From the outside, 501 N. Cicero Ave., looks like another set of abandoned, graffitied buildings on the West Side. But the former site of Brach’s Candy factory is prime real estate at the center of a heated debate. ML Realty Partners, a northwest suburbanb
Two years ago they considered but did not pursue the property as a location for a new high school. They did an about face, however, when they learned that Ald. Ed Smith (28th) had given ML Realty $10.6 million in Tax Increment Financing funds to build a warehouse there.
“We were just hysterical. We were just totally insulted that our alderman would subsidize a project of outside developers to build a warehouse with no contractual commitment to create or retain any jobs in this community,” said Virgil Crawford, a community organizer with the West Side Health Authority.
He admitted, however, that the property also came back into focus because community leaders felt that other prospective high school sites were too dangerous or too far from the center of the community. According to Chicago Public Schools spokesman Mike Vaughn, the need for a high school in Austin is legitimate.
Seventy-five percent of students in the attendance area of the now defunct Austin High School opted to commute outside the community for school instead of attend there. Research has yet to show whether three small schools developed in Austin High School’s place are doing a better job of drawing students.
Crawford said it’s emblematic of the community’s need for a “state-of-the-art” high school, and he envisions one with an athletic facility, green technology center and job training center. But Smith said he does not believe the community leaders have the money to develop the land, and they should “face reality” and stop being picky about a school site.
“The Brach’s building has been sitting there wide open, empty for the last 16 years. It’s an awful looking buildingàguys came in there, ripped it out, took everything that could be sold, completely destroyed it. The carcinogens and asbestos are really bad. It’s $8 million for remediation alone,” Smith said. Vaughn confirmed that CPS currently does not have the funds for a new school. “A new high school is somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million for land acquisition and clean up and all that.
The fact of the matter is we don’t have any money right now to build a new high school in the Austin community,” Vaughn said. Another fundamental issue plaguing the community leaders’ campaign is zoning. The property is located in an industrial corridor, and Pete Scales, spokesman for the Department of Planning and Development said that it is “unprecedented” to switch its use. “You can’t build a school in a planned manufacturing district that is expressly for maintaining industry. They are incompatible uses.
It sends a strong message to industry that their uses wouldn’t be protected from encroachment by residential and commercial users,” Scales said. But Austin residents, many who support the idea of having a school at 501 N. Cicero, feel frustrated about a debate they feel voiceless in. “I think this is an awakening for us.
We have to become a more competent community of voters and citizens and more actively involved in the processes and institutions that impact us,” Crawford said solemnly. The purchase of Brach’s is not ML Realty’s first foray into the West Side. In 2004, the company converted 1401 N. Cicero into a distribution center for Coca Cola. According to a 2006 Department of Planning written statement about the properties expansion, many workers came from Coca Cola’s suburban operations. Although ML Realty is contractually obligated to repay the TIF, they do not have to hire from within the community.
The Chicago Finance Committee will review ML Realty’s proposal for 501 N. Cicero Ave., in July, and Austin community leaders have vowed to fight the proposal until then. According to a source, a third party has sent letters to Smith and ML Realty offering to purchase the site and sell it to the Board of Education. No agreement has been made.
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