SOUTH LOOP — Work on the South Loop's new neighborhood school will begin next month, city officials say.
Demolition of a vacant post office building to make way for the new South Loop Elementary School near 16th and Dearborn streets will begin in March, Chicago Public Schools officials told neighbors last week. The new school for 1,200 students is expected to open in 2019.
Renderings have not been drawn up, but CPS said it's considering a four-story building with 50 classrooms, two computer labs, two art rooms and other amenities. The school would house classes for kindergarten through eighth grade.
CPS bought the site last year after fielding complaints of overcrowding at the South Loop's existing grade school at 1212 S. Plymouth Court. That school opened for 580 students in 1988 but now has 771, according to CPS. Thousands of new homes are planned for the South Loop, one of the few neighborhoods in Chicago gaining population.
Construction of the school is expected to begin this summer after he post office demolition, CPS said. School boundaries have not been determined, but Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) told neighbors last week that the city is considering expanding the South Loop school's boundaries farther south. The future of the existing South Loop school on Plymouth Court has not been determined.
The new school's cost was pegged at $55 million last year. About $10.7 million in tax increment financing will go toward the project.
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