The development plan calls for tearing down existing buildings, including three of the four structures in the 40-year-old shopping complex at 5211 S. Harper Ave. and East 53^rd Street, replacing them with a 12-story, 150,000-square-foot office building, 100,00 square feet for retailers and parking for 435.

The University of Chicago purchased the complex from the Harper Court Arts Council in 2008 for $6.5 million as part of a community planning process to revitalize the area on 53^rd Street, and will partner with the city in the plan. The city owns an adjacent parking lot on South Lake Park Avenue, just east of Harper, and the university owns the current retail properties.

“This is a magnificent project that’s been 10 years in the making,” said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4^th). “This will bring in hundreds of people, increase daytime traffic and be a real boost for the neighborhood.”

The first phase of the project, which is set to begin in early 2011 and end by 2013, will add 15 to 25 retail businesses to the three-acre site, including restaurants and apparel retail, as well as the office building, underground and second-floor parking and a fitness center.

The city is in talks with a few gourmet grocers to anchor the retail space, said Christopher Dillion, managing director of Vermillion Development, the Danville, Ill.-based company planning the project. Dillion declined to name possible tenants, but the Sun-Times reported that a Whole Foods may anchor the complex.

The second phase will consist of residential properties, including apartments and a condominium tower, with the hope of completion by 2015, depending on funding and the economy.

“The turn-around in the housing market will be our biggest challenge,” Preckwinkle said.

The proposal was met without opposition from South Side residents at last Thursday’s meeting and has the support of the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce.

“We’ve been meeting for the past two years in the neighborhood, so everyone could get the chance to express themselves,” Preckwinkle said.

But some neighborhood groups worry that the project might hinder any future developments beyond the boundaries of Harper Court.

“Most of the tax increment funding money is for Harper Court and not for anything else,” said Gary Ossewaarde, former vice president of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Neighborhood Association and current board member on the Preservation-Development-Zoning Committee for Hyde Park. “The funding is tight, and we are concerned that it’s taking money away from other projects in Hyde Park.”

Ossewaarde said the association also had some concerns about the viability of small start-up business getting a space in a shopping center with an expensive overhead, and said a wide variety of retail options would best serve the community.

Yolanda Travis, who manages the McDonalds that sits next to the Harper Court property, says despite initial fears of her business being dwarfed by the construction, she’s looking forward to the development being finished.

“This plan is going to build up my business,” Travis said. “I’m always worried about competition in the area, but how can you beat McDonalds? We will be fine.”

In September, the Community Development Commission approved $20 million in tax increment financing from the 53^rd Street Fund for the project, Dillion said.

Part of the funding mix for the project is stimulus dollars and bonds, which require all planning for the project to be completed by the end of the year, Dillion said.

The City Council’s Committee on Finance is expected to vote on the plan in November, followed by a vote from the full council.

Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) said he walked the entire parking lot outside of a Northwest Indiana casino this summer counting license plates – and spotted 87 percent from Illinois.

“Its not like we are inventing anything new here, it’s just across the border,” Mell said. “Elgin sucks the money out of Chicago, Joliet sucks the money out of Chicago and now Des Plaines is about to suck money out of Chicago, too.”

Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd), who’s mulling a race for mayor, said he was also inspired by a trip to the Indiana casino located 30 minutes from downtown Chicago.

Fioretti said the casino raked in $50 million in tax revenue during July alone, with a healthy chunk of that revenue coming from Illinois residents.

“With one giant, land-based, government-owned casino, we want to change the future of the city of Chicago,” Fioretti said.

Steve Brown, spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, said that while some members of the General Assembly would like another crack at gaming legislation, it remains a long shot. And that there is no indication that it will be added as an amendment in November when lawmakers return to the capital for their veto session.

“There have been renewed discussions on gaming,” Brown said. “But given the history of gaming legislation and how controversial the topic is, I wouldn’t predict any action any time soon.”

Fioretti and Mell mentioned the former site of Michael Reese Hospital as a possible location for a permanent casino. Mayor Daley bought the 37-acre campus for $86 million to make way for an Olympic Village, before Chicago was voted out off the running.

“We have this big white elephant sitting there in the Michael Reese Hospital that we are indebted to and all this property around it,” Mell said. “What better than a giant casino and gigantic entertainment center? Lets get some revenue instead of sticking our heads in the sand.”

In 2009, the nine casinos operating in Illinois reported gross revenues of nearly $1.5 billion, out of which the $495 million tax revenue is split among the community where the casino is located, the Illinois Board of Gaming and to education for the state, according to Tom Swoik, executive director of the Illinois Gaming Association.

“I’d like to see a stable economic environment for our business in the state of Illinois,” said Swoik, adding that gaming revenue has taken a 20 percent hit due to the economy and the smoking ban. “A casino in Chicago might help as long as it’s not diluting the pool of other revenue in the suburbs.”

But some say bringing a casino to the city may only add to Chicago’s financial woes.

“Casinos are like an 800-pound gorilla that comes into the community and takes all the money,” said Jerry Prosapio, co-founder of Gambling Exposed. “They throw out these bones to the community, they buy ballparks for kids and give seniors homes. But the bottom line is that for every dollar a casino makes, it costs the state $3 dollars as the result of the hidden costs brought on by addiction, bankruptcy and crime.”

John Patterson, spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton, said Cullerton would be open to supporting lucrative gaming legislation, but that at the moment that doesn’t exist.

“The Senate president is in favor of gaming legislation that can pass and would help our state’s revenue picture,” Patterson said. “However, at this point, no such proposal is before the Senate. Discussions continue, but when it comes to gaming, there are always ongoing discussions.”

A day after shaking up Chicago politics with the announcement that he would not seek a seventh term, Mayor Richard M. Daley spent his first City Council gathering looking forward to the last seven months of his term rather than looking back on his decision to leave the position that’s been synonymous with the name “Daley” since his father took office in 1955.

“The issues are bigger than Mayor Daley,” he said. “We’ll be building schools, police offices, infrastructure and realigning different agencies.”

In an exclusive 40-minute press conference at City Hall Wednesday, Daley made it clear that while he has no regrets about his decision not to seek re-election, he still has enough time left in office to continue to move Chicago forward — and is certain that Chicago’s next mayor can do the same.

Daley said until he leaves office in May, he will focus on education, the reorganization of inspection services and housing. That means funding educational pilot programs like Career Tech, which creates jobs, and will work on passing housing ordinances that address the city’s foreclosure problems, he said.

“We have to be able to move the agenda forward,” he said.

After six to eight months of mulling over the decision, Daley said it was simply the right time to leave the office he’s held since 1989. The mayor said it was his decision alone to make, and didn’t mention his wife’s fight to survive breast cancer, his grandchildren or any other career plans that may be awaiting him next year.

Daley did make it clear that he has no interest in working on the federal level.

“If I worked in the federal government, I’d fire most of the people there,” Daley said. “They don’t work nights and weekends. Local government is 24 hours, 7 days a week.”

To explain his decision to leave office, Daley recalled a piece of advice that his father — then mayor of Chicago — gave him in the early ’70s after he graduated from law school and was considering a career in politics: “Go make your own decision.”

“I knew it was the right time, and that was my decision,” Daley said. “And I stand by it.”

Daley said he does not plan to endorse a candidate in the Feb. 22 election and will leave it up to the public to decide who is best for the city.

“I know someone will do a better job and I have confidence that they will take the city in the right direction,” Daley said.

Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) may try. Fioretti, who plans to make a decision in the next 10 days on a possible mayoral run, says he sees a need for change.

“The future of the city is at stake,” Fioretti said. “I’ve traveled 100 miles through the wards, down streets and alleys and visited half of our 600 schools and I’ve seen the pain in the community.”

If he runs, Fioretti says he plans to focus on job creation and preservation as well as the costly housing foreclosures.

“The lights may be turned off in this global city if we don’t find a solution,” Fioretti said.

Daley’s only hope for his replacement is that they remain steadfast and remember why they wanted to be mayor of Chicago.

“You have to have passion if you are going to be the mayor,” Daley said. “You always have to have a mission and keep it strong, otherwise you will get distracted. I love the city, I’ve done this for 21 years.”