Target At Cabrini-Green? Chicago Housing Authority, Discount Chain In Talks

A historic change -- both symbolic and actual -- in Chicago's approach to public housing was completed in the winter of 2010, as the final families were moved out of the city's infamous Cabrini-Green housing project. Once a model of urban renewal, the high-rise towers just a mile from luxury shopping on Michigan Avenue fell to gang violence and chaos, and for decades were emblematic of public housing problems in Chicago and across the country.

Now, most all of the buildings on the site have been razed. And predictably, the city is looking almost immediately at ways to develop the site, hoping to bring it in step with its far more affluent neighbors in Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast.

As a major step in that direction, the Chicago Housing Authority says it is interested in a proposal that would put a Target retail store at or near the site of the recently demolished projects.

The Chicago Sun-Times spoke with CHA officials, who described the plan in some detail. Target is reportedly proposing a land swap with the city, wherein it would take roughly five acres of CHA land at the Cabrini-Green site for development, in exchange for land of similar value for the CHA to build on.

Matt Aguilar, a CHA spokesman, told the Sun-Times that the company had agreed to hire at least 75 CHA residents at the new store as part of the proposed deal.

Alderman Walter Burnett sounded positive on the deal in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. “I’ll take a Target anywhere in my ward,” he said. “We need some economic development because the economy is bad. There’s nothing happening. This means potential construction jobs and potential permanent jobs.”

Last month, Target announced that it would be putting a smaller urban store in the former home of Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company downtown.

Comments

[47th]

10:07 PM on 03/30/2011

Target fought like the Devil against Chicago's Big Box wage ordinance, claiming that ten dollars an hour would kill their profit margin, but here they are, buying a large piece of property in the most expensive part of the city!

[matty228]

07:44 PM on 03/30/2011

Let us hope there is not a monster parking lot out front like the ones in the suburbs. It needs to cater to people who walk and take public transportation, so the building should be flush with the sidewalk. Knowing the horrible urban planning that has taken place in Chicago lately, however, I won't get my hopes up.

[brandonbecker0728]

10:51 AM on 03/30/2011

I remember walking four years ago up Halsted after a night out....I went into a Starbucks for caffeine and anything to eat when I noticed where I was. This isn't Cabrini--even then the residents who were out on that morning could have cared less who was walking around. Had I not noticed the sign I never would have cared.Ten or fifteen years ago, this may have been a big deal...and chances are it never would have happened. r

[nfatt1]

09:45 AM on 03/30/2011

From one slum to another.

[bluecollaramerican]

07:54 AM on 03/30/2011

You can work security here if you have world class sprinter speed.

[Avery Owen]

05:52 AM on 03/30/2011

Ah so! The plot thickens! Hence the need to hurry up and finish knocking down the projects and moving the displace population to the burbs, where there is very little public transportation!

[Jacob Black]

11:05 AM on 03/30/2011

The demolition of Cabrini Green may have been a lot of things, but "hurried" was not one of them.

[Avery Owen]

05:03 AM on 03/31/2011

True Jacob, but I'm talking about that last building that is about to get torn down. Heck, the last tenants just got out of there not to long ago.

[Howard53545]

04:47 AM on 03/30/2011

Now that the poor people are gone its time to get it ready for the rich.

[Tommygun264]

05:04 AM on 03/30/2011

You consider Target a store that caters to the "rich". What do you consider rich, when a person can afford matching hubcaps on their trailer?

[NorquistNemesis]

03:47 AM on 03/30/2011

Oh, goody. Another major chain store that will be expecting (demanding) a deal that includes significant tax abatement before they get serious.

[Chicago0048]

11:02 PM on 03/29/2011

Can we also get some affordable housing next to Target?

[bluecollaramerican]

07:55 AM on 03/30/2011

Move to the suburbs. There are more Targets out there, too.

[BlindChance]

06:19 PM on 03/29/2011

Gentrification in action.

[joebiteme]

06:13 PM on 03/29/2011

WOW target will have to 100 security guards on the premise at all times

[BushBites]

08:22 PM on 03/29/2011

Nah.

Except for the row houses, Cabrini is gone.

The last high-rise will be down within the next month or two.

http://arcchicago.blogspot.com/

[NorquistNemesis]

03:49 AM on 03/30/2011

If that were the case they wouldn't be considering it, genius.

[BushBites]

06:01 PM on 03/29/2011

Man, Target is really moving fast.

South Loop, Loop, Wilson Yard and now Cabrini.

[MikeDu]

05:44 PM on 03/29/2011

I suppose this isn't bad news for the residents. "Target" is not exactly the first wave of gentrification.