Three Chicago colleges with downtown campuses plan to buy a city-owned parking lot on the edge of the Loop and jointly develop a $130 million dormitory for 1,600 students, officials said Monday.
The 18-story building, planned for the southeast corner of State Street and Congress Parkway, “is going to strengthen the South Loop area” and put a new contingent of residents on downtown streets around the clock, said Terri Texley, deputy commissioner in the city’s Planning Department.
The city plans to sell the land, which has a market value of about $5 million, for $1 in an agreement that must be approved by the City Council.
The developer of the project will be a not-for-profit corporation, the Educational Advancement Fund, comprising Columbia College, DePaul University and Roosevelt University. The consortium will obtain financing by issuing a combination of tax-exempt and taxable bonds. Income from student rents will be used to retire the bonds.
Demand for housing is strong from students who commute to classes at the three colleges now but who want to live near their respective campuses, Texley said.
Columbia, for example, can accommodate only 450 students, about 5 percent of its total enrollment, at two locations where it provides housing, said school officials. The former commuter college, which now draws nearly half of its students from outside of the Chicago area, has had 850 requests for assistance in finding apartments this year, up from 275 in 1999.
Plans for the new building call for a two-story base containing stores, student food-service facilities, lounges, and conference and media rooms, with student residences above.
The third floor will open onto a 20,000-square-foot rooftop garden for residents.
Robert Morris College was going to be part of the development consortium but withdrew after plans for academic space were eliminated to reduce the size of the development’s footprint, Texley said.
The revision was made to accommodate a Chicago Transit Authority project that will eliminate a double curve on elevated tracks bordering the site at Harrison Street near Wabash Avenue.
Straightening the tracks will allow a more efficient flow of trains into and out of the Loop, officials said.
Meanwhile, in another land write-down designed to spur development, the City Council’s Housing and Real Estate Committee on Monday advanced a deal in which Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago would pay $1 to purchase a city-owned parcel at 1100 E. 47th St. that is valued at $570,000.
The not-for-profit African-American dance troupe plans to build a $10 million performing arts center, including a 400-seat theater, on the site.
The 65,000-square-foot Muntu Center would be part of a “cultural corner” at 47th Street and Greenwood Avenue, said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), who spoke in support of the sale at the committee meeting. Another group, the Little Black Pearl Workshop, is converting a building across the street into a $2.8 million cultural and education center for the visual arts.
Muntu, which hopes to break ground next spring, expects to receive more than $8 million in state, Empowerment Zone and foundation funding toward the cost of the project, officials said.
