And what does that look like in terms of a number for the seller to achieve in a sale?
So trying to optimize, you know, the price, but not just getting the seller the best price, but
what can be done here? Who is the buyer and what's possible? What's feasible?
and the reason why you see so much multifamily in in the city is just because in order for anything
any other use to be justified in justifying the construction costs the rents need to to make
sense so right now in the city really the multifamily rents are driving the ability to
cover the construction costs. And that's kind of, right now, we're in a unique circumstance
with COVID. That's before, during, and after COVID. So when we look at this in the feasibility,
viability to be commercial or industrial, you know, outside of the obstacle of just being an
irregular lot and a pizza-shaped lot, but commercial rents or industrial rents are not
going to justify construction costs especially now with them on the rise. And the other thing
that really plays a big factor that I would mention is the lending environment. No investor
that's going to invest in any sort of piece of land anywhere is typically going to do so all cash.
There always has to be the ability for a lender to make sense of the project as well. And I would
say right now, during COVID, the lending environment is very, very difficult, if not impossible
to lend on commercial new construction based on COVID.
Thank you. Does the board have any questions for the law?
No, I just have a question. You mentioned earlier, how long has this lot been vacant?
I believe the lot's been vacant. I was being kind in saying at least a decade. There's
no zoning archives at all that show anything um i can pull up atlas to show you that so i'm not
exactly sure but i know that it's at least 10 years right at least 10 years chairman and uh
it's across the street from the cars or it's in the cars it's across the street okay yep all right
do you have anyone else yep chairman i just want to bring thank you phil i just want to bring the
owner on david ross um i just want him to talk about the environmental um because i think that
that's important that the board understands how that plays into this um mr ross you should be
unmuted and you can speak yes hello thank you um ross please identify yourself with the record and
i'll swear you in uh david ross and you did about half an hour ago swear to firm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes thank you rachel please proceed david i i pull up in
front of me, the agreements you sent me for the phase one and phase two. And I wanted you to just
explain to the board sort of what the environmental reports came back as and the environmental
remediation that needs to go on this site in addition to the cost of that. And in addition to,
you know, the construction costs involved with with developing is just so that the board
understands that not only, you know, with this project involves significant environment remediation,
which is a benefit to the neighborhood and and the city in general but um you know that cost is
something that you are willingly taking on as well and would be included in this yeah that was um
our our intent going into this was to remediate it properly uh we've been through about a half
dozen sites where we've we've done this we have a proposal for a um an extraction of the tanks that
in the site that came up in the phase two and that's an $80,000 proposal and as we know as
sometimes that happens you still get into this proposal is outdated but you get into additional
issues as you test as you pull stuff out so this could creep higher
And the challenges with these sites are it's often hard to get them completely clean to do residential development for sale.
and the challenges with these sites are it's often hard to get them completely
So if you were to do townhomes, you may have an environmental covenant that would restrict homebuyers from purchasing homes on gas station sites.
So that's a challenge why we did look at doing townhomes here, but we would have extremely high barriers to entry for the land remediation and the lenders to be on board with that.
So, you know, we were kind of stuck looking at a multifamily that could absorb these costs,
but still be as scaled down as possible to address the concerns that came up in the community conversations.
Thanks. Thanks, David.
The last thing, David, I just want you to share with the board is just the, you know,
the multiple conversations just to reiterate my testimony um that you heard me state about the
community process and the reiteration of the length that we we went to to have multiple
meetings and tried to um sort of tailor this project as much as possible and so much so as
revising plans multiple times hiring additional architects and I think we had at least five or
six meetings um so I just wanted you heard my testimony on that if you could just share your
experience briefly as well uh yes that that is true um i think a lot of times the development is
um it's challenging this has been a vacant site for a long time that people have seen as an open
space to park on uh but we're trying to do something that's that's reasonable here and
um we were investing in the properties adjacent to this and across the street
so we felt the ownership that if somebody's going to develop here we want it to be us
so that it's tasteful and we could do a nice job.
So we have tailored the project
to incorporate all of the feedback
from our previous meetings,
except the feedback that was to do nothing.
So here's where we're at
and we're pretty proud of where it's at now.
Thank you, David.
Rachel?
Yes, Chairman.
One question.
The pocket park,
is that part of your, on your footprint?
who will be maintaining it yes that's part of our footprint and david uh you'll be maintaining that
as part of your ownership in the building correct yeah and we don't have any direct doors from our
building out to it okay i just was curious about maintenance okay thank you all right questions
from the board no no anyone else anyone else would like to testify in this case please raise your hand
Chair we have looks like Gideon Redditch Mr. Redditch you can unmute yourself you're allowed
to speak good evening sir please identify yourself with the record spell your first
and last name and provide us with your address
Mr. Redditch
While we're waiting for him, is there anyone else?
Chair, we have Mary Jones here
Ms. Jones, you can unmute yourself and you can speak
Good evening, Mary Jones
Good evening, Mary. You're still under oath from earlier today. Please identify yourself.
Yes. Mary Jones from Council President Darrell Clark's office, City Hall, room 494.
Today, the Council President would like to support the community who is in opposition to this project.
they just feel that this type of uh development is uh bringing unneeded density and could impact
the safety of the children and the school next door and it's also of course out of contact with
the single family uh neighborhood um so he supports that position um and also i just want
to say um there was a mention of having um the city buy the property and um uh me and my office
we did look into that and uh essentially according to atlas the uh owner overpaid for the lot so it's
just too expensive for the city to buy to um to entertain something like that so um just to
clarify that and yes it's just the long-term neighbors are very concerned about this kind of
out of context development coming into their neighborhood um and um yes so they wanted to
express that um can you hear me hello yeah okay um uh rachel pritzker had brought something up
Okay. Rachel Pritzker had brought something up.
Who's speaking?
Who's speaking? Hello?
Who is this?
That's Mr. Redditch. He finally came on.
Sir, please identify yourself, spell your first and last name, and provide us with your address.
Yeah, it's Gideon, G-I-D-E-O-N. Last name is R-E-T-T-I-C-H.
And I'm at 1733 North 29th Street, 19121.
we're in the firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes please proceed okay um rachel pritzker had brought up uh something about the opportunity
zone and the income levels of people in the neighborhood projects like this do pretty much
absolutely nothing for people in the neighborhood with lower income levels it just brings people
into the neighborhood with higher income uh so i mean i'd like to object to he's what yeah what
What expertise do you have to qualify that?
Having lived in three different cities and seen this firsthand, so I haven't gone to school to study this.
I would ask that anything.
Okay, then you're not an expert.
Okay, so I'll keep my comments just to reiterate what has been said in the meeting.
We have development pushing in from Cecil B. Moore, from west of us.
Chairman, can I ask that his testimony be just related to this project, not development in the neighborhood as a whole?
I'm just about to ask the same question.
Sir, we're not trying to be difficult, but please speak to this project.
We feel I'm reiterating on behalf of my neighbors and me.
You can't do that either.
All right, Rachel.
You have to speak on behalf of yourself.
I will speak on behalf of myself.
Thank you.
This adds unneeded density to the neighborhood, and it goes very deeply against the wishes of, it goes against my wishes, and what Rachel had described in the meetings as well.
um you know we feel i feel sorry that our part of the neighborhood is very much about single
family row houses and backgrounds not about uh packing as many people into a lot as as one can
get and even though i understand and i respect the concessions that the developer has made i just
wanted to be heard uh by you uh directly to understand the nature of my uh disagreement
how long have you lived at your current address i bought my property in 2012 i moved in 2014 and
i've been in the neighborhood since 2008 you you're familiar with that lot being being a vacant
little piece of land for all those years correct yeah for all the years that i've lived there i am
I'm very familiar with that law, what it looks like.
You know, I pass it every day.
Okay, thank you.
Anyone else would like to testify?
Chairman, can I just address Mary's comments about the price of it?
I just want that stricken as that's speculative as to any comments of overpayment or payment in general.
I don't believe Mary is a real estate partner.
I agree.
I don't understand the relevance of that, but okay.
So noted.
Thank you.
Anyone else can testify?
Can we have Louise Branch here?
Branch, you can unmute yourself and speak.
Ms. Branch, before you begin, I would like anything new and different.
Please identify yourself in the record, name, and address.
Louise Branch, do you need me to spell my name?
No, it just said you're swearing for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing about the truth.
Please proceed.
Okay, I am the block captain of the 1700 block of North 29th Street,
And I'm currently the committee person for the 32nd Division, 32nd Ward, 30th Division.
Can you put your address on the record, Louise?
You said the 1700 block?
Of North 29th Street, but I live at 1729 North 29th Street.
Okay, this is just, I just wanted that for the record.
Okay, it's up 2800.
my address is 1729 north 29th street okay please proceed okay i've been in the neighborhood all of
my 62 years this is my home where i was born at grew up i know the neighborhood all the years
edward gideon is my alma mater speaking as a concerned neighbor for the neighborhood i'm
worried about the toxicity underneath the ground and I would hope that Mr. Ross would meet with
us again maybe having a continuance on this hearing as to some other things that we could
as to some other things that we could do to help him out and help us out as well.
do to help him out and help us out as well.
He has built on Gerrard Avenue, all up and down Gerrard Avenue.
It's beautiful, but it does not address the community here where we are.
And his building would not address the community where we are.
It would be good for him.
It just would not be good for the school or the community.
And I would hope that he is still willing to speak with us in order for us to come to some kind of agreement that's better than what we've come up with.
It is a great building what you've done, and I appreciate all the considerations that you took into account.
But there's still other things to take into account. Yes?
Louise, it's Rachel Pritzker. I do believe that David has mentioned that he is willing to meet
with you all to discuss the environmental concerns and to make sure that that's being
handled and addressed appropriately. As I think you know, we've probably had six or seven meetings
about this over a year and a half. And we've reduced the proposal significantly. And I believe
you actually were on the call, I guess, earlier last week. So I do believe that David would be
willing to meet, to be able to discuss and handle the environmental concerns, you know, with the
community. That's something that he's, has consistently said. But as far as the continuance,
we cannot reduce this project or adjust it any further. We've hired multiple architects. We've
had six or seven meetings, as you can understand. I mean, the environmental portion of this will be
absolutely addressed separate and aside
from zoning, if that's something that you're
open to.
Ms. Branch,
before you answer that, just let me ask you a question,
and I'm not trying to put words into your mouth.
Are you suggesting that
if you had another
meeting to deal with the environmental
issues, and that if the
community, if the
response was positive and the community
agreed, would you then be
supportive of this project?