Phase 2C of the Oakwood Shores development on south Cottage Grove Drive should break ground sometime early next year. If all goes as planned, the vacant lot at the 3700 block will become a six-story mixed-use building with two floors of commercial space.

“It will be mixed-income family housing, part of the Chicago Housing Authority’s plan for transforming Oakwood Shores,” said Lee Pratter, senior project manager for Community Builders, the project’s residential developer.

“It should be a typical urban community,” said Pratter, with units for singles, family units, and senior dwellings “We’re in the process of building a neighborhood, a new community,” said Joe Williams, chairman of Granite Development.

“We’re trying to do something transformative. This will be a mixed-income community. We have great schools, arts and recreation centers, great parks, churches, dental and medical centers, and retail. We’re also going to have a senior building.”

The commercial portion of Phase 2C will consist of 28,000 square feet on the development’s first two floors; the four stories above that will hold 48 mixed-income apartments consisting of public housing units, affordable units, and market rate units.

For the retail space, “We are looking at a number of different potential users,” Williams said. “Our brokerage firm is scouring the Midwest looking for companies with an interest in being in an urban area. We are considering a number of companies that provide medical services and want to give the entire market an opportunity to be a part of this great neighborhood. With the economy, we are looking at everything very closely. We hope to know something after the first of the year.”

The developers hope to break ground the second quarter of 2010, with occupancy “sometime in 2011,” Williams said. Fourth Ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle is pleased the development will provide more affordable housing for families and that developers are looking for medical provider tenants.

“When we began the revitalization with Oakwood Shores, we took down a medical facility,” she recalled. “This will restore access to medical care to an area that previously had it.”

“There’s much more to making a neighborhood than just the brick and mortar of building the building,” said Williams.

For more information, call Monica Hernandez, broker for Granite Asset Management, at (312) 873-0226.

—Dolly Duplantier