Sign below to demand FLATS/Cedar St sign an #UptownCBA.
#DefendUptown #StopFlatsCedarSt
FLATS/Cedar Street is a luxury real estate developer with more than 2500 units. They have driven gentrification in Uptown and throughout the Northside over the last decade, causing mass displacement of community members & vital local institutions. Their recent purchases of two major northside social service hubs go too far. We are in danger of losing Uptown 
as we know it.
- In 2019 FLATS/Cedar St. bought the historic Bridgeview Bank Building, with plans to convert it into luxury units or a hotel. They are displacing all of the non-profits and service agencies housed there, who for years have served immigrant, refugee and low-income communities in Uptown and all over the Northside.
- In 2018 they converted the Uptown Department of Human Services building into The Draper, a 700-unit luxury development where a 2-bedroom rents for $3000/mo. At the time of it's closing, tens of thousands of poor and working class people received services there.
- Since 2011 they've purchased thousands of units, often flipping previously affordable homes into luxury apartments. These include nearly 700 Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units in the Lawrence House, The Norman, The North Hotel, & The Windale. Hundreds of poor, working class, and senior tenants were displaced in the process. A typical rent increase is reflected in the Lawrence House, where apartments that used to rent for $500/month are now $1750/month.
Sign below to demand FLATS/Cedar St sign an #UptownCBA.
Alderman Cappleman is complicit in FLATS/Cedar St’s program of mass displacement. He has actively intervened in Housing Court on their behalf to displace low-income tenants, and used Aldermanic Prerogative to give them lucrative Zoning Changes. Cedar St has only been too thrilled to support him through campaign donations, hosting events, and providing campaign infrastructure. Cappleman’s 2019 campaign office was housed in a Cedar St building, with no record of him paying rent.
In FLATS/Cedar St’s own words, they see themselves as the "Brooklynizers”, not gentrifiers of Uptown. This cheap marketing ploy actually exposes the truth - that their business model is the theft of the Uptown to turn it into something else, with devastating consequences for residents.
Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) establish a contract between directly impacted communities and private developers to ensure impacted communities are not the victims to - but the beneficiaries of - development projects. A CBA negotiated with impacted community members would create a more resilient, stable Uptown by ensuring more affordable housing, quality jobs for residents, and a halt to FLATS/Cedar Street’s unchecked displacement. Here's a start.
We, the following individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and faith based organizations request FLATS/Cedar Street to sign a Community Benefits Agreement, created by impacted community members, to stop the devastation and repair the harm to Uptown.
