Mayor Brandon Johnson has put up for sale more than 400 vacant lots across Chicago, part of an initiative to cut red tape, better leverage city resources, attract more private investment, and build more affordable housing.
Johnson said he envisions getting these empty city-owned spaces into the hands of developers ready to build new mixed-use districts, other commercial projects or affordable homes.
“Being marketed on the ChiBlockBuilder.com website, the properties are collectively valued at $26 million and represent some of the best private investment opportunities in the entire city,” Johnson stated in a Tuesday news release.
One of the most prominent locations is a half-acre lot next to the CTA’s Red Line station at Belmont Avenue. The site at 3214-54 N. Wilton Ave. in Lakeview had been used since 2006 as a staging area for construction crews working on the soon-to-be completed $2.1 billion Red-Purple Line modernization project. The winning bidder can use housing tax credits to help create a mixed-income development where nearly half the units are affordable.
More than 50 of the lots are in the South Side neighborhoods of Chatham, Morgan Park and South Chicago. Investors can purchase these lots, part of Johnson’s $75 million Missing Middle Infill Housing Initiative, for $1 each and receive up to $150,000 per unit to subsidize construction costs, according to the planning department. The goal is to build low-cost, for-sale homes on the South and West sides, potentially reversing a decades-long population decline in disinvested communities. The price point for a single-family home will likely be less than $300,000.
The initiative launched in North Lawndale in October with 44 lots. So far, five developers have been selected to construct 99 new homes valued collectively at $40 million, city planners said.
The city owns more than 7,000 residential lots as of this spring, with many of them located in neighborhoods with populations significantly less than 50% of their 1960 levels, according to the city’s Missing Middle program guide.
The Missing Middle initiative is a part of Johnson’s five-year, $1.25 billion bond program, approved by the City Council in April 2024. It will provide $250 million per year through 2028 for economic development and affordable housing projects helmed by the city’s housing and planning departments.
Other recent mayoral efforts to kick off development and clear red tape include a green housing initiative, and the up-zoning of a 20-block stretch of Broadway in Edgewater and Uptown, possibly clearing the way for thousands of new apartments in the transit-rich area. The administration earlier this year also pushed a pair of landowners it called Chicago’s worst to put up for sale hundreds of vacant lots in South Side communities like Englewood and North Lawndale.
“Supporting the redevelopment of these sites is how we all Build Better Together,” Johnson said in the Tuesday news release. “Particularly during Fair Housing Month, we need to continue to leverage all of our tools to spur development and build affordable housing across our city.”
The city is also selling a 1-acre riverfront parcel at 466 W. Cermak Road, just north of Chinatown and within the Pilsen Industrial Corridor. The site is across the street from a century-old warehouse that a developer plans to transform into a luxury hotel. Planning officials value the plot at about $1.16 million and say it’s suitable for commercial, industrial, restaurant, artist workspaces and other uses.
Another 350 lots throughout Chicago are also for sale. Submissions for the Lakeview and Pilsen sites are due June 30.
“These neighborhood investment opportunities are part of the City’s holistic approach to neighborhood needs, starting with the land where people work, live and raise families,” Chicago Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright said. “It’s exciting to return them to productive uses by the private sector, where they belong.”