A year after purchasing the site of Leon’s Bar-B-Q on 59th and Racine, community organization Resident Association of Greater Englewood (RAGE) plans to start renovations at the building next month.
The site will serve as RAGE’s new headquarters and a business hub for the community. Leon’s shut its doors over 20 years ago, and the site has sat empty ever since. RAGE purchased the building for $35,000, founding member Asiaha Butler Butler said. The organization currently runs its operations at 6620 S. Union Ave and will move into the building when renovations are complete.
During a Sept. 17 village meeting at Canaan Community Church, Butler updated attendees on the plans for the project, which is said to be a $6.3 million investment to the 59th Street and Racine corridors. Initially, RAGE estimated the cost of renovations to total $5 million, but the increase is due to the increased price of supplies and the additional work that needs to be done to the building, Butler told The TRiiBE.
“We are tentatively scheduled for construction commencement on Oct. 26,” Butler said over a microphone during the meeting overlooking an audience of roughly 50 people. RAGE closed on the building last year after winning the bid from the Cook County Land Bank in 2021.
The project is part of RAGE’s Economic Upliftment Program, “The Re-Up.” The initiative focuses on Black business ownership, job creation, community-based real estate development and homeownership in Englewood.
Initially called “The Re-Up 1158 Project,” the group has since rebranded as “The Re-Up on 59th & Racine” as the official address of the building is 1210 W. 59th Street. When Leon’s operated the building, the restaurant moved from 1158 W. 59th St. to 1210 W. 59th St. across the street before closing shortly after. The address was never updated on the deed, according to Butler.
“We’re gonna have Black-owned businesses at the building. And then, of course, RAGE is going to relocate their offices there, so the folks who are moving in, they’re not just tenants, they’re actually going to work with us through ‘The Re-Up’ to hire locally and to really be a thread of the community,” Butler said.
The 8,800-square-foot site will host two Black businesses: a vegan soul food restaurant has submitted a letter of interest along with a Black-owned security company, which Butler said will potentially occupy the first floor of the two-floor building.
RAGE said “The Re-Up on 59th & Racine” project will also include catering, retail and office space, and create between 50 and 100 construction jobs and 15-50 permanent jobs. The site is also expected to help spur the development of other beautification projects along the corridor and residential streets.
Butler said RAGE submitted an application to the Chicago City Council with hopes of receiving $2.5 million from the city to invest in the project, “We’ve never received any municipality money from the city of Chicago,” Butler said to the community members. So far, Butler said, all of the money for the project has come from RAGE.
The renovation of the building is expected to take 12 months. Butler said she expects the building to be open for business by late 2025.
“This is a pillar of community-based real estate development, but it also is the pillar of supporting Black-owned businesses expanding in Englewood and thriving in Englewood,” Butler said. “The whole purpose of us purchasing a commercial property was to secure Black-owned businesses at that corridor and to also offer local jobs.”
Another major component of “The Re-Up on 59th & Racine” is that it will sit next to the upcoming Englewood Nature Trail and will be a part of the Englewood Agro-Eco District, an initiative led by Go Greater Englewood to transform industrial vacant land into new sustainable developments that will center the needs and wants of Englewood residents.
“It’s a part of a bigger ecosystem. We see the potential on both 59th and also Racine to potentially purchase more [property],” Butler said.
The Chicago Plan Commission officially adopted the Englewood Agro-Eco Plan on Aug. 15. The full plan can be read here.
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