By Ben Joravsky
Developers are already circling the property, ready to swoop down with million-dollar proposals for town houses and condos. “I can’t believe all the changes in the community this issue represents,” says Father Joseph Morin, the priest in charge of Saint Alphonsus. “I had a developer offer me $1.5 million for the convent. That’s unbelievable. I never thought it would come to this.”
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When Morin returned to Chicago six years ago, called back by his order to oversee Saint Alphonsus, he found the church in disarray. “We were down to four nuns in the convent– and most of them were ready to retire,” he says. “We needed to do something income producing with the property.”
There was only one problem. The convent was not Father Morin’s to give to Deborah’s Place, at least not without a special-use permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals, whose members generally accede to the wishes of the local alderman, in this case Terry Gabinski. “We went to Gabinski and he told us we should meet with the neighbors,” says Morin. “He said he would do what they wanted.”
Under the gun, as its current lease was about to expire, Deborah’s Place and its allies launched an aggressive campaign. Members of the Lakeview Action Coalition, a relatively new community group, began soliciting signatures of support from residents, children, and politicians. Hardball activists from United Power for Action and Justice, an Alinsky-style city and suburban group with close ties to the Catholic Church, were brought in to oversee the media campaign.
As the debate moved into the new year, developers paraded by to offer Morin big bucks for the convent. “We started hearing from developers almost from the day after the May meeting,” he says. “They said they wanted to keep the building’s facade but build something into it, like condos. They started offering me $550,000. At the time it seemed like a lot–but now I realize it was an insultingly low offer. I told them no.
