From brownfield to green?

Clout City talks about the vacant property that once housed factories on the south lakefront from 79th to the Calumet River. Read on there are even pictures of the site itself!

Over the last couple years U.S. Steel and several partners have put together a plan to turn the tract into what amounts to a new neighborhood, with 17,000 housing units, a million square feet of retail, a marina, and some "sustainable" features like LEED construction and perhaps even offshore windmills. Despite some recent snags related to the crummy economy, developer McCaffery Interests says the plans are slowly getting under way.

Right now, though, the property is a mostly empty expanse of slag that's going to need taxpayer help to turn habitable. McCaffery is currently working with city officials on plans to rezone the area for residential and retail use and to create a tax increment financing district that would cover the costs of infrastructure such as roads and sewer and water lines.