New round of Chicago-owned lots goes up for sale through ChiBlockBuilder

On Monday, April 1, the Chicago Department of Planning & Development announced that it’s accepting applications for the purchase of 375 properties the city owns.

All of those lots are now integrated into Chicago Cityscape’s Property Finder, that can be combined with our existing filters (minimum number of units allowed, in a transit-served location, has a specific zoning district, etc.).

DPD has made a couple of changes for this ChiBlockBuilder round:

• Most lots are part of a cluster of properties and applicants must apply for the entire cluster. Only 65 properties are not in one of the 67 clusters.
• An “accepted use” is now shown for each property. See the list in the “more details” section below.

Using Property Finder to show ChiBlockBuilder lots

Chicago Cityscape’s Property Finder tool is the premier way to find the properties in Chicago that meet our members’ exacting criteria. ChiBlockBuilder is one of many filters that can be combined to locate developable land in the city.

1. Open the Place Report for the City of Chicago. (Other Place Reports in Chicago can also be used, including for wards and community areas.)
2. Select the “Load Property Finder” button which will grab information about the first 25 out of the nearly one million properties in Chicago, and reveal the Property Finder filters.
3. Locate the ChiBlockBuilder filter (which appears like the screenshot below shows), choose one of the radio button options (select “For sale” to show all ChiBlockBuilder lots).
4. Select the “Apply filters” button. After a moment, the map and data table will refresh to show ChiBlockBuilder lots.

It’s also possible to filter for lots where the accepted use is for new development, and for lots that are available individually (not in a cluster).

More details about ChiBlockBuilder

Application deadlines are either May 17, 2024, or July 1, 2024. Each property shown in Property Finder will indicate the deadline, accepted use, environmental review status, and offer a link to the application.

The distribution of accepted uses is shown in the screenshot below. Most properties in this ChiBlockBuilder round are designated for affordable housing, market rate development, or either.

If you don’t have a Chicago Cityscape membership, start a free two-week trial of Real Estate Pro, our highest tier of membership.

New round of Chicago-owned lots goes up for sale through ChiBlockBuilder was originally published in Chicago Cityscape’s Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.