Ansonia Property Management, which owns the Lake Village East apartments in Kenwood, won an award for “affordable rental housing preservation” on April 5 from the Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards (CNDA).  

Renovations were completed by February 2017, and the building features 218 newly remodeled units with updated amenities such as cherry wood cabinets, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances.  

The team in charge of the redevelopment project was careful to restructure subsidies in order to maintain the current rental cost of housing.  

As a result, few people have moved out, according to Brian Welashey, the Lake Village East security guard and doorman.  

Welashey described the neighborhood as a “nice, quiet, and safe” community, with immediate access to CTA buses and trains.  

Many of the apartments’ residents are families, with parents working downtown and children attending nearby schools, he said. 

“The [rental] rate should stay the same…it’s good for the working classes,” said Holmes, who has relatives in the apartments and declined to give his first name. “[The apartments] are at the upper part of Hyde Park, and there are more facilities to access too, for people who like to live in modern situations,” he added.  

The CNDA was established in 1995 and is based in the Chicago metropolitan region. It analyzes neighborhood real estate development and recognizes nonprofit and for-profit community development corporations.