A redevelopment plan for Chicago’s former Harold Ickes Homes advanced Tuesday, with the Chicago Housing Authority’s Board approving $3.6 million in predevelopment loans for the project. 

The loans are for the project’s master planning and the first phase of predevelopment activities, according to the CHA. The Community Builders (TCB) and McCaffery Interests are working in partnership as the project’s master developer. 

The Ickes public housing buildings on the near South Side had more than 1,000 units before they were torn down between 2009 to 2010. 

CHA says the site will be redeveloped into a “mixed-income, mixed-use development with housing, retail and commercial uses with a total of 319 housing units – a mix of 94 CHA units, 58 affordable units and 167 market rate units.”

Construction on Phase 1 of the project is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2017. The project’s completion is planned for 2019. 

“This is the first step in the future of a redeveloped and reimagined Harold Ickes Homes, and after months of meetings with residents, the Ickes Working Group, the alderman and development team, we are pleased to see this project take shape,” CHA CEO Eugene Jones Jr. said in a statement. “This kind of public-private partnership will help revitalize the Ickes Homes and bring a new vitality to the area, and most importantly, help reconnect and reintegrate the community into the fabric of the greater South Loop neighborhood.”