The Chicago Plan Commission approved Thursday a $150 million plan to renovate a landmark Uptown school building into hundreds of lakefront apartments, while adding a residential tower for seniors to the site. Commissioners and the local alderman praised the developer for bringing sorely needed homes for seniors, including a sizable batch of affordable units, to a neighborhood with few options.
Chicago developer K Giles proposes transforming Immaculata High School, a former all-girls Catholic school that opened in the 1920s at the corner of Irving Park Road and Marine Drive in Uptown’s Buena Park neighborhood, into 245 apartments, and replacing a surface parking lot behind the school with a 250-foot building with another 100 apartments for seniors, as well as 60 assisted living units and 32 for memory care. All commission members present supported the plan, which still needs full City Council approval.
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The development team surveyed the area and found only four comparable buildings within two miles, and three of those are more than 30 years old, according to K Giles attorney Rolando Acosta. The Admiral at the Lake, one of the four, is the only one in Uptown, according to K Giles.
“There is really nothing in the center of Uptown to serve the senior population,” Acosta said during the virtual meeting.
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Transforming the school into apartments is also the best way to preserve Immaculata High School, which was declared a city landmark in 1983 and added to the National Register of Historic Places, Chicago Department of Planning and Development Assistant Commissioner Cindy Chan Roubik told the commission. It served about 1,200 students at its peak, closed in 1981 and is currently occupied by American Islamic College, which plans to sell the property to the developer and move to a smaller facility.
“They have only used about a tenth of the space,” Roubik said.
Acosta told commission members the developer will set aside 20 units in the seniors’ tower and 49 in the former school as affordable. That satisfies the city’s requirement that such projects reserve 20% of the units as affordable, according to Plan Commission member and Commissioner of the Department of Housing Marisa Novara.
“That is (more) than many low-income housing tax credit developments we fund,” she said. “I want to thank the developer for making that happen and providing that amount of affordable housing in the community.”
K Giles’ proposal did not avoid controversy. The developers spent several years meeting with community groups such as Buena Park Neighbors and Uptown United, fielding complaints that so many new apartments could cause traffic snarls, crowd neighboring buildings or ruin the ambiance of the historic school grounds.
Plans shifted several times in response. K Giles shortened the new building’s proposed height and chose an L-shaped design that will increase the amount of open space between it and a condo building to the west.
“When I first reviewed this, I felt the (seniors’) building was squeezed into the site,” said Plan Commission member Andre Brumfield, a leader of architectural firm Gensler’s urban design practice. But the recent design changes will ensure the neighborhood gets a new building “nestled” into the school property, and preserve its pedestrian-friendly streetscape, he said.
Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, also a CPC member, grilled Acosta on whether the developer would include enough parking for the hundreds of new units.
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“This is a much different use for what has been a relatively dormant site,” he said.
Acosta said the 118 parking spaces proposed exceed zoning requirements, and with curbside service from several CTA bus lines, residents are unlikely to clog the neighborhood with cars. K Giles also checked with senior housing operators and found seniors’ parking needs would be modest. And with nearly half the new Uptown units reserved for assisted living and memory care residents, who don’t drive at all, there should be more than enough parking, even on Mother’s Day when families will come for visits, according to K Giles.
The two years of community meetings culminated earlier this year with a 21-7 vote to support K Giles’ plan by the 46th Ward Zoning and Development Committee, a group of neighborhood residents assembled by Ald. James Cappleman. He told the Plan Commission he also supported the developer, especially its aim to expand senior housing.
“As someone who is going to be 70 in a couple of months, I see how important that is,” he said.
