Initial details have been revealed for the residential conversion of the former Loretto Academy School at 1435 East 65th Street in Woodlawn. Sitting on the corner of South Blackstone Avenue, the building has been vacant for several years and is located near the upcoming Obama Presidential Center. The project is being led by Greenline Communities and 5T Development Partners.
Site map of Loretto School via Google Maps
The building dates back to 1905 and features Flemish Revival–style architecture. It served as a school until 1972 before becoming a treatment center, which operated until 2012. After that, the building sat vacant and was sold at a foreclosure auction in 2019, later securing a spot on Preservation Chicago’s most endangered list. Now, it will be preserved and repurposed as affordable housing in the rapidly changing area.
Historic image of Loretto Academy via Preservation Chicago
The five-story building will be converted into 55 residential units, according to Block Club. These will include four studio units, 40 one-bedroom units, and 11 two-bedroom units. While few additional details have been released, the developer shared an AI-generated rendering, shown below, which includes decorative panels and new cantilevered balconies.
AI-Generated rendering via Greenline Communties
The project is expected to cost approximately $43 million. Funding will come primarily from $16 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), $19.5 million in city funds, and $6.1 million in historic tax credits. A community meeting is expected to be held soon, and the development team hopes to move through the approval process this year, with an anticipated completion date of 2029.
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Love the premise, hopefully conversions like this become more routine
They definitely can forgo cheap paneling over the brick facade lol
The Ai rendering also seems to imply demolition of the westernmost third of the building, more than half the dormers, & large portions of the roof including the tower rood, yet not replacing or repairing any of the damage along the cornice line. Why even waste time on providing something so bad?
Talk about an AI hallucination. What image did they use as a base model for that?? LOL
So happy the community and developer community revisited the site. Beautiful landmark worthy of renovation. Hope a strong environmental cleanup demonstration project can derive from this site. Great site for job training in environmental remediation. Second major site in Woodlawn in need of extensive remediation. Kennedy King College should consider this training module.
Seeing the AI “rendering” I am going to take the under on this being built. Lol
Here we go again with a government sponsored “affordable” housing project that costs a fortune. $781,000 a unit for, on average, one bedrooms.
Meanwhile, a couple stories down, we see a developer taking a LaSalle Street building from office to apartments for $309,000 a unit. And they’re doing it with none of the hundreds of millions in TIF money that the Johnson administration is giving away to well-heeled developers.
Is there a pattern here? Are publicly sponsored projects siphoning off vast sums to enrich . . . who? Politicians? Their friends? Faux “non-profits” and their executives? Something is rotten. Dead, stinking rotten.
This topic has been discussed zillions of times already. The issue is not johnson and political connections, nor are these faux non profits. This process of getting tax credits approved and all the red tape and extra steps that are required is what drives up the cost
You are essentially defending a flawed system that works to the detriment of taxpayers. Those concessions, grants, etc. are budgeted and revenue from taxpayers has to be collected to pay for the promises. Clearly it is a flawed system that costs $781K a unit for what others are doing for far less. Defense of “business as usual” doesn’t really respond to AMcA. Do you honestly believe that there is no grift, graft or waste in the use and allocation of “other people’s money” within the housing sector?
Please, please, please go online and read one of the hundreds of articles that explailn in detail the many reasons affordable units (AKA housign to be rented at below market prices) are more expensive to build than market rate units. There’s a very Chicago specific one at BlockClubChicago for starters.
Who is the Architect?
Well at least the building wasn’t demolished! It will be interesting to see how affordable the units will be!
My High School back in the day, 1957.
Absolutely wonderful to see, preserving a wonderful building and providing affordable housing to a neighborhood which is so quickly shifting. However, that AI render looks like an absolute joke and I really hope it doesn’t reflect their actual plans for the building
Follow the money. I don’t agree with tax credits and till help for projects that will probably move forward anyway.
Great to save the classic building