AURORA, Ill. — Evergreen Real Estate Group, a Chicago-based developer of market-rate multifamily properties, is nearing completion of its St. Charles Senior Living independent living development. The 60-unit, $24 million project is a redevelopment of St. Charles Hospital, a historic Art Deco building in the Chicago suburb of Aurora. The renovations began in February, and move-ins are scheduled to begin in December.
Designed by Wybe J. Van der Meer, the former hospital was completed in 1932, with additional renovations made to the interior of the structure in the decades that followed. Until the redevelopment, the building had stood vacant since 2010, the year it was named to the National Register of Historic Places.
Evergreen Real Estate Group collaborated with Invest Aurora, the Northern Lights Development Corp., the City of Aurora, the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, along with several private lenders and investors, to secure the financing and tax credits needed to fund the rehabilitation.
Approximately $3 million was obtained through the River Edge Redevelopment Zone program, created in 2006 to incentivize riverfront development in several Illinois cities. The balance of the project’s development cost was covered by a combination of federal historic tax credits, low-income housing tax credits allocated by IHDA and private financing.