Post by Logan on May 14, 2016 5:40:32 GMT -6
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday denied that development of the Old Main Post Office and a long-dormant site at Roosevelt and Clark was more evidence of downtown-centric development that leaves Chicago neighborhoods behind.
“These have been dormant for years. They pay minimal property taxes. When the Roosevelt and Clark property and the post office are developed, they are going to pay millions upon millions of dollars in property taxes, which will allow us to continue to make investments in basic services like after school, summer jobs, increased policing,” the mayor said.
The mayor noted that the Old Main Post Office closed in 1995 and that the 2.5 million-square-foot behemoth straddling the Eisenhower Expressway has sat vacant and decaying ever since, defying the ups and downs of the real estate market.
It’s become a civic embarrassment akin to the giant hole in the middle of the Loop once known as Block 37 before the vacant parcel was finally redeveloped.
Read more: chicago.suntimes.com/politics/emanuel-denies-some-chicago-neighborhoods-being-left-behind/
“These have been dormant for years. They pay minimal property taxes. When the Roosevelt and Clark property and the post office are developed, they are going to pay millions upon millions of dollars in property taxes, which will allow us to continue to make investments in basic services like after school, summer jobs, increased policing,” the mayor said.
The mayor noted that the Old Main Post Office closed in 1995 and that the 2.5 million-square-foot behemoth straddling the Eisenhower Expressway has sat vacant and decaying ever since, defying the ups and downs of the real estate market.
It’s become a civic embarrassment akin to the giant hole in the middle of the Loop once known as Block 37 before the vacant parcel was finally redeveloped.
Read more: chicago.suntimes.com/politics/emanuel-denies-some-chicago-neighborhoods-being-left-behind/