Related Midwest’s completion of 207 apartments on Chicago’s Near West Side didn’t only create much-needed affordable housing.
It is part of a broader Roosevelt Square project to convert a sprawling former public housing campus along the Little Italy neighborhood into a mixed-income development that also includes new retail, amenities and the National Public Housing Museum.
Built in partnership with the Chicago Housing Authority and the Chicago Department of Housing, the latest phase of Roosevelt Square created 75 public housing units, 40 with below-market, affordable rents and 92 market-rate units.
The ongoing, 67-acre project is between the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Illinois Medical District. The long-term goal is to create more than 2,000 new housing units.
The site was once within a larger property known as ABLA Homes, an acronym for the Addams, Brooks, Loomis and Abbott complexes.
The recent phase, backed by multiple sources of public funding, was completed amid a slowdown in the construction of housing units in Chicago, which has created some of the biggest rent increases among the nation’s largest markets.
Related Midwest’s project was selected by a panel of real estate professionals as the 2026 CoStar Impact Award winner for multifamily development of the year in Chicago.
About the project: The latest phase led by Related Midwest comprised new buildings at 1257 and 1357 W. Roosevelt Road, 1346 W. Taylor St. and 1002 S. Racine Ave.
The museum was created within one of the last remaining Jane Addams Homes buildings at 919 S. Ada St., which was renovated.
New retail will include the Fresh Stop Produce & Deli grocery store and The Slice Shop, a pizzeria.
Apartment units range from studios to three bedrooms. Residential amenities include a fitness center and a terrace with grills and a dog run.
What the judges said: “Related Midwest and the CHA have had a record of successes creating viable communities with needed amenities, all professionally managed,” said Lee Dickson of Baum Realty Group.
They made it happen: The project was led by Austin Petras of the Related Cos. and Sarah Wick, Michael Kaplan and Lisa Patano of Related Midwest.