A New York City-based investor with a growing affordable housing portfolio snapped up another Chicago property, this time across the street from the future Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on the South Side.
Jonathan Rose Cos., in partnership with Preservation of Affordable Housing, paid $25 million for the 318-unit Jackson Park Terrace at 6040 South Harper Ave. Company officials said they will preserve the building as affordable housing, and spend about $4 million on upgrades to its plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems, while POAH creates new health services and youth programs.
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That should come as good news to the surrounding Woodlawn and South Shore communities. Some fear the Obama Center, which builders broke ground on last September, may inflate local housing costs and drive out working-class residents.
“We feel that it is both an obligation and a privilege to preserve this historic development,” Nathan Taft, partner at Jonathan Rose, said in a statement. “It is perhaps ironic that Jackson Park Terrace was created to provide affordable housing that the private market would not; the need now is to protect this valuable asset from market pressures.”
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Jackson Park Terrace was developed in 1973 by the Woodlawn Community Development Corp., a nonprofit founded by the Rev. Leon Finney Jr., the longtime head of The Woodlawn Organization. The nonprofit fell on hard times, filing for bankruptcy in 2018, after which many of its properties were auctioned off. Finney died in 2020.
But Taft said Jonathan Rose has the financial heft to maintain affordable housing properties for many years, and the Chicago market is a chief focus. The company used its $525 million Rose Affordable Housing Preservation Fund V to complete the Jackson Park Terrace purchase, and this year it also bought Englewood Gardens, a portfolio of 13 apartment buildings in the Englewood neighborhood, as well as Archer Courts, a 146-unit community in Chinatown.
POAH has also been quite active in the South Side’s affordable housing market, preserving or developing more than 1,000 Woodlawn units over the past 10 years.
“Growing up, living in and representing Chicago’s South Side, I have witnessed both good times and hard times, including the challenging days when few were willing to provide the investments in the housing, stores and jobs that all communities and people need,” said 5th Ward Ald. Leslie Hairston in a statement. “The purchase of Jackson Park Terrace and a guarantee of long-term affordability and further investment is gratifying, and I hope a model for others drawn to Woodlawn at this time of renewal.”
