CSIM
Vacancy Opportunity Index

Austin — Vacancy-to-Revitalization

Edition 6 / 9 · ZIP 60644 · As of July 22, 2026

Edition geography: ZIP 60644 (primarily Austin). ZIP and community-area boundaries do not align exactly.

Scale of the challenge

1,539
Tracked vacant properties
60%
Ownership unverified
311-reported vacant buildings, not yet parcel-matched
40%
City / Public controlled

All tracked sites intersect at least one incentive geography

Site map — clustered tracked vacancies

Distress

Showing all 1,539 sites

Numbered discs are the 12 featured sites in the site index below.

Vacancy Sources, Ownership, and Control

01 What is being counted

(a)City-inventory vacant-land parcelsCity-Owned Land Server (COLS)609
(b)311-reported vacant-building sitesService requests — ownership not attached930
(c)Assessor-classed vacant-land parcelsCook County Assessor vacant-land classification869

Sources (a) and (b) together form the 1,539-record operational tracking list — the properties a corridor manager actively works. That list is not the complete vacant-land universe. The land universe reconciles the two land sources, (a) and (c), below.

Tracked list by owner type (COLS + 311)

Corporate / LLC
0
Out-of-State Investor
0
Local Private
0
City / Public
609
Unknown
930

Tracked list — land vs. building

609 vacant land (40%)930 reported buildings (311) (60%)

02 How the land sources overlap

City-inventory vacant-land parcels609
+Assessor-classed vacant-land parcels869
Parcels counted in both sources (City PIN matches)135
Unique land parcels (deduplicated union)1,343
  • 135 City PIN matches — parcels present in both land sources.
  • 474 City-inventory parcels outside the Assessor’s vacant-land classification (city land is mostly tax-exempt).
  • 734 Assessor parcels not found in the City inventory.

03 Who controls the vacant land

Ownership across the 1,343 unique land parcels above — the single “who controls” claim.

Corporate / LLC
111
Out-of-State Investor
73
Local Private
528
City / Public
609
Unknown
22
Total
1,343

City / Public = City-inventory parcels plus additional public parcels identified through assessor taxpayer records. Private and unknown counts are the reconciled taxpayer-of-record classifications over the same land universe. Raw taxpayer records alone would show City/Public 0.

03b Owner structure × geography

The same assessor vacant-land parcels, cross-tabulated by owner structure (from the taxpayer name) and geography (from the taxpayer mailing address).

StructureIn-stateOut-of-stateUnknownTotal
Entity131130144
Individual528290557
Trust7007
Government13900139
Unresolved220022
Total827420869

Geography is the taxpayer mailing address’s state, not a claim about where an owner physically resides. Structure is inferred from public taxpayer-of-record name patterns.

04 Vacant buildings requiring verification

930311-reported vacant-building sitesOwnership unverified

These are service-request sites, not owner-verified holdings — they are not “privately held.” An exact land-plus-building total should not be published until these sites are parcel-matched and deduplicated against the land universe above.

Tax-sale records on file540 parcels · latest 2014Vacant-building violations76 tracked sites

04b Exemption anomalies — records for review

Record anomalies warranting official review. A vacant land parcel cannot serve as a principal residence; these pairings are records discrepancies for the Assessor, Treasurer, and Clerk to adjudicate — no wrongdoing is asserted.

4
Impossible on its face
Occupancy exemption on vacant LAND (class 1xx)
1 senior / freeze4 no transfer ≥10y
120
Plausible but stale
Occupancy exemption on a vacant BUILDING
44 senior / freeze120 no transfer ≥10y

Exemption tax year 2024 · land exempt EAV ~48,000 (order of magnitude)

Coverage: every count is a floor. Unmatched 311 building rows carry no parcel and are invisible here; MyDec transfer records only reach back to roughly 2009, so a “no transfer” flag is a floor, not proof of no sale; and exemption data lags to tax year 2024. Parcel-level detail is held in the admin-only referral packet below.

05 What this means for action

Public land parcels609Disposition · RFP · CCLBA coordination · land assembly
Known private land parcels712Owner outreach and development partnerships
Unknown land parcels22Ownership and title verification
Reported buildings930Parcel matching · ownership verification · active-status confirmation

Revitalization cannot depend on one acquisition strategy. It requires public-land disposition, local-owner partnerships, absentee-owner outreach, and targeted ownership verification.

Ownership → action pathways

Owner classAction pathway
City / PublicDisposition inquiry · CCLBA coordination · RFP · land assembly
Local PrivateDirect outreach · technical assistance · sale or development partnership
Corporate / LLCPortfolio-level outreach · identify decision-maker · negotiate assembly
Out-of-State InvestorTargeted outreach · acquisition interest · tax/code review
UnknownTitle and taxpayer verification before outreach
Tax-sale record on fileLegal review · tax-sale monitoring · acquisition pathway assessment

Where coordinated intervention is possible

Coordinated intervention

12 clusters
194 sites

Village:AustinChgoAvCCorr corridor: This cluster contains 94 vacant properties: 55 publicly controlled and 39 requiring verification.

55 land · 39 buildings15 tax-sale1 violations
247 sites

Roosevelt/Cicero corridor: This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 11 publicly controlled and 36 requiring verification.

11 land · 36 buildings7 tax-sale4 violations
347 sites

Roosevelt/Cicero corridor: This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 35 publicly controlled and 12 requiring verification.

35 land · 12 buildings5 tax-sale
447 sites

This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 19 publicly controlled and 28 requiring verification.

19 land · 28 buildings5 tax-sale2 violations
547 sites

Roosevelt/Cicero corridor: This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 17 publicly controlled and 30 requiring verification.

17 land · 30 buildings6 tax-sale3 violations
647 sites

West Garfield Park corridor: This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 9 publicly controlled and 38 requiring verification.

9 land · 38 buildings4 tax-sale6 violations
747 sites

This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 11 publicly controlled and 36 requiring verification.

11 land · 36 buildings9 tax-sale2 violations
847 sites

West Garfield Park corridor: This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 9 publicly controlled and 38 requiring verification.

9 land · 38 buildings14 tax-sale3 violations
947 sites

This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 11 publicly controlled and 36 requiring verification.

11 land · 36 buildings7 tax-sale1 violations
1047 sites

This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 13 publicly controlled and 34 requiring verification.

13 land · 34 buildings7 tax-sale4 violations
1147 sites

This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 10 publicly controlled and 37 requiring verification.

10 land · 37 buildings9 tax-sale1 violations
1247 sites

This cluster contains 47 vacant properties: 40 publicly controlled and 7 requiring verification.

40 land · 7 buildings34 tax-sale1 violations

Proximity clusters: tracked sites within ~100 m linked; contiguous areas larger than ~500 m are divided into sub-areas for intervention planning; minimum five sites. Boundaries are analytical, not parcel-contiguous.

Site index — featured sites

#AddressOwner typeTypeZoningSq ftNext stepVerify
14603 W WEST END AVECity / PublicENTVacant LandM1-226,250City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
2201 N CENTRAL AVECity / PublicINDVacant LandRT-417,841City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
34701 W MAYPOLE AVECity / PublicINDVacant LandRS-318,405City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
44706 W HARRISON STCity / PublicENTVacant LandM1-215,045City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
5625 N CICERO AVECity / PublicINDVacant LandB3-111,461City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
64647 W POLK STCity / PublicGOVVacant LandM1-273,224City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
74647 W POLK STCity / PublicGOVVacant LandM2-273,011City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
8335 N MENARD AVECity / PublicINDVacant LandPD 58230,627City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
930 N WALLER AVECity / PublicENTVacant LandRM-618,146City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
10300 N MENARD AVECity / PublicENTVacant LandRS-310,224City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
11160 N MENARD AVECity / PublicINDVacant LandRT-411,552City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
125918 W HURON STCity / PublicINDVacant LandRT-411,302City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
5062 W LAKE STCity / PublicENTVacant LandPMD 96,599City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
5108 W LAKE STCity / PublicENTVacant LandPMD 95,846City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗
358 N CICERO AVECity / PublicENTVacant LandPMD 95,572City/CCLBA disposition inquiryCookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗

+ 1,524 additional sites in the directory below

Nine-edition comparison

EditionTracked VacantVacancy RateLocal OwnershipBuilding ShareCity-Owned Share
South Chicago60617
2,167
6%
62%
60%
40%
Chatham60619
1,829
6%
83%
78%
22%
South Shore60649
693
4%
77%
82%
18%
West Garfield Park60624
2,785
16%
79%
52%
48%
North Lawndale60623
2,513
9%
88%
52%
48%
Austin60644
1,539
9%
86%
60%
40%
Humboldt Park60651
954
4%
90%
76%
24%
Englewood60621
3,828
24%
78%
40%
60%
West Englewood60636
3,085
19%
83%
55%
45%

Dot ratings rank the nine pilot editions against each other (quintiles). They are not citywide scores or grades.

Site directory — every tracked address

90-day corridor action agenda

  1. 01Select 2–3 priority clusters
  2. 02Disposition conversations for public sites
  3. 03Outreach list for local + corporate owners
  4. 04Verify unknown / outdated records
  5. 05Match clusters with uses / developers / incentives
  6. 06Track identified → contacted → verified → assembled → activated
Austin carries 1,539 tracked vacant properties. 609 are City- or public-controlled and can move toward disposition without owner outreach; the remaining 930 carry unverified ownership (311-reported buildings) and start with parcel matching and ownership verification. Every tracked site sits inside at least one incentive geography, so the location already qualifies for programs before any conversation begins. Revitalization here is not a single deal — it is public-land disposition, local-owner partnerships, absentee-owner outreach, and records verification, run cluster by cluster.

Download the anonymized PDF edition — owner types only, no names. Safe to share with partners.

Dot ratings rank the nine pilot editions against each other (quintiles). They are not citywide scores or grades.

Sources
  • Chicago City-Owned Land Inventory (aksk-kvfp) + 311 Vacant/Abandoned Building Complaints (v6vf-nfxy)
  • Cook County Assessor parcels (classified owner type; complete vacant-land universe)
  • Explorer corridor-metrics citywide export (vacancy rate, local ownership, incentive coverage)
  • Chicago ZIP Code boundaries (unjd-c2ca)
  • Chicago transportation network (expressways + rail)

Informational screening only. Owner type is inferred from public taxpayer-of-record patterns and is anonymized — no owner names or mailing addresses appear here. Records indicate; verify current ownership, eligibility, timing, and approval requirements with the administering organization before relying.