New Cabrini-Green Apartment Tower To Be Called 'Xavier' (Photos)

By Jim Bochnowski in News on Aug 5, 2015 4:45PM

As the saga of Cabrini-Green's redevelopment continues, a Portland-based developer has officially christened a new apartment building "Xavier."

Developers have been attempting to rebrand the former home of the massive Cabrini-Green housing projects for years, with names such as "NoCa" or "North of Chicago Avenue"—which obviously have not been adopted into the common Chicago vernacular. But the developers of the Xavier have somewhat more-eagerly embraced the history of the area.

According to their press release:

"With Xavier we had an opportunity to be part of the continued story of this neighborhood. We are particularly conscious of this neighborhood’s rich and long standing history, and feel the project will have positive long-term impacts on the area."

And while the project's website describes the building as being in the "emerging SoNo/Clybourn Corridor neighborhood in Chicago’s Near North Side," the name of the project tells a different story. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini died in Chicago in 1917 after dedicating her life to creating houses, schools, hospitals and orphanages for the poor immigrant communities around the world. She was also one of the namesakes of the Cabrini-Green housing project.

The 18-story building will house 240 residential units and is "focused on sustainability, urban living and proximity to all of the lifestyle amenities in the area." The developers hope to have the building open by this fall. The building will have 10 percent of its units available for Section 8 tenants and another ten percent for "affordable units," according to Curbed.

The former site has of course seen a great deal of turnover over the last five years, with the last tenant of the infamous low-income public housing project leaving in December of 2010 and the final building demolished in March of 2011. Since then, the "nationwide symbol for the failure of public housing" has become the home of a Target and a 110-year-old church St. Dominic Church was torn down to become the new home of luxury apartment buildings.