On a recent Friday morning in Roseland, neighbors came outside to watch a ribbon being cut at 11436 South Yale Avenue. They had seen the long-vacant house go from a hazard to a home—three bedrooms, two baths, brand new everything—in just four months. The asking price: $250,000. Well below the Chicago median.
But to Terrence Johnson, executive director of Greenwood Archer Capital (GAC) and one of the architects of Rebuild Chicago 2.0, the moment meant something larger. “It really wasn’t about the house,” Johnson said. “It’s really about the block and the neighborhood—and what us doing this home means for the broader community.”
Rebuild Chicago 2.0 is a public-private partnership between the City of Chicago Department of Housing, the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), the Cook County Land Bank, GAC, and the Chicago Community Loan Fund. With $20 million in IHDA grant funding at its core, the program is targeting nearly 30 vacant and underused properties in Roseland and Englewood for rehabilitation and sale to working families.
The program exists because of a stubborn financial reality. In communities like Roseland and Englewood, it can cost $350,000 to fully rehab a vacant home—but the finished house might sell for only $250,000. That $100,000 gap is exactly what conventional lenders won’t bridge.
“The construction costs outpace what we can sell them for,” Johnson said. “And that gives traditional lenders another reason to not invest in these projects—they’re underwriting deals that are underwater. That’s where Greenwood Archer Capital comes in as a CDFI. We lean into situations like this.”
The IHDA funds cover the gap—what program administrators call “right-sizing”—allowing developers to deliver quality homes without pricing out working families or cutting corners on the rebuild.
Developer Luis Castro completed the South Yale home in four months, starting from a structure with holes in the floors and the roof, gas service that had been cut off at the street, and interior conditions he described as hazardous. His crew used spray foam insulation, installed new copper plumbing, a new HVAC system, and new electrical service—no shortcuts, he said, regardless of where the property sits.
“People forget that there was life before us,” Castro said. “Someone built this house years ago. So many families lived there. The easy solution is to knock it down—but the preservation of keeping the house intact, so it can continue to tell a success story, that’s what matters. Instead of tearing it down and having another vacant lot on the South Side.”
The properties in the program are strategically located near the planned Red Line Extension, which will bring stations into Roseland including one at 115th and Michigan. Johnson sees the timing as critical—and fleeting.
“Let’s rebuild that Michigan Avenue retail corridor,” he said. “Because if we miss this opportunity, I don’t know if we’ll get another one.”
Residents on the block reacted with what Castro called genuine excitement—not just at seeing the vacant house gone, but at learning the price. “They know it’s a working family coming in to stay,” he said. “That shows stabilization.”
At the ribbon-cutting, someone pointed across the street at a burned-out shell that had sat in that condition for years. Johnson had already called the Land Bank about it. “I need y’all to figure out—can you get this house across the street so we can do that one next?”
GAC has seven more Land Bank properties in Roseland and Englewood identified for development. Castro has two more projects in the pipeline—one about 30 days from completion. Johnson’s goal is to get all current projects to market by year’s end, then immediately move developers to the next round.
“Someone pressed pause on these communities,” Castro said. “We’re here to press play again. Roseland, Englewood—these areas have a story to be told. And they’re not forgotten.”
