Hundreds of Englewood residents celebrated the groundbreaking of a long-awaited project that could help make 59th Street “the corridor to watch,” Resident Association of Greater Englewood Executive Director Asiaha Butler said.
The R.A.G.E.’s $6.4 million mixed-use development — dubbed The Re-Up — will turn a vacant building at 1210 W. 59th St. into their new headquarters, with retail space for Black-owned businesses. The organization is currently at 6620 S. Union Ave.
Butler dreamed up the project in 2021 as an “economic justice strategy,” following the 2020 civil unrest and Black Lives Matter protests in her South Side community.
She said during Monday’s groundbreaking, “there were tears.”
“People who possibly felt that they didn’t have a voice, their voices got heard. What they wanted, we organized around and co-created together,” she said.
The organization received a $2.5 million grant through the city’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, marking its first city grant. It also received property tax incentives that will generate over $200,000 in savings over 12 years, according to a news release from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office.
“The Re-Up reflects the vision, determination, and organizing power of Englewood residents who have invested in their neighborhood and refused to let disinvestment define its future,” Johnson said in the release.
R.A.G.E purchased the former Leon’s Bar-B-Q spot in 2023, after it sat vacant for over a decade.
Their redevelopment project stalled as they waited for permits to be approved, Butler said. Construction started last year, and the project is expected to finish in the first quarter of 2027.
Butler said she’s happy to be “extremely patient,” as she learns the process.
Englewood has long been a South Side neighborhood that mobilizes its community members to bring more resources to residents, including a push to support Black-owned businesses.
Butler said some local businesses interested in leasing space during the early stages of the project ended up closing.
“Shortly after COVID, [businesses] were really hurting, and some of the restaurants who had a letter of interest for The Re-Up went out of business,” she said.
The Re-Up, which stands for the RAGE Economic Upliftment Project, is meant to serve as a catalyst for the area’s revitalization. The 7,950-square-foot building will have two tenants on the first floor, and the second floor will be R.A.G.E.’s headquarters.
R.A.G.E. and residents are still considering the type of tenants they’d like to see, Butler said. Some ideas have included restaurants, retail, offices, a gym or wellness center, as well as a space for businesses to print.
“We lack so many amenities and so many types of businesses, and so we’ve heard a variety of different things,” she said.
Any tenant at the property will be required to hire from the community — employees who live in the 60621 or 60636 ZIP codes. It’s estimated that the project will create 50 permanent jobs, with a goal of creating 150 new jobs over three years.
Butler said the development will help unify Englewood and West Englewood. It will also complement other investments nearby, such as the Englewood Nature Trail and plans to expand Dion’s Dream Chicago and the Growing Home Englewood Farm Stand.
“[Fifty-ninth Street] is going to be the corridor to watch, especially coming from Midway to the Obama Center. You can take one bus and go all the way there,” Butler said.
The Obama Presidential Center, about four miles east of The Re-Up, will open to the public on June 19.
“It’s nothing but love and pride,” Butler said of Monday’s celebration, which drew about 400 people. “[Residents] are excited to see something happening here.”