Podcast: Spotting Chicago development trends and opportunities

If you listen to podcasts you’re in for a treat today. (I only recently started listening to podcasts this past spring when I took up running on the path around Douglass Park.)

Casey Smagala and I were guests on the Straight Up Chicago Investor podcast to talk about development trends and opportunities we saw.

Listen on the web, or look it up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms. It’s 45 minutes long. There are also video clips.

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My favorite segments were when we talked about…

• ADUs, of course, and how the five pilot areas were chosen. In the episode only 19 permits had been issued but now the number is 22. I expressed desire for Chicago City Council to expand the pilot areas. (skip ahead to 12:30 and 25:18)
• Bronzeville, especially Calumet Avenue, which I showed in the blog post about “trends in new construction”, and the 43 Green eTOD project.
• development opportunities along the Green Line, both the Lake St branch on the (especially the future Damen station) and the main branch on the South Side through Bronzeville and Washington Park. (skip to 20:50)
• INVEST South/West, and how it’s a “magnet”: it’s putting millions and millions of deserved dollars into neighborhoods that have been overlooked. Casey used the metaphor “a rising tide lifts all boats” and added that INVEST South/West and other public sector investments is the tide water rushing in. Tom replied, “If the city’s betting on it, my risk tolerance goes up.”
• Incentives Checker, since Chicago Cityscape is the only place that can determine if any of ~32 financial & development incentives apply to any given location in Chicago and Cook County. (skip to 23:20)
• converting commercial and retail spaces to residential. This is my favorite topic right now since a lot more of it happened in 2021 than in 2020. You can watch that clip right now in embed below. #UnusedZoningCapacity

Also, Casey shared why people subscribe to Chicago Cityscape (in place of and in addition to other real estate data platforms):

“CoStar is like a Ferrari and Cityscape is like a backhoe. If you want something that’s really pretty and looks good…CoStar does a fine job but they do it all across the country. If you want something that can dig really deep in the City of Chicago, get information that you need that you can’t find, Cityscape is the backhoe that can give you that information.”