The African American Businesses Networking Association last week presented updates on the progress to the Chicago Avenue corridor project.
“This is a true representation of our community,” said Malcom Crawford, executive director of the African American Business Networking Association.
Morris Reed, CEO of Westside Health Authority, agreed, “We should all be proud of this black leadership on Chicago Avenue.”
After experiencing decades of disinvestment, Austin community members have helped their neighborhood undergo significant development in recent years.
In 2021, the Chicago Department of Transportation started holding public meetings and focus groups to discuss how Austin locals wanted to revitalize Chicago Avenue, one of the main economic and cultural hubs in their neighborhood.
With construction completed on the west end of the 1.6-mile-long Chicago Avenue, efforts are now moving east, in the hopes to re-activate infrastructure, pedestrian activity, services and public spaces on the rest of the street, finishing at Cicero Avenue by the end of 2025.
The project’s updates include the following:
- Twenty one- and two-bedroom apartments at 5246 West Chicago Avenue will become available on April 1.
- Construction broke ground on Forty Acres Fresh Market, 5713 West Chicago Avenue, in November. Although there’s no opening date yet, the grocery store aims to provide fresh produce and other food in a neighborhood that has long experienced food insecurity.
- Last month, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the recipients of more than $8 million in grants from Chicago’s Adopt-A-Landmark fund. Around $2 million will go toward the renovation of the Laramie State Bank, 5200 West Chicago Avenue. The nearly century-old building requires repairs to its windows, doors and historic terra cotta. Construction will start around the end of March. The building will still house a bank and hold free financial classes. Additionally, the Laramie State Bank building will have an incubator for emerging entrepreneurs and businesses, plus a museum that honors Chicago blues artists. Property to the west of the old bank will be developed into one-, two- and five-bedroom mixed-income housing. The six-story apartment building will house both affordable housing and market-rate units.
- At 5046 West Chicago Avenue, a previously vacant plot will become the Austin Community Health Hub with services offered by Lurie Children’s and Stone CDC. The hub will include a pediatric floor for specialty physical and behavioral healthcare services, a section for health education and training, plus a gathering space for community organizations. Chicago-based, Black-owned design firms Gregory Ramón Design Studios and TnS Studio are nearing the end of the Austin Community Health Hub’s design phase. After construction starts this spring, the Austin Community Health Hub has an estimated grand opening of Summer 2025.
- On a smaller scale, the African American Businesses Networking Association said it’s preparing for spring cleaning, including planting flower beds and removing litter from Chicago Avenue.
The African American Business Networking Association also has high hopes for the new Aspire Center at the corner of Central Avenue and Madison Street. Although not on Chicago Avenue, the Aspire Center is part of similar community efforts to revitalize the Central Avenue corridor. The Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation will replace the former Emmet Elementary School to offer workforce training that addresses issues of unemployment and low education in Austin and the surrounding areas. Construction started last May and will be completed by this November.
“We want to see people grow with home ownership and business ownership,” Reed said of hopes for the Aspire Center and other developments on Central and Chicago Avenue. “If we’re not wealth building as a community, what are we doing?”