A Lot To Overcome: Solving Logistical And Other Challenges To Build Affordable Housing In Chicago

When The Community Builders, one of the country’s largest nonprofit developers of mixed-income housing, set out to transform a parking lot in Chicago’s Lincoln Square into an affordable, transit-oriented apartment community, its leaders knew it would present a construction challenge.   

The 0.42-acre site is between busy Western and Leland avenues, and to maximize the number of units, the new building is designed to abut the lot line on the north and an alleyway to the east.

The developer tapped Leopardo Construction, a Chicago-based general contractor with extensive construction experience, including in the complexities of building affordable housing, to lead the construction of the project.

“It’s a very tight site,” said Mike Mastin, senior vice president of residential construction at Leopardo. “Construction would impact many surrounding neighbors and stakeholders.”

To overcome this challenge, Leopardo’s team took a multi-pronged approach, Mastin said. Early in the process, the company’s project managers opened lines of communication with the Chicago Department of Transportation, Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce and the local alderperson. 

“We successfully coordinated logistics through these entities and made a plan on how we were going to approach constructing the building,” Mastin said. 

Those plans included re-routing traffic on Western Avenue during construction and ensuring that the community was fully looped in on when and where Leopardo would make use of cranes. 

In addition, other challenges arose in the construction of 4715 North Western Avenue, an 86.5K SF, 63-unit affordable housing community with parking and retail.

The building’s design — a six-story structure with retail on the first floor, public parking on the second, and four stories of residential units — called for a concrete podium with structural metal framing above.

“That type of construction isn’t new, but it is a challenge when installing the floor since joists have to align vertically with the 12-inch spaced load-bearing walls, and ducts, risers and shafts need to all fit within the available joist space,” said Michael Lumell, a project executive at Leopardo Construction.

Prior to groundbreaking, Leopardo’s in-house virtual design team made sure all those elements would fit by creating a 3D model of the building.

“The model helped us work through potential conflicts that could have impacted the timing of construction and caused delays,” Lumell said. “Before building anything physically, we built every piece of the building virtually.”

Leopardo’s 3D modeling capabilities were useful in other ways. The building itself is prefabricated, meaning that wall panels were built off-site and delivered to be installed on-site. Joists and walls had to fit perfectly. If not, they would have had to be reworked on-site, costing valuable time.

“In the preconstruction phase, we worked with the developer and the design team to coordinate the structure and MEP systems to avoid conflicts,” Lumell said. “This enabled us to make corrections months before we were scheduled to set the panels in place.”

Leopardo is currently completing interior finishes, and the building is scheduled for completion in December 2024, on time and on budget.

Mastin said the project’s smooth progress is a testament to Leopardo’s long track record of working as a general contractor on multifamily residential buildings in Chicago and affordable housing projects in particular.

Most notable among these are the Independence Branch Library & Apartments; the Encuentro Square housing development, which consists of a four-story, 32-unit building and a six-story, 57-unit building located at the old Magid Glove factory site at 3745 W. Cortland Street in Chicago; and the award-winning Sheffield of Lincoln Park Apartments, a 365K SF redevelopment of two existing 11-story senior housing towers, joined together by a new 120K SF, six-story residential building.

‘Cost Certainty’

Developing affordable housing can be different from building market-rate residential, Mastin said. For instance, he explained, the process of applying for tax credits to make the project possible can take up to several years.

“Ever since the pandemic, material costs and lead times have been very dynamic,” Mastin added. “Having a strong estimating and preconstruction team like Leopardo’s is a benefit to affordable housing developers because we can use our expertise to help manage the process and mitigate risks.” 

Typically, developers engage with Leopardo in the early stages when they are initially submitting for tax credits and have a basic concept of what a building will look like, including floor plans and number of units.

“Based on our experience, we work with our clients to develop an initial budget that captures the overall design intent,” he said. “We hold that budget as the developer goes through their tax credit application process, and then after the tax credits are awarded and our client fully engages the design team, we work as a team throughout the preconstruction phase. It is not unusual for construction to start a year or more after the initial budget was created, but Leopardo’s experience in this market allows us to hold the initial budget all the way through construction completion and provide cost certainty to our clients.”

Leopardo’s preconstruction and estimating teams work hand-in-hand with developers to manage procurement costs, while the company's project management experts know how to navigate through agency requirements.

“On an affordable housing job, the capital stack is much more complicated than on a market-rate job,” Mastin added.

Navigating Affordable Housing’s Complexities

“While affordable housing shares similarities with market-rate multifamily housing development and construction, mastering the niche requires having a firm handle on extra layers of complexity,” Mastin said.

There’s a learning curve on affordable, he said. Developers and general contractors must follow the policies and procedures of multiple government agencies depending on the funding sources, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the Chicago Housing Authority and others. On this project, the Chicago Department of Housing, or DOH, was actively involved.

Affordable housing projects also come with sustainability mandates, which Leopardo is qualified to meet, said LEED Fellow Patty Lloyd, its in-house director of sustainability who has nearly two decades of experience in the field.

“To gain energy efficiency incentives, affordable projects like 4715 require more stringent air leakage threshold documentation,” Lloyd said. “In addition, this project was subject to a construction waste diversion threshold set by the city of Chicago and Leopardo’s own internal ESG job site program, which includes LED temporary lighting, occupancy sensors and timers on those lights, limits on idling and the use of low-embodied carbon concrete.”

Mastin added that the sustainable elements of affordable projects are important but can also add cost to the project. 

MBEs and WBEs

Thanks to its deep roots and extensive experience serving as a general contractor in the Chicago market, Leopardo has relationships with minority- and women-owned general contractors and subcontractors.

With deeply rooted family values and a strong internal culture celebrating diversity, equity, and inclusion, Leopardo revels in the opportunity to work alongside, build up, and learn from minority business enterprises and women business enterprises.

“Working together with Leopardo, the minority GC partner can build their resume by working on bigger, more complicated projects than they would be able to on their own,” Mastin said. “Working with a minority GC gives Leopardo the opportunity to work alongside good partners and learn from them as well.”

Given the extent of the U.S. housing shortage, affordable housing construction expertise like Leopardo’s is likely to be in demand for decades to come.

“We look forward to being an active member in the affordable housing community, partnering with our clients to help provide much-needed housing in communities across Chicago,” Mastin said.

This article was produced in collaboration between Leopardo and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.