Vacant Englewood Site, Including Lot Once Owned By ‘Worst Landowner,’ To Become Apartments

WEST ENGLEWOOD — Two mixed-use apartment buildings will replace vacant land near the 63rd and Ashland Green Line station, including a lot once owned by the city’s “worst landowner,” officials announced Thursday.

The $18 million project will transform two plots of city-owned land at 1516-19 W. 63rd St. and 1607-19 W. 63rd St. Each building will have 18 apartments, about 4,400 square feet of retail space and parking spaces for 20 bicycles.

E.G. Woode, a collective of architects, designers and entrepreneurs led by architect Deon Lucas, will develop the two-site project. The South Side collective opened a commercial hub on the 63rd Street corridor in 2022. The E.G. Woode Food Hub, a $7.1 million dining development replacing a century-old building with two restaurants and a pop-up kitchen, is also moving forward on 63rd Street.

“The project will provide what 63rd and Ashland needs, and that’s people: 36 households that will use the train station, patronize local businesses and contribute to community vitality and cohesion,” Ciere Boatright, commissioner at the city’s Department of Planning and Development, said in a news release. “These two buildings represent a major step forward for an intersection and transit station that’s been beset by vacant land for far too long.”

The site at 1515-19 W. 63rd includes a vacant lot the city acquired from the 2025 Hilco auction, the largest bulk land sale in the city’s recent history.

City officials forced Suzie B. Wilson — dubbed Chicago’s “worst landowner” by city attorneys — and her sister, Swedlana Dass, to sell their real estate empire of vacant lots after reporting by Block Club Chicago and the Illinois Answers Project found the sisters had accumulated $15 million in city fines for rat-related violations at their hundreds of vacant lots. Many of the lots were on the South and West sides.

The city sued Hilco, the company that ran the auction, for millions in February this year after the sale failed and many properties went unsold. City officials claimed the firm was negligent, incompetent and overvalued the land.

Two properties of vacant land acquired during the Hilco auction near the forthcoming Red Line Extension project at 103rd and 111th streets are also part of current and pending development proposals, according to the news release.

The vacant West Englewood sites are valued at $100,600 and will be sold for $1 per lot, according to the news release.

E.G. Woode plans to apply for the city’s Community Development Grant for up up to $5 million, according to the Thursday announcement.  The land sale and grant will need approval from City Council.

The city’s planning department released a request for proposals in 2025 for transit-oriented developments with mixed-income housing and retail space.

Officials selected the E.G. Woode L3C proposal “based on the development concept and feasibility, as well as the team’s financial capacity and relevant experience, among other factors,” according to the news release. Wrought Iron Partners and architects Beehyyve L3C and Alligood Song will also help develop the project.