The City of Chicago is planning to move its massive vehicle maintenance facility from the North Branch Industrial Corridor, at 1685 N Throop St, shown above, to a new construction facility Englewood, with the help of a firm that will design, build, and finance the project.
The city is selling the site because it’s valuable land, and to use the new site in Englewood as an economic development project.
The Chicago Infrastructure Trust is facilitating the Department of Fleet and Facility Management’s move and new construction by issuing the RFP and signing contracts with a developer. The CIT is a non-profit organization founded by the mayor and authorized by City Council to do business on behalf of the city and its sister agencies.
The project involves three sites:
- A replacement vehicle maintenance facility on the former site of Kennedy-King College (the “main heavy duty shop”); a single building would be constructed, with 180–200,000 square feet of a single-story
- The construction of a 30,000 square feet satellite vehicle maintenance facility at 4243 N Neenah Ave, which is city-owned land in Dunning, and currently the site of a Streets & Sanitation facility
- Building a new fuel station, to replace the lost one at the current site, at the city’s existing Street & Sanitation office in front of the Household & Hazardous Waste collection center at 1150 N North Branch on Goose Island; the existing office building would be demolished
The winning developer will design, build, and finance the project. The city wants to have the new, main heavy duty shop completed by October 2018. The Chicago Infrastructure Trust’s RFP documents state that the maximum price should not exceed $37 million, which includes a $500,000 estimated cost for relocating equipment to the new sites.
The city will use proceeds from selling the land at Throop, but the CIT RFP says that the funds won’t be available in time to pay for this project. Thus the design, build, and finance arrangement. Cushman & Wakefield is the broker for the 18 acre site in the North Branch Industrial Corridor.
The city is also selling land on the east side of Wentworth Avenue in Englewood across from the future heavy duty facility, as outlined in the above aerial photo.
Proposals are due July 5, and there is a pre-proposal conference on June 15. CIT is requiring higher-than-usual participation rates for minority and women-owned businesses, at 28 and eight percent, respectively. Fifty percent of the workers must be city residents, and 15 percent of them must be from the “project area”.
Additionally, the winning the developer must hold two job fairs for outreach to residents in Chatham, Englewood, Auburn Gresham, Washington Heights, Greater Grand Crossing, Park Manor, Avalon Park and Woodlawn.