David Roeder, highly respected real estate insider and longtime business columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, has written in his column that Chicago’s Mayor “Daley Needs to Call Off the Bulldozers.”  The observation resides in his column from today, Wednesday October 28, entitled “South Side Projects At Risk.”

Roeder correctly points to the 20% Federal redevelopment tax credits which Chicago is tossing to the wind like so much asbestos, as it proceeds to demolish the historic properties at Michael Reese Hospital.  The Gropius in Chicago Coalition’s nomination of the campus to the National Register of Historic Places is currently pending, and will come before the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council (IHSAC) in early December.  The nomination has the support of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, the state-wide governmental body charged with supervising the nomination process.  If the nomination passes the IHSAC review in December, the nomination is very likely to be finalized in the next few months.

Roeder writes,

“Daley needs to call off the bulldozers. His Community Development Department said a ‘mixed-use community’ is under way at the site. But after the snub for the city’s Olympics bid, no one really knows what’s going there.“  (emphasis ours)

Roeder is absolutely correct.  At a Bronzeville community meeting on Tuesday, a representative for Chicago’s department of community development conceded that there is “no plan” and “there is no real market right now” for development in the area.  In demolishing landmarks for no explicable reason, Chicago is wandering down the lonely path toward Block 37 all over again.

Roeder’s column is available at the Sun-Times.