CCLBA

By Dennis Rodkin, Crain's Chicago Business | January 30th, 2017 More than 4,400 vacant lots in Chicago and the suburbs are going up for sale in an effort to attract development to areas that need it. With the new offering of vacant lots to be announced today, "we're trying to speed up the process of empty land being put back to use," said Bridget Gainer, a Cook County commissioner who chairs the four-year-old Cook County Land Bank. Until now, the land bank had been selling only vacant homes, to rehabbers or families who fix them up for their own use. [...]

Chicago Tribune Editorial Board | December 23rd, 2016 Outsiders like to define Chicago with convenient, obvious imagery. Obama and Capone. The Cubs and Ditka. The Daleys and the Blues Brothers. We know, however, what the genome of our city is. Belmont Cragin and Bronzeville. Avondale and Avalon Park. Roscoe Village and Roseland. The patchwork of bungalows, graystones and two-flats, its schools and corner grocery stores, gives the city its defining contours. So, to fix a Chicago that's deteriorating in some places and emptying out in others, you've got to fix its neighborhoods. Block by block, house by house. That's how you [...]

By Lisa Fielding, CBS Chicago | November 29th, 2016 The Cook County Land Bank was established in 2014 as a result of the financial crisis. “It’s meant to address one thing that is so important. ‘How do you make sure neighborhoods are sustainable?'” said Bridget Gainer, Cook County Commissioner, who spearheaded the program. “Right after the financial crisis, we started to see this spike in foreclosures and the foreclosures, because they were so many of them, lead to longer and longer turnarounds in court which lead to more vacant homes.” “The acquisition process for housing is tough. You really want [...]

By Dennis Rodkin, Crain's Chicago Business | November 22,  2016 A Cinderella story is playing on 101st Street in the city's Washington Heights neighborhood, and there are more than 200 others like it scattered around the city and suburbs. After lingering in foreclosure for almost six years, a modest 1960s bungalow started 2016 with mold growing on its basement walls, holes in its roof and busted pipes from standing empty for at least one winter. Now it's a fresh-looking place with a new roof, stylish tile and fixtures in the updated kitchen and baths. "This used to be one of the worst [...]

By Yvette LeGrand, The South Shore Current  | August 2016 THE COOK COUNTY LAND BANK AUTHORITY (CCLBA) was created in 2013 to address the large inventory of vacant residential, industrial and commercial property in Cook County. Its goal is to return vacant land and abandoned buildings to productive use while preserving and revitalizing neighborhoods. The Land Bank Authority can acquire, hold and transfer interest in real property throughout Cook County in order to promote redevelopment and reuse of the vacant, abandoned, and foreclosed properties too often prevalent in our community. "We want to save vacant properties and reduce their potentially blighting [...]

By Maya Dukmasova | August 12th, 2016 Imagine a county agency that doesn't rely on taxpayer dollars to operate. And not only that, but it also generates wealth and helps revitalize struggling neighborhoods. It's not a fairytale, but how boosters describe the successes of the Cook County Land Bank Authority, now in its third year of operating. The land bank's purpose is twofold: to buy and resell abandoned property for rehab or redevelopment, and to clear land of blighted structures and revert it to redevelopment or community uses like parks and gardens. And since it's inception in 2013, the land [...]

Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC) announced today the 2017 Class of LGC Fellows. This select group of 38 accomplished and diverse individuals represents a cross-section of professionals from the corporate, nonprofit, government, and education sectors. They share the goal of effecting real change in the community.  | July 20th, 2016 Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC) announced today the 2017 Class of LGC Fellows, which includes our very own Executive Director Rob Rose!. This select group of 38 accomplished and diverse individuals represents a cross-section of professionals from the corporate, nonprofit, government, and education sectors. They share the goal of effecting real change [...]

The Cook County Land Bank Authority consulted with the security experts at Door & Window Guard systems (DAWGS) to secure their vacant properties. | February 9th, 2016 The Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) was formed to stabilize blighted neighborhoods and stimulate redevelopment and return properties to productive use. The CCLBA also promotes economic development by generating jobs and providing affordable housing. The CCLBA deals with a host of asset management issues as it holds vacant properties. Lock boxes often go missing or keys are not returned. Front doors can be compromised resulting in break-ins. These issues slow down the [...]

By Dan Weissman In early July, Chicago police officers arrested four men for taking over 14 vacant foreclosed homes — living in some and renting out the rest — mostly in prosperous neighborhoods. Seven years after the housing market crashed, there are still enough vacant homes to provide opportunities for this kind of creativity.Eight of the houses were in Beverly Hills and Morgan Park— South Side Chicago neighborhoods that look like suburbs, complete with big brick houses, winding streets and a vigilant neighborhood group, the Beverly Area Planning Association. One of the homes sits a block and a half from the [...]

By Joe Sinopoli RIVERSIDE – Whatever Cook County decides to do to bring about flood relief to Riverside Lawn, officials say no one will be forced to sell their property. According to county officials, claiming eminent domain is not an option. Officials from the county and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) met Riverside Lawn residents July 30 in a public meeting to discuss how to bring relief to the flood-beleaguered residents in the unincorporated subdivision on the south bank of the Des Plaines River. Riverside Lawn lies huddled in a forested area between Lyons and Riverside on [...]