WEST TOWN — One of 50 campuses to close in a cost cutting measure by the Chicago Board of Education, the former Near North special education school will be sold to a real estate development firm that will be required to seek landmark status for building, city officials have announced.
Earlier this week, the Board of Education authorized a sale of the former Near North Elementary, 739 N. Ada St., for $5.1M to Svigos Asset Management, a Buffalo Grove-based firm that also snapped up another shuttered school, Peabody, for $3.5 million in October.
In addition to the two West Town schools, Svigos' firm also owns a former CPS school in Lincoln Park that is being converted into apartments.
CPS' interim CEO Jesse Ruiz said that sale agreement authorized for Near North School and two other schools "represent real progress in the District’s undertaking with community leaders to repurpose these important former school sites and meet the unique needs of each community."
A "community engagement process" will determine the preferred uses for each former school site.
Acknowledging work to be done, Ruiz said the board is "working deliberately to ensure former schools sites bring value to CPS and their local communities for years to come.”
The sale of Peabody at 1444 W. Augusta Blvd. to Svigos Asset Management was the first sale of a school that was part of the shutdown by Chicago Public Schools. Svigos currently has a plan to redevelop the main school into 23 apartments, mainly a mix of one- and two-bedrooms units, according to Steve Niketopoulos, a spokesman Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd).
A neighboring nonprofit group with a century-long history in the area will also be opening a charter junior high school this fall inside a one-story annex that was next to the Peabody building.
Svigos Asset Management specializes in developing and managing commercial and residential properties, and owns apartment buildings in Lakeview, Logan Square and Albany Park.
Nick Vitore, an executive with Svigos, could not be immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) said on Friday that he has not yet met with Vitore about the Near North acquisition.
"They are going to have to come before the community. We want it to be landmarked because it is an older building; the commission saw that it qualifies for it. From what I know, they want to rehab and have housing there," Burnett said
As was the case with Peabody, the firm will need to work with the Eckhart Park Community Council, Burnett said.
The 57,400-square-foot former Near North building is already zoned for residential use, according to a real estate listing.
CPS is requiring that the former Near North building be used for mixed-use residential and commercial development. The buyer will also be required to seek landmark status for the facility from the Commission on Chicago Landmarks and maintain the exterior façade and building structure to preserve the building’s unique historical character, officials said.
The Cook County Assessor's office list no information on the building's historical features or even a date that it was constructed. The city's Historic Resources Survey, which is a starting point for seeing if a building has any historic value, does not have the school listed either.
Just south of Noble Square, Near North served 88 students in need of services to treat bipolar disorders, depression, emotional problems and schizophrenia, according to a hearing officer's report published before the school's closure.
At a hearing in 2012, Burnett rallied against the closure. "The Board of Education has treated [Near North] as a stepchild. We shouldn't treat them unfairly," Burnett said then.
During its vacancy, the Near North campus had attracted homeless squatters who were living in the parking lot.
Last March CPS launched a Web page dedicated to school "repurposing" and stated it would award buildings to the highest bidder. CPS is currently accepting bids for the former site of Trumbull Elementary at 5200 N. Ashland Ave. Bidding deadline is Aug. 4.
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