Chicago has quietly put the first big piece of a long-promised South Side revival on the market. The Department of Planning and Development this week issued a request for proposals to buy and redevelop a CTA-owned 2.5-acre site at 12 E. 95th St., a short walk from the 95th/Dan Ryan Red Line terminal. The move signals the city is trying to knit new housing, shops and senior services into a corridor that has long been dotted with vacant lots and boarded-up storefronts. Developers who have been tracking the slow turnaround along 95th Street are likely to see the site as one of the most desirable public parcels on the Far South Side.
According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the DPD solicitation pitches the parcel as a transit-served opportunity and suggests proposals could include as many as 135 housing units and roughly 38,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The outlet reports that the site is being marketed to teams that can mix for-sale and rental housing with street-level commercial space. City officials told Crain’s they hope a project here will help anchor more private investment along the corridor.
What DPD Is Looking For
DPD Commissioner Ciere Boatright told Crain’s Chicago Business the site is “an opportunity for transit-served investment” that can help deliver senior housing, missing-middle units and neighborhood retail. The solicitation asks developers to spell out how their plans would address local housing needs and bring life to the street frontage. The department is prioritizing proposals that can lean on the corridor’s transit connections to support jobs and small businesses.
Transit Work Is Already Underway
The RFP arrives as major transit projects are moving from planning into construction. The CTA’s Red Line extension, now estimated at $5.75 billion, is slated to break ground early this year, a timeline reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. Metra has already broken ground on a rehabilitation of the 95th St./Chicago State University station, which Metra describes as a $56 million project. Layered on top of the city’s adopted 95th Street Corridor Plan, those investments create the conditions city officials say they need for larger developments to take shape.
What Developers And Neighbors Will Watch
Developers will be judged not only on design and financing but also on how closely their projects line up with the city’s missing-middle and community-wealth goals. That includes tapping incentives aimed at two-to-six-unit infill housing and local hiring, according to Chicago City Wire and related city materials outlining the Missing Middle Infill Housing Initiative and support programs. Community groups and neighborhood advocates have pushed the city to match new development with strong anti-displacement protections and local benefits, a point highlighted in coverage by Block Club Chicago…