Viceroy reclaimed

By MATTHEW BLAKE
Contributing Reporter

The building that was once the notorious Viceroy Hotel for transients will now become something quite different — a site for subsidized housing.

The developer Heartland Housing will work with the First Baptist Congregational Church to rehabilitate the now-vacant Viceroy building, at 1517-21 W. Warren Blvd., and turn it into housing for low-income residents, the homeless, and formerly incarcerated women.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel rolled out an ordinance to City Council July 28 that calls on the city’s Community Development Commission to sell the building to Heartland for $1.

 

The City Council will most likely approve the ordinance in September, and Michael Goldberg, executive director of Heartland Housing, said that construction should begin shortly thereafter.

 

“We hope to close down all the financing and start construction this October,” Goldberg said. “We are hoping for something in the range of a 14-month construction schedule.”

 

Besides transferring the property, the ordinance also gives Heartland $3.9 million in tax increment finance property tax revenue from the Central West TIF District. That money will cover about 25 percent of the project’s expected total cost. According to Goldberg, the majority of the funding will come from the state government in the form of low-income housing tax credits.

 

Heartland Housing, part of the non-profit Heartland Alliance, will then convert the building into 89 low-income studio apartments, with 18 units leased to formerly incarcerated women.

 

Goldberg said that the developer would work with the Chicago Housing Authority to find tenants and pay for rental subsidies.

 

The six-story building would include ground floor office space, as well as a ground floor coffee shop that would employ the formerly incarcerated women. Heartland Housing also plans a green roof and rain garden.

 

Ald. Walter Burnett, whose 27th Ward includes the Viceroy building, said that the project was originally Mayor Richard M. Daley’s. “He asked if I wanted to put in some affordable housing and redo the Viceroy Hotel and I told him I thought it would be a great idea,” Burnett said. “It’s part of the city’s 10-year plan to deal with homelessness.”

 

Implemented in 2003, Daley’s plan was to replace emergency homeless shelters by moving people into permanent housing and providing services to them once they were housed. Heartland has worked with Daley on several of these projects.

 

“We’ve been instrumental in providing supportive housing with health care and human services to homeless individuals,” Goldberg said.

 

Goldberg said it was too early to speculate how many currently homeless citizens would be accepted for positions at the apartment.