Current Projects

Redeveloping Brownfields

Ownership, Demolition, and Clean-Up of Commercial Property: 7256 S. South Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL

Underneath the Chicago Skyway on the city’s southeast side, the once-thriving neighborhood served by Revere School is today plagued by poverty and blight. The Comer Science and Education Foundation has partnered with the Delta Redevelopment Institute (REDI) on a variety of initiatives to revitalize the neighborhood.

Ownership, Demolition, and Clean-Up, Economic Incentives: 12 East Business Center, Michigan City, IN

In Michigan City, Indiana, a 21-acre foundry near the waterfront had been vacant for 20 years. To return the property to productive use—and get it back on the tax rolls—Delta REDI staff formed a partnership with the local economic development corporation and the Northern Indiana Center for Land Reuse. The partners took title from the county, solved a complex web of additional title problems, and convinced the county to forgive back taxes.

The next problem was how to finance environmental assessment and cleanup. The partnership obtained loans and grants for this phase of the predevelopment work, managed the demolition of the old foundry, and began the process of cleaning up the site and planning for its reuse.

Like many Great Lakes cities, Michigan City has a heritage of industry on its waterfront, and this heritage included a lumber business near the site of the old foundry. The 12 East Business Center redevelopment provided the lumberyard with the opportunity to expand onto the property, and plans were made to redevelop the waterfront for residential and recreational uses. The property had some $8 million worth of liens when we started. Today the bulk of the site has been cleaned up and sold to the lumberyard, which is now moving jobs and economic activity into the area and is paying property taxes. Another portion of the site is being leased to the lumberyard and will be sold when environmental remediation is complete.

Economic Development Planning & Project Management

Reuse Planning and Organizational Development: Greater Riverdale Industrial Partnership, Riverdale, IL

Riverdale is a small village in south Cook County, IL, with a heritage of heavy industry. Located just east of Interstate 57, between 127th and 147th streets, the town has good access to barges, rail and expressways. Delta REDI prepared a redevelopment plan for the area and helped the village form a new non-profit organization, the Greater Riverdale Industrial Partnership (GRIP), to provide the technical expertise and financial resources to move forward on the plan. GRIP spearheaded the pre-development work needed to attract new commercial and industrial development. As a member of GRIP’s board of directors and development committee, Delta REDI continues to support GRIP’s work to implement the plan.

Business and Reuse Planning, Project Management: Windy City Harvest, Chicago, IL

With funding from the Steans Family Foundation, Delta created a unique redevelopment strategy for a vacant eight-acre industrial site in North Lawndale, a distressed community on Chicago’s West Side. The site will be reused for a transitional jobs program that will train and provide work experience for hard-to-employ residents. A new, nonprofit urban horticulture business called Windy City Harvest will grow organic vegetables and bedding plants on the site and also produce trained, ready-to-work employees.

Delta created the business plan for this unique end use, managed negotiations that convinced the City of Chicago to donate the site, organized partners in the venture, and helped raise the necessary capital. The Chicago Botanic Gardens will furnish key staff for the business. Through contracts with Windy City Harvest, the North Lawndale Employment Network, the Chicago Christian Industrial League, and ARAMARK will also provide critical services.

Delta also identified an environmental assessment and cleanup contractor and interfaced with key funders, the architect, general contractor, program partners, and various experts to complete the site and program designs and help establish Windy City Harvest as a new organization.

Pre-Development Funding

Clean-Up Loan: Gas Station, Chicago Heights, IL

An inexperienced elderly couple used the equity in their home to pay for environmental cleanup of the gas station they owned in order to ready it for sale. They planned to finance their retirement with the sale proceeds, but they were left with nothing when an irresponsible environmental contractor walked away without completing the work needed to obtain reimbursement for the project from the State of Illinois. Delta REDI came to their rescue with a commitment to provide a loan for remediation of the site by a trustworthy contractor. The loan will be repaid by a grant from the state’s Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program, or from the sale of the property. This commitment enabled the new environmental contractor to move forward—and the elderly couple to salvage their retirement.

Re-Use Planning Loan: Greater Riverdale Industrial Partnership, Riverdale, IL

Delta REDI provided a $250,000 line of credit to pay for early planning and strategic work necessary to redevelop a 200-acre industrial area comprising several vacant and underutilized parcels in Riverdale, IL.

Project Financing

Lead Abatement: Chicago Lead Safe Window Services, Chicago, IL

Approximately 88,000 units of lead-contaminated housing are poisoning Chicago’s children and impairing their futures. Window frames in older buildings are often coated with layers of lead-based paint; every time windows are raised or lowered, fine particles of contaminated dust scrape off and poison indoor air quality. Children are especially susceptible to contamination from lead dust or peeling paint. In low-income communities especially, the lack of financing for lead abatement poses a major barrier to addressing the problem.

Delta REDI is working with the City of Chicago Department of Public Health and the Illinois Lead Safe Housing Task Force to expand resources for lead abatement in low-income housing units. Our model combines $6 million of private capital raised by Delta Redevelopment Funds through the federal New Markets Tax Credits Program with a $6 million grant from the City of Chicago. This strategy has generated a total of $12 million to replace windows in more than 1700 affordable housing units.

Chicago Lead Safe Window Services will provide and finance lead abatement services for owners of multi-family buildings (four or more units) in low-income Chicago communities. Half the loan amount will come from Delta Redevelopment Funds and half from the City of Chicago grant. If a building owner borrows $100,000, once half the loan plus interest has been paid back, Delta REDI will use the city grand funds to forgive the other $50,000. Thus, building owners will receive lead abatement services and energy efficient windows at half price, and the City of Chicago will leverage its $6 million grant to double the number of units that receive abatement services.

To learn more about the program and determine whether an affordable housing property qualifies for discounted lead abatement window replacement services, please contact Gary Jenifer at (773) 446-7803 or Ron Spielman at (773) 446-7801.

Tools and Policy Initiatives

Illinois Lead Safe Housing Task Force

Delta REDI has been helping to identify potential sources of public and private money to leverage for increased lead abatement throughout Illinois. In Chicago alone, approximately 88,000 units of lead-contaminated housing are poisoning children and impairing their futures.

Delta Redevelopment Funds

In partnership with Coniston Consulting, Delta REDI established the Delta Redevelopment Funds to provide senior and subordinated debt to brownfield and infill development projects as well as to environmentally beneficial businesses. The Funds combine capital from New Markets Tax Credits investors and lenders.

Green Development Consulting and Grant Assistance

Delta Revere Housing

In partnership with the Revere Community Housing Development LLC and with funding from the Comer Foundation for Science and Education, the Delta Institute helped design and is responsible for implementing a subsidy program for low and moderate income housing buyers in the Revere Community. The first phase of the project consists of 30 new home buyers each receiving a subsidy of $80,000 to purchase a new home constructed by the Revere Community Housing Development LLC. Delta determines homeowner eligibility and monitors their compliance with the subsidy terms over a ten year period. Delta also worked with the developer, the architects and builders to ensure that the housing models incorporate energy efficiency and address other key green building features such as indoor air quality. Delta has also identified grant funds to pay for these green features and is providing training to the development team.