IIT Partners With City, CHA in Stateway Housing Redevelopment
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) President Lew Collens today announced an incentive package for university faculty and staff, to encourage them to purchase new housing in the Stateway Gardens residential redevelopment project led by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA).
The IIT-sponsored incentives were developed in partnership with the CHA, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s office and Stateway Associates, the private developer of the project. Incentives include a $7,500 forgivable loan to university employees, to be used as down payment assistance for the purchase of a new residence in the Stateway redevelopment, located near 35th and South State Streets, adjacent the IIT Main Campus.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for our faculty and staff to invest in an exciting, new residential development, right in our own backyard,” said Collens. “IIT has been a partner and catalyst for progress and redevelopment in the neighborhoods surrounding the campus. With this financial incentive program, our employees now have the chance to further solidify their connection to a larger community, by becoming an integral part of this neighborhood’s residential fabric.”
CHA is coordinating the redevelopment project with input from number of community groups and agencies, known as the “Stateway Working Group.” Members include representatives from IIT, the city of Chicago, Bronzeville and Stateway Gardens residents, Stateway Associates and the Chicago White Sox.
IIT’s home ownership incentive program for Stateway is structured similarly to the Michigan Place residential redevelopment, sponsored by IIT and Shorebank Development, Inc., a private developer, in the late 1990’s. Michigan Place is mix of mid-rise condominiums and town homes bordered by 31st and 32nd streets, Michigan and Indiana Avenues. The university offered a
$5,000 forgivable loan to employees who purchased Michigan Place residences. Currently, ten percent of Michigan Place residents are IIT employees.
“This is not only about convenience to the workplace,” Collens said. “Members of our IIT community are committed to being a vital part of this neighborhood revitalization. It’s more than just coming to work here everyday. It’s about calling it home, too.”
Along with the incentive program, IIT will also partner with a private developer, Stateway Associates, in marketing the Stateway redevelopment initiative to IIT employees, faculty and staff.
"Truly transforming dilapidated unlivable housing into viable mixed-income communities must be the result of partnership," said CHA CEO Terry Peterson. "The CHA is ecstatic that IIT is willing to exemplify that kind of commitment."
As a compliment the new residential and commercial development planned for 35th Street, IIT is also redeveloping property it owns one block north of Stateway, for a new home to the Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering. The institute’s new complex is expected to generate new jobs for neighborhood residents.
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.
