Eternally Empty Storefronts & Vacant Luxury Homes
- isobelaraujo
- Jun 20, 2018
- 3 min read
"The growth of the big modern cities gives the land in certain areas, particularly in those which are centrally situated, an artificial and often colossally increasing value; the buildings erected on these areas depress this value, instead of increasing it, because they no longer correspond to the changed circumstances. They are pulled down and replaced by others....The result is that the workers are forced out of the centre of the towns towards the outskirts; that workers’ dwellings, and small dwellings in general, become rare and expensive and often altogether unobtainable, for under these circumstances the building industry, which is offered a much better field for speculation by more expensive houses, builds workers’ dwellings only by way of exception."
-Frederick Engels, The Housing Question
Coming home to Logan Square can be like coming home to a house where each time you leave and then return, someone has gotten rid of half of your furniture and replaced replaced your siblings. In addition to the widespread displacement of Latinx residents, the longstanding cultural and community institutions of the neighborhood are disappearing, to be replaced with either larger corporations, or a variety of quirky independent popups or businesses on short-term leases. The Megamall on Milwaukee that used to house dozens of independent Latinx-owned businesses is demolished, to be replaced with a mixed-use apartment complex, Jewel-Osco, and XSport fitness. One of the churches near my house is being turned into a circus-training center. One of the only free mental health clinics in the city on Milwaukee Avenue is now East Room, quite possibly hottest nightclub in the city and epicenter of hipster nightlife in Chicago.
Aside from the concerning community impacts of these development trends, there seems to be a lack of long-term vision and stability planned for the neighborhood. The evidence for which can be seen even along Milwaukee Avenue, Logan Square's growing retail corridor. Despite the waves of new specialty shops, boutiques, and cool cafes, there is a surprisingly high number of vacant storefronts. The rent is just too damn high for businesses to stay in Logan Square for very long, leading to high vacancy rates and what the artist behind this poster refers to as the "Eternally Empty Storefront". So far, the only short-term solution has been to lease to a rotating schedule of popups, oxymoronically known as the "permanent popup".
A perfect example a quirky and ultimately unsuccessful business so prevalent in gentrifying neighborhoods.
This rise of vacant storefronts in Logan Square (as well as extreme vacant storefront trends in Wicker Park) seems to be just one aspect of the paradoxical nature of gentrifying neighborhoods. More outside investment leads to more vacant storefronts. A "retail desert" emerges in the midst of a rapidly gentrifying corridor. Landlords keep properties vacant by continuing to raise rent, waiting to lease to a high-end "vanity" store that functions more as a brand advertisement than a business. Tax breaks for "unexpectedly vacant" properties for landlords in Chicago might also be de-incentivizing landlords from finding permanent, long-term renters. The corporatization of neighborhoods continues, and Logan Square enters late-stage gentrification.
The issue at the center is similar to the phenomenon of vacant luxury housing in the midst of affordable housing crises taking place in cities across the country. According an article published in Chicago Magazine in 2017, the over 6,000 new luxury apartments were built in the city, many of them offering free rent for the first couple months in an effort to address predictions that 5,000 of these units will remain vacant through the first quarter of 2018. CEO and founder of the real estate agency Luxury Living Aaron Gavin predicted that the development of upscale luxury housing will continue moving north along Milwaukee Ave. through Wicker Park and Logan Square.
As developers and landlords anticipate the arrival of wealthy renters and clientele, housing units and storefronts sit vacant. The message is clear- when given the choice between renting to no one or lowering rent to make room for local small business or affordable housing, landlords choose the former.
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