Old South Works site being developed

Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th Ward) told developers from the Southside Builders Association on Sept. 12 the largest vacant lakefront property left in Chicago will be broken into several parcels for sub-development, and she hopes they’ll get involved.

“I consider it the best-kept secret in Chicago,” Jackson said. “It will be an economic engine unlike any other.”

The approximately 600-acre property, which is larger than Chicago’s entire Loop, features two miles of undeveloped lakefront and was once the site of U.S. Steel South Works. When the mill, which once employed nearly 20,000, closed in 1992, it left the surrounding area economically devastated.

McCaffery Interests Inc., the master developer on the South Works site, is awaiting word from the city on its plans to build up to 17,000 residential units, 1.85 million square feet of retail and commercial space, 15 acres for schools and 150 acres for open space and parks.

Some members of the 14-month-old Southside Builders Association, a not-for-profit association of professional builders, hope to get a chance to develop part of the property.

“We want to be involved in the construction and ownership of the property,” said Bob Dickinson, secretary of the Southside Builders Association.

Jackson said the property will feature a new high school, medical facilities, hotels and possibly even a water park.

“What I’m hoping to see here is another tourist destination,” said Jackson, comparing it to Navy Pier.

Jerome Wade, president of the Southside Builders Association and a boat owner, wants the site, which already has two slips for boats, to have a harbor and restaurants. But the site should not be all high-end development, he said.

“We need a true community,” said Wade. “The surrounding South Shore community has to enjoy in the development.”

Mark Sutherland, vice president of the Southside Builders Association, believes that each unit would sell for an average price of $250,000. He said some people would be priced out of the area.

“Property taxes will go up,” Sutherland said. “But I’d like to build a site that appeals to a diversity of economic groups.”

The alderman, elected earlier this year, told builders she hopes the new development will rejuvenate the area, but that there is a place for the people that currently live in the areas surrounding the former South Works site.

“I would prefer not to have good housing stock torn down if we can avoid it,” Jackson said.

The alderman and the Southside Builders Association may hope that the new development attracts people from different economic backgrounds, but the association president was frank about what he thinks will likely happen.

“The economic growth of the community will always displace the poor people,” Wade said.

Jackson said the high-crime areas around South Works cannot stay that way. There were 92 murders in the 4th District, which covers South Chicago, from 2003 to 2005, according to Chicago Police Department homicide reports.

“We’ll encourage them to move on or move out,” Jackson said of those who commit crimes. “Once you hit the 7th Ward, it looks like a bomb hit it.”

Jackson hopes the condition of the area will change. She said she is confident if there is any federal money to be had for this project, that it will come. She laughed when she said it and was clearly alluding to the fact that she’s married to the area’s congressman, Jesse Jackson Jr., who she said has pushed for development of the site for 10 years.

“We’re in a unique position to get the federal aid that’s to be had,” Jackson said.