Reposted from Crain’s Chicago Business

Imani Village Lays Down a Model for Transforming Far South Side

by Judith Crown, October 14, 2025

Rendering of final view of Imani Village

Over the summer, Chicago seniors began moving into a $36 million, 70-unit building with modern appliances and community spaces just steps from a new Metra station scheduled to open in 2027. It’s the first project at Imani Village at 95th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, a mixed-use development initiated by Trinity United Church of Christ.

Trinity says Imani, which means faith in Swahili, is envisioned as a beacon of hope in a neighborhood accustomed to poverty and disinvestment. It’s a “blueprint for transforming the face and future of Chicago’s Far South Side,” according to the Pritzker Traubert Foundation. The project is a finalist for the foundation’s 2025 Chicago Prize , which supports real estate development on the city’s South and West sides.

“We’re building a model community, and we’re anchoring the 95th Street Corridor Plan,” says Patricia Eggleston, executive director of Imani Village. The project is inspired by principles of economic development, health equity, environmental justice and reversing the negative impact of mass incarceration, she says.

The Chicago Prize comes with a $10 million grant over three years, which could provide leverage for the additional funding needed for ambitious plans that include a second building for seniors, a hotel, an athletic and wellness center, and a food hub. A social enterprise, Imani Village has plans to convert a former steel distribution facility into a manufacturer of single-family modular homes.

Earlier this year Advocate Health Care announced plans to add an immediate care center to its outpatient clinic at Imani, a $10 million investment. The expansion will add 4,600 square feet to the clinic, which opened in late 2018, and include equipment to support triage and treatment, cardiac and vascular diagnostics, imaging services and virtually assisted care. It is scheduled to open by the end of the year.

Trinity started acquiring land at the site in 2009, spending $7.65 million over five years to purchase 27 acres, with another 8 acres pending, Eggleston says. A $6.7 million loan from the Cornerstone Fund of the United Church of Christ was used to build the Advocate clinic.

A charter school on the site was converted to community and office space for Trinity’s nonprofit arm, The Endeleo Institute. The senior apartments, built with co-developer SPM Properties, required a capital stack that included tax credits and participation by the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. A second group of 62 apartments also is planned.

An ambitious part of the plan is conversion of the former Carpenter Technology steel distribution facility to build modular homes, called Imani Works, in partnership with Chicago-based builder Inherent L3C, which has been constructing affordable single-family homes on the West Side since 2022. Inherent will manufacture the first batch of homes at its West Side facility, then “gradually train us and our partners,” Eggleston says.

Imani’s vision and its standing as a finalist for the Chicago Prize open a major opportunity, says Juan Sebastian Arias, executive director of the nonprofit Elevated Chicago, one of the partner agencies on the plan to revive the 95th Street Corridor. “With all the infrastructure investment in the works, Imani will continue as a major hub of activity and it can be a generator of equitable community wealth building,” he says.