News Articles

By Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, WBEZ Chicago | October 4th, 2024 (Click Here For Original Article)

By Atavia Reed, Block Club Chicago | October 7th, 2024 (Click Here For Original Article) AUBURN GRESHAM — When local developer Tytus Henry bought a home from the Cook County Land Bank Authority to remodel in 2021, he had one request.  “I wanted it to be a challenging project,” Henry said.  Standing outside the refurbished Auburn Gresham home Thursday morning, Henry dabbed sweat from his forehead with a small towel while peering up at his creation. “And this was definitely what I asked for.”  Local officials and leaders at the Cook County Land Bank Authority joined Henry Thursday to celebrate the [...]

By Trey Arline, Block Club Chicago | April 12th, 2023 (Click Here For Original Article) WEST GARFIELD PARK — Elaine Bell-Quinn’s mother and father came to Chicago separately during the tail end of the Great Migration, looking for more opportunities. The two met and married, raising their family — including Bell-Quinn — in West Garfield Park. But as Bell-Quinn grew up, the neighborhood struggled with disinvestment. Now, Bell-Quinn’s helping to revitalize the neighborhood and reclaim her family’s legacy — starting with her family’s home block. Earlier this month, the Cook County Land Bank Authority awarded Bell-Quinn the deed to the land [...]

By Michael Romain, Village Press | July 14th, 2022 (Click Here For Original Article) The village of Bellwood is looking to build even more homes just as two of the most recent homes the village constructed are close to selling for $425,000 each.  In an interview on July 14, Bellwood Mayor Andre Harvey said purchases are currently pending on the two homes at 130 49th Ave. and 132 49th Ave. The homes were built on a lot just off St. Charles Road that used to be a gas station.  According to Harvey’s count, Bellwood now has 25 of what Crain’s [...]

By Josh Niland, Archinect | February 11th, 2022 (Click Here For Original Article) As part of the firm’s desire to fill the “middle market” of residential housing options with inspiring contemporary architecture, Chicago-based practice Future Firm has designed a new 1,300-square-foot residential project, called Hem House, that has provided the city with a sustainable model for building the bedrock of successful mixed-income communities.  The design team worked with real estate developer Jacob Root to create the project with the hopes of diversifying the housing stock available to those interested in the area where new residential construction costs usually begin at $600,000.  “While there’s a [...]

By Stacey Sheridan, Forest Park Review | January 16th, 2022 (Click Here For Original Article) Construction is underway on Garfield Street, where crews are building a new welcome center and front-facing adoption center for the Animal Care League (ACL) at 1003 and 1009 Garfield St. Crews broke ground last month, but the transformation of the two buildings is starting to materialize. “The outline for the walls is up and you can really see what the two buildings are going to look like and the space that we’re going to have for animals,” said ACL Executive Director Kira Robson. The work [...]

By Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune | January 3rd, 2022 (Click Here for Original Article) North Kenwood resident Bonita Harrison’s goal has always been to own 200 units of property. As a residential developer, her mission was to create noticeable change to a South Side neighborhood when it comes to affordable housing for and by people of color. She was well on her way with her firm Sunshine Management, which had 68 units before the pandemic. Now, she only has 15 left, a mix of two-flats and four-flats and single-family homes. “When you’re a smaller business it’s hard for someone to [...]

By Sean Jones, Bonita Harrison, DaJuan Robinson, Keith Lindsey, & Derrick Walker, Crain's Chicago Business | June 18th, 2021 (Click Here for Original Article) The movement to "buy back the block" is a call to action to put Black communities into Black ownership. It's about keeping the resources generated in Black communities within those communities, benefiting the people who live and work there rather than watching dollars drain to outside owners who have little interest in the community beyond making a return on their investments. In West Woodlawn, where too many houses sit vacant and abandoned, we're answering that call [...]

By Sara Badilini, Block Club Chicago | November 8th, 2021  (Click Here for Original Article) BRONZEVILLE — Sythera Pride-Paulus and her family moved to Bronzeville in 2018 — but “it feels like we’d lived here forever,” she said. The family — Sythera and her husband, J.P. Paulus; and their daughters, Mia and Faith Paulus — felt so welcomed in the neighborhood they immediately decided to buy a vacant lot adjacent to their home and transform it into a community garden. It took longer than expected due to some pandemic delays, but the major part of the work finished up in October, [...]

City Club of Chicago | April 6th, 2022 (Click Here for Original Article) After progressing in a series of leadership roles in City government, Eleanor Esser Gorski was appointed Executive Director of the Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) in August 2021. Gorski brings more than 25 years of planning, design and economic development experience to the CCLBA as it embarks on plans to expand its inventory to create more affordable housing and economic opportunity partnerships within Cook County. The Cook County Land Bank works to efficiently return vacant properties to productive use in underserved communities throughout the county by [...]