CANARYVILLE — The developer behind an upscale housing and retail development planned and approved for a vacant stretch of Halsted Street has pulled out of the project, according to Ald. Patrick D. Thompson (11th).
“It’s unfortunate,” Thompson said. “I think the overall project was great. Unfortunately, it’s not happening with him.”
David L. Chase, property buyer with BCG Enterprises, pitched the project at several community meetings over the past year. He even secured a zoning approval for the development’s first phase — a four-story building stacked with 12 luxury apartments up top and two apartments facing a courtyard.
Ald. Thompson said the trouble began with a disagreement about the acquisition of a scrap metal yard next door to the project: Green Metal Distribution, 4325 S. Halsted.
At a community meeting in September, Chase told Canaryville residents he was in negotiations with scrap yard owners to buy the business and the land beneath it. “I expect to have a contract in a week,” he said at the meeting.
The news pleased skeptical neighbors concerned about the scrap yard doing business in Canaryville.
“He indicated he had the scrap yard under contract and he would acquire it," Thompson said. “I think that put it over the edge with a lot of neighbors, if it meant getting rid of the scrap yard."
Chase never bought the scrap yard. Owners there were not available for comment Monday.
The developer told Thompson he no longer had a contract with the company to buy the scrap yard, leading Thompson to pull his support for the entire project.
"I’m going to stick with what the community was told," Thompson said. "If you’re not going to abide by that, I won’t support it.”
BCG Enterprises then pulled out of the entire project, Thompson said.
Chase would not share details about his exit.
“I am unable to comment at this time,” he said in an email to DNAinfo Chicago.
On July 20, Thompson asked zoning officials to “downzone” the property to residential.
“That gives us the opportunity to control what goes in there,” Thompson said.
Development plans included four buildings in the 4300 block of South Halsted, featuring one-bedroom and two-bedroom floor plans with rents between $1,600 and $1,800 a month. The ground floor of each building would have included retail shops and restaurants.
At a community meeting in January, Chase offered an official goal for the project: “To provide quality, luxurious housing while engaging the community with pedestrian friendly retail.”
Thompson said he's optimistic about the property's future.
"We’ll get somebody else interested in moving in there real soon," Thompson said.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
