Habitat and Cabrera Capital have broken ground on the first residential phase of the long-planned redevelopment of the former LeClaire Courts public housing community in Chicago. The original LeClaire Courts complex was completed in the 1950s and was demolished in 2011, clearing a 32-acre site in the city’s Garfield Ridge community for future redevelopment. The current effort is positioned as a multiphase, mixed-use project involving the Chicago Housing Authority, the city of Chicago, and a broader group of public and private partners.
The redevelopment site is bounded by Cicero Avenue, 45th Street, Lavergne Avenue and the Stevenson Expressway, giving the project visibility along a key transportation corridor on Chicago’s Southwest Side. Plans call for the multiphase project to ultimately deliver up to 700 residential units alongside approximately 440,000 square feet of commercial space, replacing the legacy public housing community with a new mixed-use neighborhood-scale development. The residential components are planned across multiple phases, with the current groundbreaking marking the first step toward rebuilding housing on the site.
The initial phase now under construction consists of two six-story mixed-use buildings. Together, these buildings will include 183 apartments in a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. The configuration is designed to reintroduce housing density to the LeClaire Courts site while integrating ground-floor commercial and service uses as part of the larger master plan. The first phase is described as a mixed-use component of the broader redevelopment rather than a standalone project.
The cost of the first phase is reported at $119 million, supported by a layered public-private capital stack. The Chicago Housing Authority is providing a $27 million capital loan, anchoring the financing package with public-sector support. The city of Chicago is contributing an additional $9.5 million through its multifamily program funds, and $5.5 million is coming from tax-increment financing, further tying the redevelopment to local economic development tools.
On the equity side, the capital structure includes $33.7 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity, reflecting the project’s affordability component and the use of federal tax credit programs to underwrite new residential construction. The capital stack also incorporates $1.25 million in Illinois Affordable Housing Tax Credit equity, adding a state-level tax credit layer to the financing. Rounding out the sources is a $1.2 million deferred developer fee, indicating that the development team is contributing to the capital structure by deferring a portion of its compensation into the project.
With the first phase now under way, the LeClaire Courts site is beginning its transition from cleared land to an active mixed-use community. Future phases are expected to build on this foundation to reach the long-term target of up to 700 units and substantial commercial square footage on the 32-acre parcel. The participation of the Chicago Housing Authority, the city of Chicago and multiple public and private funding sources underscores the role of coordinated public-private financing in advancing large-scale mixed-income housing redevelopments in Chicago.
