East Garfield Park
By Lisa R. Jenkins

After years of neglect and disinvestment, East Garfield Park is undergoing revitalization with rising   property values and new construction.

Neighborhood leaders of the Near West side community recently announced a comprehensive retail plan for Madison Street between the United Center and the Garfield Park Conservatory. In the past five years, the East Garfield Park neighborhood has experienced tremendous real estate growth. More than 1,500 units have been constructed or are under development, land values have doubled, and it is one of few Chicago neighborhoods which are experiencing significant population growth.

More than 65,000 residents live in the two-mile stretch of Madison Street (between Damen and Central Park Avenue) and over 25,000 cars travel along this stretch of road daily. In 2005, more than $589 million was spent in retail sales for the eighty nine businesses in the area. Yet the strip has 166 vacant parcels of land and more than one-fourth of its commercial space is unused.

“We wanted to prepare the neighborhood for future retail development and we focused on a plan that could revitalize Madison Street,” said Ernestine King, executive director of the Greater Garfield Park Chamber of Commerce. The East Garfield Park Quality and Opportunities Retail Plan is the brainchild of King and received financial support from the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance and the New Communities Program. Twenty-two percent of sales or more than $100 million leaves the neighborhood because of the lack of retail options that could easily be captured by new retailers. For example, more than seventy percent of overall hardware store spending in year 2005 left the neighborhood. Under the new plan, local hardware store spending is projected to grow by 2010.

Based on the Madison Trade Area population, traffic counts, increases in household incomes and attendance at the United Center and the Garfield Park Conservatory, the plan lays out research supporting the implementation of restaurants and family apparel businesses.

This rendering shows a planned Garden Plaza at Madison, California and 5th Avenue.