Vacant for 25 years, a former furniture store in Auburn Gresham will soon open its doors as a community health and education center.
The developers hope that in addition to being home to a myriad of businesses focused on health and prosperity, the four-story building will also become a beacon of the community, a space where everyone can spend time while taking advantage of Wi-Fi. free, dine and catch up. with friends.
The four-story, 60,000-square-foot building at 839 W. 79th St., built in 1925, still sports its original terracotta exterior.
“It’s very prominent in the neighborhood,” said Carlos Nelson, executive director of the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation. “Unfortunately, 25 years of a huge building like that sitting vacant is not a good thing.”
The ribbon cutting for the Gresham Healthy Lifestyle Hub is Friday, with a grand opening ceremony, open to the public, scheduled for November 11. The project received a major boost when the development corporation was awarded $10 million for winning the inaugural Pritzker Traubert Foundation Prize. Chicago Award in 2020.
The development corporation’s winning initiative included not only the rehabilitation of the building, but also its plans for an urban farm and a renewable energy center.
The $12.4 million Center also received some financial support from the city’s Invest South/West initiative.
Carlos Nelson, CEO of the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation, in June 2020 in an announcement that the city’s Invest South/West program would help fund the group’s Healthy Lifestyle Hub initiative.
Nelson said his group was motivated in part by the closure of several businesses in the area in recent years. Among them: Save A Lot, Aldi, CVS and a Bank of America branch, though plans are in the works to reopen Save A Lot with new owners.
The Hub is across from the vacant Save A Lot and CVS locations, and Nelson wants it to reclaim some of what the community lost when the businesses moved out. The development corporation purchased the building five years ago, aiming to fill those gaps and others, starting with a federally qualified health center.
The Hub will have that and more. It will be anchored by a medical center, operated by the University of Illinois Health, which will provide primary and immediate care, as well as dental care and mental health treatment.
But it won’t be just health care. The Hub will bring a Bank of America branch back to the area, along with a Chicago Bears Teaching Kitchen, an office for the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring group, a pharmacy and a third Chicago location of Mikkey’s Retro Grill.
The UI Health location is badly needed in the neighborhood, said Camellio Lincoln, senior project manager for the Hub. According to Lincoln, there is a gap in the immediate and preventative care available in the area.
The University of Illinois Mile Square Health Center will provide primary and immediate care services at the Auburn Gresham Healthy Lifestyle Center.
“Currently, education about immediate and urgent care really doesn’t exist,” Lincoln said. “So people keep going to emergency rooms, which is very expensive.”
Nelson added, “We haven’t had access to high-quality health care in this community in generations.”
The Hub will bring more than 150 living-wage jobs to the area, and all of the Hub’s tenants are dedicated to hiring Black and Brown people, Lincoln said, part of the project’s goal to help “build a generation of wealth” for the community. Nelson said.
Heartland Alliance will also have a branch at the Center. The organization aims to help people lift themselves out of poverty through jobs, housing, and family services.
The Auburn Gresham Healthy Lifestyle Center, anchored by a UI Health Center, will have a variety of other businesses.
A University of Illinois at Chicago community center will also have space in the building and will host a number of community programs, Lincoln said. It will also provide a pro bono legal clinic at the center to help residents handle legal matters and also educate them about their rights.
An additional gift from the Chicago Bears made the teaching kitchen, along with a community room, where cooking and nutritional training courses can be held.
The first floor of the building will also have a common space where anyone can hang out and enjoy the air conditioning or heating, Lincoln said.
Even before the Center opens, Nelson is thinking about what’s next for the rest of the neighborhood. Among his ideas: a food pantry; a therapy center for the elderly, an incubation space for budding entrepreneurs, and a shuttle, all taking up vacant spaces around the area.
“Right on 79th, in the midst of 50 years of despair and disinvestment, we knew it would catalyze another development,” Nelson said. The hope, he added, is “that development will be done by us, for us.”
Source: news.google.com