Structured Development says it has launched the second phase of Harrison Row Townhomes, an affordable for-sale townhome community at Harrison and Francisco streets in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood. A total of 33 new three-bedroom, 1.5-bath townhomes will be added, including 14 duplex townhomes, or 28 units, built using modular construction, the developer says in a March 2 statement.
The townhouses created under Chicago’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO) are priced from $245,000. The developer says they will be build in phases over the course of the year and reserved for households earning up to 120% of the Area Median Income.
Buyers will be sourced through the Chicago Community Land Trust (CCLT), a nonprofit corporation administered and staffed by the Chicago Department of Housing that seeks to preserve the long-term affordability of homes created through city of Chicago programs, including the ARO.
“Teachers, police officers, firefighters, healthcare professionals, factory workers – they form the backbone of our city, yet they typically struggle to find affordable workforce housing,” Mike Drew, founding principal of Structured Development, said in the statement.
“Ironically, their income levels disqualify them for low-income housing options yet they don’t earn enough to afford market-rate homes, especially those that are newly constructed and large enough to accommodate a family. Harrison Row will give more people the opportunity to achieve the dream of homeownership, putting down roots in the community and building equity from the day they close.”
Chicago-based Kinexx Modular Construction will assemble the modular townhomes off-site in its Southwest Side factory, significantly reducing the construction timeline for each home to approximately 90 days, including on-site installation. Founded in 2020 by Joshua Braun and Paul Tebben, Kinexx is the first company to design, build and install a modular home in Chicago, with plans customized to the city’s typical lot size. Harrison Row is the first townhome application of the company’s modular designs.
“We started Kinexx in the hopes of addressing Chicago’s affordable housing shortage. This is exactly the type of project we envisioned when we created our mission statement, ‘We make homes that make communities,'” said Braun, principal and CEO of Kinexx. “Our modular homes are indistinguishable from homes built using traditional construction methods, and we believe Harrison Row will prove the viability and scalability of our model as we look to partner with the city and developers like Structured to create homeownership opportunities for low- and middle-income households that, until now, have been severely underserved.”
The idea to explore modular for Harrison Row’s second phase originated from Fain’s LLC, a Black-owned development firm based in East Garfield Park. Led by Kevin Brinson and Quentin “Q” Addison, who both grew up in the neighborhood, Fain’s originally specialized in renovations and other contracting work before shifting its focus to development.
Following an introduction by 27 Ward Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., Fain’s began receiving mentorship from Structured Development on the first phase of Harrison Row and is now a partner on two of the units in phase two. As part of the ownership group, Fain’s will share in the fee revenues and profit and losses while gaining the foundation to develop projects independently in the future.
Structured Development is fulfilling part of its ARO obligations for The Shops at Big Deahl, a mixed-use, mixed-income community the firm is developing at the southeast corner of Blackhawk and Kingsbury streets in Lincoln Park.
Under the ARO, the Harrison Row Townhomes are required to remain affordable for at least 30 years.
[…] approximately $245,000 townhouses are part of the Harrison Row project, built by Fain’s Development and Structured Development. They have about 1,500 sq. […]