Brianna Kelly reports for The Real Deal on what the $500 million presidential center could bring to the South Side of Chicago.
The $500 million Obama Presidential Center isn’t shovel-ready, but plans for the massive project on the South Side have already attracted a new set of real estate investors from across the country.
Over the past year, multifamily broker Brian Mond said his firm has advised on about a dozen property sales in the area involving out-of-state buyers who were in part drawn to the area by the Obama Center construction. Mond, of Essex Realty Group, attributes the interest to the promise of the 19-acre presidential center, saying investors are betting on the project to help lure renters to Woodlawn and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Multifamily investors have come from New York, California, Colorado and New Jersey, Mond said, in addition to Chicago. The Obama Center and its four-building complex — which will rise inside the 500-acre Jackson Park — can carry “a whole new wave of investors into the market,” he said.
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