This post, in our series featuring Chicago’s Troubled Buildings Initiative (TBI), winner of the 2016 ULI Larson Housing Award, focuses on a typical multi-family residential building that was successfully rehabilitated via TBI.

Community Investment Corporation (CIC), one of the City’s implementation partners for TBI, played a key role in turning around a 17-unit multi-family building at 3550 W. Franklin in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. This originally rental property had been fraudulently converted to condominiums and was in serious disrepair, making it too expensive and time-consuming for a private developer to rehabilitate.

The City appointed CIC’s affiliate company, Community Initiatives, Inc. (CII), as limited receiver to vacate and secure the building. Under CII’s leadership, the building was de-converted from condos and sold to a private developer. The new owner completely rehabilitated the building with the help of the Multifamily TIF Purchase Rehab Program, a City of Chicago program administered by CIC, which allows private developers to purchase and renovate multi-unit rental housing using TIF funds in designated districts. Because of CII’s direct intervention, 3550 W. Franklin is now a well-managed building providing safe, quality, affordable housing instead of being an eyesore and a problem spot for the community.