Humboldt Park — Vacancy-to-Revitalization
Edition 7 / 9 · ZIP 60651 · As of July 22, 2026Edition geography: ZIP 60651 (primarily Humboldt Park). ZIP and community-area boundaries do not align exactly.
Scale of the challenge
All tracked sites intersect at least one incentive geography
Site map — clustered tracked vacancies
Distress
Showing all 954 sites
Numbered discs are the 12 featured sites in the site index below.
Vacancy Sources, Ownership, and Control
01 What is being counted
Sources (a) and (b) together form the 954-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)
Tracked list — land vs. building
02 How the land sources overlap
- 56 City PIN matches — parcels present in both land sources.
- 169 City-inventory parcels outside the Assessor’s vacant-land classification (city land is mostly tax-exempt).
- 526 Assessor parcels not found in the City inventory.
03 Who controls the vacant land
Ownership across the 751 unique land parcels above — the single “who controls” claim.
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).
| Structure | In-state | Out-of-state | Unknown | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entity | 100 | 4 | 0 | 104 |
| Individual | 398 | 5 | 0 | 403 |
| Trust | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Government | 59 | 0 | 0 | 59 |
| Unresolved | 14 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Total | 573 | 9 | 0 | 582 |
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
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 An exact land-plus-building total should not be published until these sites are parcel-matched and deduplicated against the land universe above.
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.
Exemption tax year 2024 · land exempt EAV ~10,000 (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 parcels225 | Disposition · RFP · CCLBA coordination · land assembly |
| Known private land parcels512 | Owner outreach and development partnerships |
| Unknown land parcels14 | Ownership and title verification |
| Reported buildings729 | Parcel 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 class | Action pathway |
|---|---|
| City / Public | Disposition inquiry · CCLBA coordination · RFP · land assembly |
| Local Private | Direct outreach · technical assistance · sale or development partnership |
| Corporate / LLC | Portfolio-level outreach · identify decision-maker · negotiate assembly |
| Out-of-State Investor | Targeted outreach · acquisition interest · tax/code review |
| Unknown | Title and taxpayer verification before outreach |
| Tax-sale record on file | Legal review · tax-sale monitoring · acquisition pathway assessment |
Where coordinated intervention is possible
Coordinated intervention
12 clustersWest Humboldt Park corridor: This cluster contains 63 vacant properties: 30 publicly controlled and 33 requiring verification.
Northwest corridor: This cluster contains 37 vacant properties: 8 publicly controlled and 29 requiring verification.
Village:AustinChgoAvCCorr corridor: This cluster contains 36 vacant properties: 11 publicly controlled and 25 requiring verification.
Village:AustinChgoAvCCorr corridor: This cluster contains 36 vacant properties: 17 publicly controlled and 19 requiring verification.
West Humboldt Park corridor: This cluster contains 32 vacant properties: 8 publicly controlled and 24 requiring verification.
West Humboldt Park corridor: This cluster contains 32 vacant properties: 9 publicly controlled and 23 requiring verification.
West Humboldt Park corridor: This cluster contains 32 vacant properties: 4 publicly controlled and 28 requiring verification.
This cluster contains 32 vacant properties: 8 publicly controlled and 24 requiring verification.
West Humboldt Park corridor: This cluster contains 31 vacant properties: 8 publicly controlled and 23 requiring verification.
West Humboldt Park corridor: This cluster contains 31 vacant properties: 11 publicly controlled and 20 requiring verification.
Kinzie corridor: This cluster contains 31 vacant properties: 5 publicly controlled and 26 requiring verification.
Northwest corridor: This cluster contains 25 vacant properties: 1 publicly controlled and 24 requiring verification.
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
| # | Address | Owner type | Type | Zoning | Sq ft | Next step | Verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3949 W NORTH AVE | City / PublicGOV | Vacant Land | PD 1205 | 11,486 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 2 | 3834 W CHICAGO AVE | City / PublicIND | Vacant Land | C2-1 | 6,142 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 3 | 4300 W HADDON AVE | City / PublicIND | Vacant Land | RS-3 | 7,545 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 4 | 1141 N RIDGEWAY AVE | City / PublicIND | Vacant Land | RS-3 | 6,220 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 5 | 5200 W CHICAGO AVE | City / PublicGOV | Vacant Land | PD 1543 | 7,505 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 6 | 3949 W NORTH AVE | City / PublicGOV | Vacant Land | PD 1205 | 5,999 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 7 | 3949 W NORTH AVE | City / PublicGOV | Vacant Land | PD 1205 | 5,998 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 8 | 929 N LEAMINGTON AVE | City / PublicIND | Vacant Land | RS-3 | 6,300 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 9 | 3232 W DIVISION ST | City / PublicENT | Vacant Land | B3-3 | 6,201 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 10 | 1011 N PULASKI RD | City / PublicGOV | Vacant Land | B3-1 | 0 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 11 | 1011 N PULASKI RD | City / PublicGOV | Vacant Land | B3-1 | N/A | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| 12 | 1013 N PULASKI RD | City / PublicENT | Vacant Land | B3-1 | N/A | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| — | 4100 W DIVISION ST | City / PublicGOV | Vacant Land | C1-1 | 3,313 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| — | 3710 W CHICAGO AVE | City / PublicIND | Vacant Land | B3-2 | 2,997 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
| — | 3714 W CHICAGO AVE | City / PublicIND | Vacant Land | B3-2 | 2,995 | City/CCLBA disposition inquiry | CookViewer ↗ · Clerk ↗ |
+ 939 additional sites in the directory below
Nine-edition comparison
| Edition | Tracked Vacant | Vacancy Rate | Local Ownership | Building Share | City-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
- 01Select 2–3 priority clusters
- 02Disposition conversations for public sites
- 03Outreach list for local + corporate owners
- 04Verify unknown / outdated records
- 05Match clusters with uses / developers / incentives
- 06Track identified → contacted → verified → assembled → activated
Humboldt Park carries 954 tracked vacant properties. 225 are City- or public-controlled and can move toward disposition without owner outreach; the remaining 729 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.