• 
  Visit Website

The Project
Oak Park Commons will be the first cohousing development in Illinois. Current plans include a mix of 1,2 &3 bedroom ADA accessible dwellings in a five story 24 unit condominium. A large common room with adjoining child care, exercise and meeting rooms opens onto a roof top garden. An interior elevator allows for easy access to all floors. Al Tierra, our builder, is committed to affordable sustainable construction.

Neighborhood
The building is located at the corner of Carpenter and Madison Streets in Oak Park. A pedestrian friendly half mile radius includes a middle school, bus stop, grocery co-op, drug store, bank, CTA train station, Unity Temple, Rush Hospital, Fox Park, Mills Park, and many restaurants. Madison has reduced vehicle traffic and bike lanes. The Village commercial center is a mile away with the Lake Theatre, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Formula Fitness Center, Public Library, Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, and some specialty retail and service shops. Oak Park includes excellent K-12 schools. Lincoln public elementary school offers an optional Spanish bilingual program, Gwendolyn Brooks middle school’s wonderful performing arts opportunities and OPRF high school’s great college and career prep. The school districts actively embrace social diversity and equity goals, as do municipal elected officials and civic leaders.

Joining
Newcomers first become associate members after meeting other members on-line or in person, attending an orientation zoom meeting and paying a $100 fee. New members are invited to participate in one of our teams: design & development, membership and marketing or bylaws and handbook.

Investing
We have attracted $1.1 million in equity captial for a $10 million construction project. We offer socially motivated investors a rate of return between two and eight percent for a two year loan. Equity investors may join our community, but need not. As of January 2023 we had 14 investors eight of whom agreed to purchase nine units.

Purchasing
Associate members may reserve a unit in one of two ways:

1. Invest 10 percent of unit price as an equity loan to help finance construction and later purchase their unit at cost. This opportunity exists until we obtain a construction loan and start building. The equity contribution cannot be used for downpayment if financing purchase. These prices are lower than the ones printed in this ad.

2. Pay a $5,000 refundable fee to reserve a specific unit until signing a contract to purchase the unit. At contract signing pay a nonrefundable earnest contribution of five percent of the unit price. The reservation fee can be included in this contribution.

Each resident meets with the interior designer to select finishings and other physical modifications before the builder adjusts the final price for each unit. The current development costs based on standard high quality finishings, but households may have specific preferences that exceed these. The prices in this ad do not include additional charges for these upgrades.

Timeline
We have submitted final drawings to the Village of Oak Park and hope to receive all regulatory approvals by mid March 2023. We have a lender ready to negotiate our construction loan for an April groundbreaking. We hope to complete construction in later Summer 2024.

More Details

Contact Information

Charles J Hoch