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The novice developer behind an ambitious plan to spark revitalization in East Garfield Park has received a pledge of $100 million, the first funding she needs to move forward.

She expects to begin by buying up most of a vacant block early next month.

“We’re excited that we can bring hope back to this neighborhood,” said Siri Hibbler, CEO of the Garfield Park Chamber of Commerce, who first unveiled the Rebirth of Garfield Park plan in summer 2018. The plan includes 114 apartments, a tech incubator, a performing arts venue and retail spaces.

In December an investor agreed to commit $100 million to the project, Hibbler said—about half the total the plan will require—and opened an initial $16 million line of credit to get her started.

“This is a blessing,” she said. "This is getting us started.”

Hibbler shared with Crain’s documentation of the credit line, but with the investor and bank names blacked out. She declined to identify the investor other than to say it’s not Chicago-based.

She said she has a deal to buy a row of 13 vacant lots on the 2700 block of West Madison Street from a single owner. The $1.5 million purchase is scheduled to close in early March, she said, and “we’re going to break ground in summer.” She has begun the process of applying for the necessary city approval before construction can begin.

The project “is about 20 years overdue,” said Michael Rembert, the leasing manager at the MP Mall on Madison Street in West Garfield Park and a former resident of the neighborhood.

“Garfield Park has been so neglected," Rembert said. "It still looks like it did in 1970,” not long after the devastating riots that followed the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hibbler’s project, Rembert said, “can make a big difference,” not only in providing new housing and new retail spaces, but in “driving out the crime. Those people don’t want to stay around where there’s progress.”