James McHugh Construction Co. and Brown & Momen, Inc. have announced the start of construction on 508 Pershing at Oakwood Shores, a 53-unit mixed-used, mixed-income rental community in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. As part of a public-private partnership led by The Community Builders (TCB), the residential and retail building marks the latest phase of the larger Oakwood Shores revitalization plan, which encompasses more than 100 acres approximately 3.5 miles south of downtown Chicago.
Located at 508 E. Pershing Road, just east of Martin Luther King Drive, the four-story building will include 50 one-bedroom and three two-bedroom units, 7,000 square feet of amenity space, management offices and 3,500 square feet of street-level retail. Completion of the project, which is expected to cost $17.1 million, is scheduled for February 2022.
Designed by Nia Architects in collaboration with Antunovich Associates, the building will be clad with a red brick, fiber cement and metal panel facade and offer several amenities, including a resident lounge, meeting rooms, fitness center, a top-floor lounge, bike storage and dog wash. Apartments will feature in-unit laundry, a dishwasher, plank flooring and extra storage. The building structure consists of a combination of a traditional steel and precast podium for the ground level, with three stories of cold-formed panelized steel stud bearing walls and floor joists. An adjacent surface lot will provide 42 parking spaces for building residents and retail customers.
Thirty-six of the development’s 53 units will be Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) units for households earning up to 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI). The remaining 17 units will be market-rate. National Affordable Housing Trust (NAHT) provided funding for 508 Pershing in partnership with investor UnitedHealth Group.
Located on land formerly occupied by the Chicago Housing Authority’s Ida B. Wells, Madden Park and Clarence Darrow Homes, Oakwood Shores will be home to over 2,000 rental and for-sale homes – available across a range of income levels – and more than 60,000 square feet of new retail/commercial space once complete. To date, Oakwood Shores has seen the creation of nearly 900 residential units, as well as the first Mariano’s grocery store on the South Side, an award-winning arts and recreation center at Ellis Park, a health center and a bank.
