Plans for a three-story community center in Washington Park that will “celebrate the vibrancy of the neighborhood” moved forward this week after a zoning hurdle was cleared by the Chicago Plan Commission.
The $38.1 million center, a project of Sunshine Gospel Ministries and Sunshine Community Development Corporation, received unanimous commission approval Thursday to rezone the vacant lot at 6000 S. King Dr. from a residential district to a commercial district.
The planned 7,250-square-foot facility, which took several years to build, will house arts, media and professional training, and will feature ground-floor lounges – including a heating and cooling center -, office space for rent and pop-up shops. It will also include basketball courts, outdoor fitness areas, a roller skating rink, a recording studio and a cafe.
Kimberly Salley, executive director of Sunshine Gospel Ministries, said the nonprofit’s project has been in the works since at least 2021.
“We’re trying to bring back things that have been lost in our community, especially for our young people,” Salley said.
The lack of community centers was especially felt during the early years of the Covid-19 pandemic, she continued, as more students graduated from high school and didn’t know what to do with their lives. Salley noted that her organization partners with One Summer Chicago, a city program that helps young people find summer jobs, and said Sunshine leaders wanted to provide similar opportunities year-round.
“We currently do some (job training), but this community center will provide us with the opportunity to really have space to do (more),” Salley said. “Having resource rooms for media, technology and entrepreneurship training … that’s great.”
But with programs aimed at both youth and older adults, the center is for everyone, she added. Salley said Sunshine expects the center to serve 2,000 people on a consistent basis and welcome another 5,000 visitors each year.
The center is a collaboration with Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI), a nonprofit developer committed to neighborhood revitalization and job creation through high-impact development projects and financial support for entrepreneurs. Since its founding in 2010, CNI has invested $500 million in Chicago neighborhoods and awarded grants to more than 1,600 small businesses since its inception.
The project has support so far from Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th), in whose district the center will be located, as well as the Preservation of Affordable Housing, a developer with several properties in the neighborhood, the South East Chicago Commission and the Woodlawn Chamber of Commerce.
Construction of the center will be funded through a combination of loans, tax credits, bonds, grants, charitable donations and the sale of the current Sunshine campus, which is just a few blocks east in Woodlawn, according to Salley. Sunshine Ministries will move its offices to the new center.
About $13.5 million of the project is being funded by the state, thanks to a special allocation in the 2021 state budget by then-Assemblyman Lamont Robinson, now a 4th District City Councilman.
Sunshine plans to contract out construction of the center to minority-owned Ujamaa Construction. The project is expected to create 150 construction jobs and 130 permanent jobs upon completion. A groundbreaking date will be set once funds for the project are raised.
With the support of the Planning Commission, the rezoning will now be presented to the Chicago City Council for final approval.
“This is a dream that’s been deferred for our community,” Salley said. “We can be our bridge over murky waters, we need access and opportunity.”
