Overview
- The Community Development Commission unanimously endorsed the roughly $201.6 million tax-increment financing subsidy and granted the Department of Planning and Development authority to negotiate a redevelopment agreement with JDL Development and Kayne Anderson.
- City planning staff estimated total public infrastructure costs at almost $235 million, with developers responsible for about $33 million and about $202 million slated for reimbursement through TIF drawn first from the Cortland and Chicago River TIF district and second from tax-exempt notes at rates up to 7 percent.
- Developers plan an initial phase of four buildings containing 709 units, including 95 on-site affordable units and a payment of more than $7 million to the city housing fund to avoid building 42 additional affordable units, and say they hope to break ground before the end of October.
- The negotiated agreement still needs final City Council approval and the project remains subject to market and financing risks that sank the original Lincoln Yards plan; the southern portion of the old site is separately owned by Novak Construction with no announced plan.
- Foundry Park is a scaled-down, housing-focused successor to Lincoln Yards that could deliver more than 3,000 homes with 20 percent marketed as affordable, but critics say the TIF package prioritizes internal site work over larger regional promises such as new bridges and major intersection redesigns.