With the Salvation Army building an all new Freedom Center in West Humboldt Park, the nonprofit charity and rehabilitation organization is now seeking a buyer for its century-old complex in the West Loop. The three acre property at 1515 W. Monroe spans nearly a full city block, stretching across Monroe Street from Ashland to Laflin and down Ashland from Monroe to Adams. According to a brochure from Colliers International, the listing includes "three buildings of varied heights with a total of approximately 211,827 square feet of improvements." The listing also suggests that the buildings will be demolished to make way for new residential and retail developments.
While the old Freedom Center buildings have some architectural character to them, renovating them for an adaptive reuse project seems highly unlikely. According to the Salvation Army, the primary reason for moving its Freedom Center campus was that the cost of repairing the West Loop buildings would more than building a new one. In the project overview for Salvation Army's new West Humboldt Park development, the organization states that the West Loop facility "has become far more expensive to maintain and repair than to replace, creating an economic necessity, as well as programmatic incentive, for a new building."
The Salvation Army anticipates an autumn completion on its new West Humboldt Park Freedom Center campus, while the West Loop property will likely host new apartments and retail in the near future.
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