Chicago & Midwest + South Side + Retail | March 22, 2021

South Side Mega Church Redevelopment Could Have Much Higher Cost, $700M to $1B

Eisenberg Foundation’s Real Estate Challenge Draws Biggest Field Yet

The Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation’s 11th Annual Real Estate Challenge is tasking 14 collegiate teams from across the country with creating a hypothetical master plan for a five-parcel site in Woodlawn, near the Obama Presidential Center’s future home.

Representing the largest and most geographically diverse group yet assembled for the Challenge, the teams will create a new vision for Woodlawn’s Stony Island Avenue as a “Great Street of Chicago” and emphasize the re-establishment of 63rd Street as a neighborhood destination.

“Woodlawn was once a community with 80,000 people, peaking in the 1960s,” said DL3 Realty’s Leon Walker, a site partner in this year’s Challenge. “While political and cultural changes have resulted in a community that has been historically disinvested, with this hypothetical development, we are looking at an opportunity to reimagine the gateway to Woodlawn.”

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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