The City of Chicago has issued two permits to erect three-story, three-unit residential buildings at 4147 and 4153 South Calumet Avenue in Bronzeville. The permits are identical, and issued on the same day, February 27, though one application was filed on October 29 of last year and the other on October 31. The estimated cost for each building is $450,000.
Site context of 4149 South Calumet Avenue, via Google Maps
The permits name JPK Investments LLC as the developer, and Tomcon as the general contractor. Both entities are registered under the same address in Northbrook. Peter Sterniuk is the architect of record. Both buildings will have rear porches on all three levels, connected by stairways, and there will be three parking spaces on concrete pads accessed from the alley at the rear of the lots. The permits do not address if these will be frame or masonry buildings, and no roof decks are mentioned.
The homes fill in a long-vacant lot on the south end of the block near 42nd Street. Just to their north is a row of single-family homes that span 4127 through 4147 South Calumet. Another developer recently finished those residences, all permitted in 2020 and 2021.
The row of new homes to the north of the permitted three-flats. Via Google Street View
Empty lot at 4149 South Calumet, before the new SFRs were built next door. Via Google Street View
Nearby transit options, via Google Maps
Residents of 4149-53 South Calumet Avenue will live within a three-block walk of bus service via Route 3 at King Boulevard to the east. The 43rd Green Line elevated platform is a two-block walk south, where stops for the Route 43 bus are also available.
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I swear CPH seriously needs to take notes on these infills happening all around the Southside.
Chicago, give up all your publicly held land and let the market deliver more affordable housing in half the time it takes just to get a single thing permitted. 3 units for $400k, that’s a ratio most “affordable” projects can’t even break half of such.
At the pace in which private infill is chugging along compared to how long the city held onto such parcels, it’s clear Chicago needs to get out of the developer position.
100% yes!
“free” money = sticky fingers.
Many good points, but a lower per unit cost of construction does not translate to affordable monthly rent. The market on its own will also charge the maximum possible ammount.
True, developers will take advantage of a strained market. So, as a counter, flood the market instead of letting CPH and CHA drip properties out like a leaky faucet.
Though it may have good intentions, the city, in turn, is exacerbating an affordable housing crisis. We must keep cutting services like schools, park maintenance, and transit and pray we break even the year after next.
Want to know what hurts affordability more than developer greediness? Property tax increases to cover city services like water, streets, trash, and electricity as depopulation is causing a strain on those remaining. Chicago isn’t a losing area; it’s only people. (depending on the neighborhood)
So we are left with three options: Consolidate who is left, continue to raise taxes, or empty our cache of land just sitting pretty. Gentrification is only enabled by the lack of market flexibility. “Cough cough,” zoning and land titles.
I think it’s a little more complicated than that. I’m not sure the City owns that many lots in that area. Many are owned by the Land Bank Authority, which has its challenges. Many are delinquent on their taxes and caught in the Tax Sale process, or worse, the scavenger sale process (I don’t think they’ve held one for a while now). There are also many vacant lots held by absentee private owners – there was a recent case where a suburban landowner was forced to sell a few hundred properties. I’d guess that the lots owned by the City, while still good for development, are a relatively small part of the problem.
If sources are right, CHA owns around 2,900 lots as of 2024. Most of those are vacant.
In 2023, the city had about 30,000 vacant lots, with 10,000 being city owned.
Just at a bare minimum of $50k households, (basing on low-income) that’s half a billion in income just lost. Obviously taxes and other numbers account for true additions to local economy, but that figure is quite significant. If something more reflective of today’s average, I’d put that number closer to $750 million; if not more.
I’m more conscientious of the fact that these developers are building those 3-flats in the community and re-selling them for over $1 Million, or rent the units for +$3000/month. I also question construction cost of $450K..Really ? Or is that what they indicate on the permit application, to keep the permit cost down. Remember that there has been a land grab here in this community. Some folks sitting on the lots expecting the property values to only go up and holding out for years and selling really high pushing the market up. I agree that if they are able to construct these properties more affordably, the CHA and proponents of affordable housing, should take note…but when dealing with bureaucracies, we all know it’s always costlier to do business.