A new Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district will support the mixed-income rehabilitation of the Julia C. Lathrop Homes public housing complex under a plan approved today by City Council.

The Diversey/Chicago TIF district will generate an estimated $17.5 million in increment for $12.5 million in affordable housing construction and rehab costs and $4.5 million for streets, utilities, and open space improvements.

“This new TIF District is the next step in moving the development of Lathrop Homes forward,” said Alderman Joe Moreno. “I look forward to seeing the affordable housing replaced in the 1st ward and the addition of mixed-income housing.”

Generally bounded by Wellington Avenue, Diversey Parkway, Clybourn Avenue, and Leavitt Street, the district includes a 21-acre section of the North Center and Lincoln Park communities along the North Branch of the Chicago River.

The multi-phase plan for the Lathrop complex includes approximately 1,100 mixed-income residential units built over multiple phases. The approximately $170 million first phase of the project will include the renovation of 14 buildings by Lathrop Community Partners LLC into a mix of 413 studios to four-bedroom apartments.

In 2012, Lathrop Homes was listed as an historic district on the National Register of Historic places as a nationally significant example of community building and early public housing architecture. It is recognized as one of the largest, most thoroughly-executed, and best-preserved examples of America's first phase of public housing as well as of American urban and community planning in the inter-war period.

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