When the chance to participate in the THRIVE EXCHANGE Partnership came along, Lee Reid, CEO of Revere Properties, didn’t hesitate. “I didn’t just think of the dollars it represented, although $47 million would provide the opportunity to be creative and innovative,” he said. He was also excited about its transformative impact on South Shore and the opportunity to work with one of the hottest developers in urban America, Leon I. Walker, CEO of DL3 Realty.
Revere Properties wears many hats in this project. “We actually have three critical roles: architecture, construction, and development. Further, the building of these twenty-four new condominiums will likely spur the increased development of single-family homes in the area,” Reid explained. In addition, Revere will be a joint venture general contractor for the overall project.
“Our goal is to make the condominiums affordable home purchases, and we have partnered with the Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Chicago to find subsidies for our potential home buyers,” Reid says. He explained that they will be marketed as market-rate units, but they hope to be able to provide subsidies to make them more affordable to families who require some additional assistance. Partnering with NHS is key. NHS is a nonprofit organization that helps working families find affordable housing through either renovation of existing homes or, in this case, by buying down of some of the costs of new housing. Reid speaks from experience, having worked with NHS before. “In the Greater Grand Crossing Area, we built 61 homes,” Reid says, “and NHS was able to provide subsidies and first-time homeowner training for our new buyers.”
The Thrive Exchange project is by no means Revere Properties’ first time being involved in community development, architecture and construction projects in underserved communities in the South and West Sides of Chicago. “We believe rebuilding underserved communities that have not received the attention of larger developers is our mission,” he says, “So we look for these types of projects where we can make an impact on communities that are in desperate need of an impact, and make it for people that already live there, and for the people that look like the people that live there so we are not inviting gentrification in some of these areas.”
Preventing gentrification is of paramount concern to Reid. “What we can do with NHS,” he explains, “is target the housing for people in certain income ranges. The beauty of working with NHS is they have an ongoing, year-round, year-after-year program for first-time home buyers, so they have a waiting list.” Reid went on to explain how in the Comer Housing program, they tapped into people on that waiting list and got commitments to purchase before the houses went on the formal market. They were able to sell their houses before they were actually completed, and that’s what they hope to do with the Thrive Exchange program. Their plan is to work with NHS to target home buyers in the South Shore community before gentrification is able to gain a foothold in the area.
Reid said in the partnership with DL3, he wanted to make sure that Revere Properties was part of the construction team, “Because that’s where we can engage people from the community and get some job opportunities for them,” he explained. “If we turn this over to larger firms that already have all of their crew, whether they’re Black or white, we have a hard time getting people from the community some job opportunities. But if we come in as an entity that is more of a construction manager, we’re able to help move some of those opportunities out to the people that live in those communities.”
Reid also explained that he tries to give priority to MBE and WBE firms. “We are an MBE and WBE firm ourselves,” he says, “We are MBE electrical contractors and that’s one of the trades that we self-perform, and we try our best to do projects, not only for the end-users that look like us, but for the people doing the construction work that look like us as well,” he explained. As an example, when they did the $7 million project for Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th and Wentworth, as the general contractor on that job, Revere was able to achieve 98 percent MBE/WBE participation. “We try to do it organically,” he says, “By having relationships with some of the MBE/WBE firms before we have projects, so we know who we want to invite. We know they’re capable of doing the work and in some cases we have them work with our firm, and we work with their firm to assist them with things like moving their paperwork along to help them elevate their administrative game so that they can keep up. Most of them can do the work, but we try to make sure they’re successful, because when they’re successful, we’re successful.”
Reid has conducted training in his office on 75th and Woodlawn. “We did a project for one foundation, and we did construction training at night. We had people from the community, we brought them in with carpenters, electricians and plumbers and we taught those trades to them.” They have also received stipends from nonprofits that enable them to teach those people. “And we were able to slide them in to the subcontractors that we were using on the work,” he said, “we’re always looking for opportunities to engage young people who might not have specific skills but are willing to work. We like to try to find opportunities to make that happen.”
As developer of the condos, Revere Properties would be involved until a condo association is formed and there are enough buyers and homeowners to form their own association.
Four six-unit condo buildings would be constructed in the vacant property across the street from the historic Ringer Building.
Reid also points out that there would be accessible condos. The ground-floor condominium will be at zero elevation, meaning all of the doors and everything are handicapped or wheelchair accessible and there are no steps to get in and out of the first-floor level. There will be eight of those accessible units which Reid feels would be ideal for seniors. They are two-bedroom condos, “so if some seniors in the area are currently living on the third or fourth floor of a walk-up building, it would be a great condo for them to purchase. The condos will have their own parking, so you can park off the street,” he said.
Revere Properties is one-hundred percent African American. “I’ve got another architect and two project construction managers in the firm and my electrical staff, we’re all African Americans, and we’re proud of that,” he adds.
Reid studied architecture at UIC and received his architectural license in 1983, after which he studied for an additional year and a half in France. He worked for large developers and Fortune 500 companies until he started his own firm in 2004.
THRIVE EXCHANGE PARTNERS – DL3, Revere Properties and the Chicago Family Health Center– represent the pinnacle of creative, transformational community-centered redevelopment and revitalization that will contribute greatly to the success of Lightfoot’s INVEST South/West initiative.
