around 81,000 square-feet of space, will be home to a new public park serving as an end-cap for the 606. This will be built in collaboration with the Park District, though not many details are known at this moment. Funding for this second phase is still being pursued and a construction timeline is unknown.
Additional information and leasing applications for the first phase of Encuentro Square can be found here.
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Yep, this cost $760k/unit to build in addition to the alderman’s office spending time on this project for years. I will not add any further commentary.
The best way to get more housing and ultimately more affordable housing is to abolish affordable housing requirements. It’s simple economics.
Thank you! I’ve been saying the same thing on every post that mentions so-called “affordable housing”. It’s a scam and should be treated and rooted out as such.
Single family homes in the immediate area are listed for $400-500k. If “affordable housing” is really about providing housing for people, we just buy them houses with this money.
Boils my blood – this alderman and others have 0 thought process to ROI. She also bought the North Hotel, which was rehabbed prior to purchase, for $4.2M and spent another several million to convert it from studio residences into youth homeless SRO-style housing – fine, but not for a recently rehabbed and occupied building or at that cost.
The city needs to get out of building affordable housing and subsidize private for-profit developers if we have this much inefficiency and lack of thought.
You disappoint me. You said “I will not add any further commentary” 40 minutes before you posted this.
Totally agree with the previous post, the best way to get more affordable housing is to abolish affordable housing requirements. Developers simply take the reduce selling price of the 20% affordable units, and add the difference to the other standard units selling price to compensate for the affordable housing. This increases the pricing on standard units across the board raising comps in the area and raise the overall market for condo’s and rentals. Developers are also putting substandard appliance packages, flooring, plumbing and lighting fixtures, etc in the affordable units to try to get money back from the reduced “forced” selling prices making them less valuable for any resale.
I’m against ‘affordable housing’ meaning a specific set of housing units that some pre-qualified, state-blessed people can stand in line for. I’m against it because I generally don’t like means-testing, I don’t think it actually helps shift the economics of the housing market.
I’m for social housing (created and owned/operated by a city, county, or regional authority) that is run first-come, first-serve and charges the cost of the building (construction and maintenance based on a , say, 50 – 100 year life span). If there’s a waiting list for the building, then build another. And another. And another…
DOGE needs to look into PHA or better abolish it altogether.
This comment shows how unserious you are as an individual and how brainwashed you are if you think DOGE has any legitimacy and is actually doing anything substantial.
Totally agree with you…we need the PHA, CHA, and DPD, etc., we need government to do what business and developers will not…It’s not about abolishing these agencies, it is how to improve, make more efficient, and to help those who need help. DOGE is a business, period…looking out only for its leaders and cronies needs, run by the richest man in the world…how can anyone with any credibility say DOGE is trying to help Americans? However, in retrospect, those who voted for our dear leader probably believe this…so I guess I am simply pounding on sand right now…
So you just disagreed with him by saying he’s dumb?
What kind of counterargument is that..?
Exactly…
Further, the building codes/zoning are such that developers can only or are limited to a certain number of units for a piece of land. Allowing more units on a single lot in Chicago would reduce the price of all the units and make it more affordable… There’s no reason 4 units can’t be built on a standard 25 x 1 25 lot, there’s no reason there shouldn’t be a garden unit, etc. etc. etc. it’s ridiculous, and developers are forced to pay a price for a piece of land that they have to build on, and get a return which is too limiting.
How is this affordable housing if people like me a single mother with two kids that makes only 35000 working A full time job with a “side hustle “ delivering for DoorDash don’t even qualify??? Make it make sence !!!
You are absolutely correct…you don’t qualify because you make “too much money” which is ridiculous. Under this system, it would be better for you if you did nothing…then you could lean in on the system. There is no incentive or motivation for people based on the existing system. Not saying it does not work, however, I has to be looked at and improved. A person like you should be rewarded for doing what you do, what you sacrifice, how you are fighting for your child any yourself day after day, not punished…
At that income you would certainly qualify for the 60% AMI units unless there is some other reason you wouldnt qualify (for example being a full time student diswualifies you)
I think you actually qualify for the 60% AMI threshold here and I encourage you to apply 🙂 You deserve it!!
Does anyone know the cost of the environmental remediation? We can’t really calculate the cost per unit without taking that into account. Any private developer would have had to pay for that, as well.
It can range from 10’s of thousands to 100’s. Depends on site assessments, scope of hazardous material removal, construction required with boring, moving structures, legal and consulting costs, testing, monitoring, and storage and disposal. Botton line, it is a very costly procedure…
Ah, voices of reason finally enter the conversation. There seems to be a general inability in society to understand that affordable housing subsidies of course get spread out among the other units and then create comps. Adding housing doesn’t make it affordable when viewed holistically along the costs to create the supply, which is what all of the red tape is, extra costs. Essentially the flip side of the equally bureaucracy-choked coin that is the TIF process.