A long-delayed retail and residential project near Six Corners in the Portage Park neighborhood is experiencing another round of delays as its developer and Ald. James Gardiner, 45th, feud over how to employ union labor.
GW Properties principal and co-founder Mitch Goltz said Gardiner asked the City Council’s Committee on Zoning to postpone approval of the $110 million development, which would replace the vacant former Peoples Gas site at 3955 N. Kilpatrick Ave., because he refuses to sign a project labor agreement with construction unions. It’s the fourth deferral since the Chicago Plan Commission approved the development at a contentious March meeting. The plan still needs City Council approval.
“It’s disappointing to see this project held up at this juncture, after five long years of planning,” Goltz said.
Ald. Gardiner did not return a call seeking comment.
Amie Zander, managing director of the Six Corners Association, a neighborhood group, said she’s worried the dispute will lead GW Properties to walk away, leaving behind an empty lot.
“It’s ready, it passed the Plan Commission, and I don’t think a lot of residents realize it may not happen now,” she said.
The neighborhood has been plagued for years by huge vacant lots and empty storefronts. But Clarendale Six Corners, a $130 million, 10-story senior housing building by Ryan Cos. replaced a hole in the ground at the three-way intersection just west of Peoples Gas, and Novak Construction Co. redeveloped an abandoned Sears department store into the 206-unit 6 Corners Lofts, including a ground-floor Target outlet. Zander said it’s brought the neighborhood back to life and called the Peoples Gas site the “final piece of the puzzle.”
The developer wants to replace the vacant parcel with a 346-unit apartment building, several retail buildings lining the street and a series of duplex homes. Ald. Gardiner told commission members in March that the plan “would be a shot in the arm for our community and local businesses.” But he also pressed Goltz to use union labor and sign a project labor agreement with the unions, a collective bargaining agreement that would cover all terms and conditions of employment for any contractors hired.
“By signing a PLA, it benefits my sisters and brothers in labor, our community and you the developer,” Gardiner said. “It benefits you by ensuring there are no hiccups or disputes between tradespeople that can halt or delay the construction of this project.”
Representatives from several building trades unions, including Laborers Local One and Bricklayers, District Council 1-Illinois, also spoke at the March meeting, and said on previous projects that GW Properties used subcontractors who violated standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Goltz denied that charge and assured the commission he would use union labor.
But he has resisted taking the additional step of signing a project labor agreement, claiming it would handcuff the company as it assembles a construction team.
“At this point, the project is at a standstill,” he said this week.
Sean Allen, business agent for the bricklayers, said he could not comment on the dispute.
Project labor agreements are common. The Chicago & Cook County Building & Construction Trades Council lists on its website several hundred completed or ongoing developments that used such agreements, including a 2019 deal signed by Ryan Cos. for Clarendale Six Corners.
GW Properties’ Portage Park plan has been in the works for years. It previously proposed 102 apartments, a 40,000-square-foot Amazon grocery store and a huge parking lot for the Peoples Gas site, but neighbors demanded walkable retail and more residences during an October 2021 community meeting.
And getting the revised plan greenlit by the Chicago Plan Commission also wasn’t easy. Commission members and activists pressured Goltz during the March meeting on several issues besides labor, including demands to include more affordable housing there. Goltz won commission members’ approval partly by agreeing to boost the project’s affordable housing component to 20% and keep all these units on-site.
“Everyone was jumping for joy,” Zander said. “But what happens if we lose it? It took years to get here.”
Goltz said the firm has invested millions into the project and doesn’t know how long this latest dispute can continue.
“The general saying in business is, time kills deals,” he said.
