Executive Summary

Always Growing, Auburn Gresham is a portfolio of two investment-ready capital projects poised to reinvigorate this south side, predominately black neighborhood back into the thriving destination it once was. The projects come directly from Auburn Gresham’s community-driven Quality-of-Life Plan and represent the best of the neighborhood’s vision for its bright future. The projects include transforming a long-vacant, 4-story office building at 79th and Halsted into the 839 Auburn Gresham Healthy Lifestyle Hub, anchored by a full-service health center and developing the first Renewable Energy and Urban Farming Campus in the country on a vacant brownfield on 83rd near Halsted,. To achieve the goals of the community plan, the projects will yield tremendous economic growth for the neighborhood, including 800 much-needed local jobs, equitable access to health care, and significant entrepreneurial opportunities, and will put Chicago’s south side on the map for the green economy. The development projects will also bring needed supportive services to the neighborhood and will transform two ominously vacant city blocks into vibrant and welcoming community spaces. For too long, this under-resourced neighborhood has struggled to build wealth and get ahead through decades of redlining and disinvestment. This unique collaboration, led by the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation (GAGDC), Green Era, and New Pisgah Community Service Organization, will propel Auburn Gresham forward and allow the neighborhood to reclaim its own future.

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