WOODLAWN — Two South Side hotel developments got the green light from City Council Thursday.

A developer with ties to former President Barack Obama gained the council’s approval to build a 26-story hotel down the street from the future Obama Presidential Center in Woodlawn.

Alderpeople also passed plans for a 51-unit apartment building and 125-room hotel complex on the same block as the XS Tennis facility in Washington Park.

Hotel Near Obama Center

Aquinnah Investment Trust plans to build a 250-room hotel at 6402 S. Stony Island Ave. in Woodlawn. The project includes shops and offices, 118 car parking spaces and 12 bicycle parking spaces.

The 303-foot-tall building will feature a fifth-floor swimming pool, green roofs and outdoor terraces on the fifth, 13th and 20th floors.

The developer owns three parcels at the development site, while the other two are city-owned. The city intends to sell its properties to the developer “at fair market value,” Planning Commissioner Ciere Boatright wrote to Plan Commission officials in January.

Allison Davis is listed in application documents as Aquinnah Investment Trust’s “sole beneficiary.” Davis co-founded the law firm where Barack Obama was hired as a junior lawyer in 1993 and worked until his 1996 election to the Illinois Senate.

The hotel adds to the development activity near Jackson Park, where the 19-acre Obama Presidential Center has been under construction since 2021. An ordinance to secure housing protections for the area also passed Thursday.

A rendering of Aquinnah Investment Trust’s 250-room hotel planned for 6402 S. Stony Island Ave. in Woodlawn. Credit: Stantec/Department of Planning and Development

XS Tennis Hotel, Apartments

The XS Tennis and Education Foundation plans to build a six-story hotel and five-story apartment building at 5301 S. State St. The site is owned by Center Court Development, which is led by Kamau Murray, XS Tennis’ founder and president.

The six-story hotel will include a 2,000-square-foot commercial space and 48 parking spaces, according to project renderings.

All but one of the residential building’s 51 apartments will be rented “at an affordable rate,” zoning attorney Nicholas Ftikas said Tuesday. The apartment building will include indoor pickleball courts, a café and 24 off-street parking spaces.

Murray opened the $9.8 million XS Tennis facility in 2018. The tennis center was built on land that was once part of the high-rise Robert Taylor Homes public housing project, which stretched for 2 miles along State Street. The Taylor Homes were razed in 2007.

The council on Thursday also approved changes to a redevelopment agreement with Center Court regarding the developer’s plans for 35 duplexes and townhomes on the 5400 blocks of Federal and Dearborn streets.

City Council authorized the sale of six parcels on those blocks — which are also former Robert Taylor Homes properties — to Center Court in 2023.

The ordinance passed this week allows Center Court to build the housing in five phases over the next four years, city planner Justin Petersen said during Wednesday’s housing committee meeting.

Department of Planning and Development officials also determined requirements around contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses do not apply to the project, Petersen said.

The private developer’s $14 million housing plan has drawn criticism from activists, who say the former Robert Taylor Homes land should instead be used for public housing.

The Chicago Housing Authority has lagged on its promises to replace the public housing it demolished decades ago, while selling and leasing vacant land to private developers.

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