Residents protest hotel proposal near Obama Center amid nearly $500 rent hikes

Philon Green was forced to move out of Woodlawn because of skyrocketing rent prices. He wanted to stay at Jackson Park Terrace — down the street from the under-construction Obama Presidential Center — but his landlord raised the rent from about $800 to $1,300.

Green said the property wasn’t in the best condition, but he enjoyed the area.

Being priced out of the neighborhood was a concern shared at a protest Tuesday morning by other Woodlawn and South Shore residents, who now fear rental prices will rise if a proposed luxury hotel gets city approval.

“When you got people’s rent going from $850 to $1,300. You’re telling people you don’t want them in the neighborhood,” said Dixon Romeo, an organizer with the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition.

The group organized the protest at the project’s vacant, grass-covered lot, not far from the Obama Presidential Center campus.

Aquinnah Investment Trust wants to build a 26-story hotel next door to Island Terrace, an affordable housing development at 6430 S. Stony Island Ave. The investment firm is headed by Allison Davis, a veteran real estate developer and lawyer who was Obama’s first boss out of Harvard Law School.

The hotel, proposed for 6402-6420 S. Stony Island Ave., would have up to 250 rooms, as well as retail and office space, 118 parking spaces and 12 bicycle spaces, according to documents filed with the city.

Aquinnah owns three parcels of land at the site, and the city owns the other two. The Department of Planning and Development said it plans to sell the plots to Aquinnah at fair market value, according to application documents for the project.

In March, the company submitted a rezoning application for the project, which is currently zoned for a shopping center. Earlier this month, the city’s Zoning Committee postponed its vote on the proposal.

Residents at Tuesday’s protest urged City Council members to vote no.

“When you can fast-track a luxury hotel — while everyone around that hotel lives in blight, knowing that that’ll raise the price to push them out — you’re intentionally trying to gentrify a neighborhood,” Romeo said.

Residents blame the Obama Center as the reason for rent increases and the displacement of residents. They said the massive project has attracted “predatory” developers, who have targeted the area in recent years.

Curbing development around that area has been a 10-year fight for activists in the coalition, which proposed a Community Benefits Agreement to protect neighborhood residents. The agreement includes a slate of policies including property tax relief, mortgage refinancing and rental assistance. It has received verbal support from Mayor Brandon Johnson and other residents but has not been approved by the City Council.

Courtney Chism has lived in her South Shore apartment for one year. The rent for her three-bedroom apartment started out high, she said, pointing to the Obama Center as the reason.

“You’re talking about developers who have bought these buildings and are now letting them deteriorate in hopes of selling them at a higher price because the value of the land is worth a lot more than it is to have the value of the tenants,” she said. “The tax credits and the opportunity zone that are all here due to the Obama Center all make it more enticing.”

Rhonda Thompson, 68, has lived at Island Terrace for more than 30 years. Her rent recently increased by $60 at the affordable housing development — the most it’s ever gone up.

“I like it. It has its perks, but I really like the location,” Thompson said. “But I’d have to leave if they raised it more. I’d probably have to go to a senior building.”

Christian Ephriam, an organizer with the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition, said the policies outlined in the community benefits agreement are crucial to helping long-term residents stay in the neighborhood.

“These people are the ones who make the neighborhood,” he said.