“South Side organizers are joining forces to turn a vacant Chicago Public Schools building into a community hub where neighbors can receive services, food and educational resources.
“Grow Greater Englewood received full City Council support Tuesday to begin the work to transform the former Hayes Admin Building, 6529-6533 S. Stewart Ave., into the Ujima Hive Resiliency Hub.
“Led by Grow Greater Englewood, the project is a collaborative effort of local organizations, including Teamwork Englewood, Urban Growers Collective, Urban Tech Academy and BlackRoots Alliance.
“The building will be rezoned into a neighborhood commercial district, allowing the Englewood organizations to build about 30,331 square feet of commercial space, a restaurant with a shared kitchen, a workforce development training space and a community garden.
“The hub will have 27 parking spaces and a new lobby while maintaining the building’s original three-story structure, according to the zoning application.
“The former CPS building has been vacant since at least 2017, according to a WBEZ report. The Greater Southwest Development Corp. bought the building with hopes of converting the space into co-ed dorms for students at Kennedy-King College.
“When those plans didn’t materialize, Grow Greater Englewood bought the building from the development group in 2022 for $250,000 with the help of a Greater Chicago Food Depository grant, said Anton Seals, lead steward and co-founder at Grow Greater Englewood.
“The Ujima Hive Resiliency Hub will ‘keep history alive in the community’ by repurposing the long-vacant structure, Seals said.
“‘In a community that has so much space, the irony is that there aren’t many spaces where we can do things,’ Seals said. ‘This will be a space that serves people, from the youth to our elders, the ‘Soul Train’ generation. We are each other’s responsibility, and we wanted to put that into action.”
“The total cost to build the hub is about $16 million, and it will be completed in two phases, Seals said.” (Reed, Block Club Chicago, 4/23/24)
Preservation Chicago applauds Grow Greater Englewood and the development partners for Ujima Hive Resiliency Hub. This is an outstanding adaptative reuse project which leverages the power of historic preservation to create healthy and vibrant communities. Since Chicago Public Schools shuttered 50 schools in 2014, Preservation Chicago has been advocating to adaptively reuse them as community centers, business incubators and housing.
Read the full story at Block Club Chicago
- Englewood Organizers To Transform Vacant CPS Building Into $16 Million ‘Resiliency Hub’
Work could begin this summer on the first phase of the Ujima Hive Resiliency Hub: converting the first floor of the former Hayes Admin Building into a cafe, shared kitchen, food pantry and community garden, Atavia Reed, Block Club Chicago, 4/23/24 - Chicago Public Schools, a Preservation Chicago 2018 Chicago 7 Most Endangered
- Chicago Public Schools, a Preservation Chicago 2014 Chicago 7 Most Endangered