Banks put up $12m for Bronzeville redevelopment

Three Chicago banks are financing a $12 million initiative to improve commercial properties located within the Cottage Grove Corridor in Bronzeville. Quad Communities Development Corp., a non-profit organization in Bronzeville, is leading the project.

“The goal of this loan product is to attract more retail and service businesses to the Cottage Groove commercial corridor,” said Bernita Johnson-Gabriel, executive director for Quad Communities. ShoreBank, Harris and Citibank are underwriting the loans that have a cap of $1 million each for borrowers, said Terry Johnson, senior vice president for commercial lending at ShoreBank.

Officials at Shorebank, Harris and Citibank declined to say how much money they each contributed to this initiative. The loan is available to qualifying commercial property owners or small businesses with at least a three-year lease in buildings on Cottage Grove from Pershing Road to 48th Street; 43rd from Vincennes Avenue to Cottage Grove; and 47th Street from about Drexel Boulevard to St. Lawrence Avenue.

Work is already underway in the South Side neighborhood. Johnson said that construction should begin within the next 45 days to redevelop a vacant building at 4244 S. Cottage Grove Ave. into a mixed-use building. And redevelopment on another vacant two-flat building at 41st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue may begin this year, said Bryant Porter, 53, who owns the building and has applied for the special loan.

“I have always wanted to do more with that building but could never get the financing to do so,” he said. “This loan program is right up my alley and I plan to take full advantage of it. Now my vision as a landlord can be achieved. That vision includes having ground level retail space with residential units on the second floor.

“I see new construction of condos and town homes all around the Oakwood Shores complex [at 39th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue] but very little around here,” said Tracey Walker, 40, who lives at 4724 S. Drexel Blvd.

“I don’t know what took them so long when you have the alderman’s office and post office both on Cottage Grove.” Ryan Miller, 47, who lives near 45th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, said redevelopment was slow reaching the area because very few whites live on Cottage Grove.

“Face it, there are other parts of Bronzeville like 36th and Ellis that has been fixed up already and that’s because white families live around there,” he said. Quad Communities officials hope to stimulate more commercial real estate investment in Bronzeville, an area once populated by housing projects but now with new-construction homes priced as high as $300,000.

“While we have pipeline developments that [we hope] will deliver close to 300 units of residential housing and 75,000 square feet of commercial space within the next 24 months, our objective is to restore existing buildings and provide [office] space to small business owners,” Johnson-Gabriel.

One potential office tenant is the Carter Ware Group Inc., a small, Black-owned real estate brokerage company on the South Side currently looking for new office space. “We like the Bronzeville area a lot so new office space opening up there excites us,” said Sarah Ware, co-founder of the Carter Ware Group.

“Black women business owners sometimes encounter difficulty finding office space because some landlords have the notion that we are not serious about being in business and may close shop if we get married.”

______ Copyright 2008 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.  

About Post Author

Comments

From the Web

Skip to content