Excerpts from chicago.cbslocal.com:
The $95 million public safety training campus ?in West Garfield Park that will replace Chicago’s police and fire training academies will be bankrolled in part by proceeds from the sale of the valuable fleet facility site near the Chicago River on the North Side.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is fleshing out financing for the long-awaited West Side project after entering into a letter of intent to buy the 30.4-acre site at 4301 W. Chicago Ave.
A developer agreed earlier this year to pay the city $104.7 million — $133.53 per square foot — for the lucrative site near the Chicago River, where city vehicles now are maintained. The deal also requires Sterling Bay to build a new city maintenance facility in Englewood.
Now, city officials say the mayor is planning to use at least $20 million from the North Side sale to buy land for the new public safety training campus and get work started.
The remaining $75 million to build it is to come from the sale of other surplus property including the police and fire academies the new campus will replace.
Emanuel’s 2017 budget already assumes the use of proceeds from the sale of the West Town fleet site to finance a previously shelved, $31 million overhaul of Chicago’s 311 non-emergency system.
City Hall also released the first architectural renderings of the new training facility, which is expected to provide an economic boost to impoverished West Garfield Park. The campus is meant to improve training, which the Justice Department found lacking in its examination of the Chicago Police Department.
thanks Dennis and Dan
#1 by William D Crawford on August 3, 2017 - 3:40 PM
Just wondering what will happen to our old Fire Academy? Pretty historic ground that it sits on.