Steel mills reigned over Chicago's landscape and economy for more than 100 years. The Southeast Side of the city was home to most of them. But when the last of steel mills closed shop in the 1990s, some left without warning.
"They up and left and left the community fallen apart," said Lilly Rivera.
Rivera grew up on the Southeast Side of the city in a family of faithful and steadfast steel workers.
"Both of my grandfathers worked for the steel mills and they came from Mexico knowing that there was a job here for them," said Rivera.
Rivera remains fully invested in her community. She sits on three boards and now leads the push to convert a former 144 acre steel mill and brownfield site at the edge of the Calumet River into a massive underground development.
"This site has been vacant for decades and we're looking and thinking outside of the box," said Rivera.
Rivera is now the Director of Community Relations for The Invert Chicago. The company is looking to build the 6-million square foot business complex, more than 300 feet below the surface.
"Underground made sense for us," Alberto Rincon said.
Rincon is also a product of the Southeast Side. The Harvard graduate is the Senior Vice President of The Invert Chicago.
"We'll have all sorts of different types of tenants and industries, everything from vertical farming," said Rincon. "Data centers, light manufacturing, cold storage as well, all sorts of different types of industries that could take advantage of the environmental characteristics of this kind of an underground facility."
Above ground, they're slowly working to revitalize the west side of the property into dozens of acres of new green space, with plans to eventually build a community solar farm and installing EV charging stations.
The Invert Chicago's lead investor is Ozinga Ventures, best known for their red and white striped concrete mixer trucks. Ozinga touts itself as a fifth-generation and family-owned business servicing Chicago for 90 years.
The project began about five years ago, but it could take as long as 15 years to complete.
The project has hit a legal obstacle. Before they can even break ground, they'll need to convince Chicago City Council and the community activists that what they're doing is not just another word for "mining." Mining isn't allowed in Chicago.
"Well, they're going to build something underground. So, of course, you have to mine that material," said Daisy Magaña,
Magaña is the community engagement coordinator for the Chicago Center for Health Environment, which studies environmental health-related disparities in the city.
The wife and mother also lives near the site and sends her 10-year-old daughter to the nearby Washington Elementary School.
Magaña and other community environmental activists are wary about the project. They believe Ozinga is using it as an excuse to mine for limestone - cement's key ingredient.
"What are you going to do with that material? We don't know," said Magaña.
"We have absolutely no interest in the material that's coming out of the ground itself," Rincon said." There's really no profit motive there. There are significantly cheaper ways to actually get limestone."
Members of the Southeast Environmental Task Force have been fighting against generations of industrial pollution in their community since 1989. And they've seen their fair share of projects come and go.
"We have so many just intense attacks on our health all the time," said Em Ayala of the Southeast Environmental Task Force. "We have lead in the water, we have lead in our soil, we have asbestos, we have manganese," said Ayala. "We have a bunch of carcinogens that should not be here."
A literal dumping ground, the Southeast Side is Chicago's only community zoned to store hazardous waste.
"The mining is only going to add on to that and uproot all the things that exist in the soil already," said Ayala.
"So people like to imagine that we're digging this big hole to build this subsurface facility, and that's actually incorrect," explained Rivera. "There is two vertical shafts on the west side of the property that will go down 300 feet. And then from there we will sculpt out the facility. So all the limestone, the dirt, the earth work will stay there. It won't be removed."
Community activists said they're still waiting for Invert to share a full EPA report on how the Invert plans to remediate the land.
"There's a few hotspot areas where we will need to dig some of those things out and make sure they get disposed of safely. And then we'll be actually importing clean fill material to essentially create a new layer of clean soil that will then plant and build a massive community solar project on top of," said Rincon.
"Ultimately, we don't want it," said Ayala. "The suggestion that it will bring jobs is very vague. There's no tenants to even offer that job aside from Ozinga."
But as a decision on the project looms, some residents said they remain hopeful.
"We are tired of seeing just ugly brownfield, we want to see development in our community, we want to see some nice green space we want to see some great job opportunities," said Yessenia Carreon.
The Invert Chicago provided ABC7 with the following statement regarding residents request for a full EPA remediation report.
"Three years ago, we opened our Community Engagement Center to help inform the community about all aspects of our project, including remediation. We have engaged with many thousands of residents, shared our vision, and have received overwhelming support. A handful of activists have decided to be against our project no matter the facts and have refused to meet with us. We look forward to working through the City of Chicago's Planned Development process where a full and public vetting of our project will occur."