Chicago developers have long been encumbered by lengthy review timelines, design reviews and a lack of access to capital.
Ciere Boatright is on a mission to clear the path.
Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed the native South Sider as the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development in November 2023. She came to the role with a decade of private real estate experience under her belt as the vice president of real estate and community development at CRG and at Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives before that.
“I understand how difficult real estate development is, and I understand intimately the challenges with advancing deals,” Boatright said. “I understand the unique challenges that we’re facing, not just here in Chicago but nationally and, I argue, internationally, and so I have a sense of urgency.”
Boatright delivered a keynote at Bisnow’s Multifamily Annual Conference Midwest on the city’s repopulation strategy, cutting red tape for developers and how the DPD is using new tools to spark investment in neighborhoods across the city.
“We start every conversation with the commitment to get to yes,” she said.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Bisnow/Zak Guysenir
Ciere Boatright speaks at a Bisnow event.
Bisnow: Tell us about the office-to-residential conversions that the city has been involved in and where they stand today.
Boatright: We’ve got six city-assisted conversions that are underway with $900M of investment, over $300M in tax increment financing to advance these projects. … They’re not concepts. These are real projects that are actually moving forward. One thing that we’re excited about is the amount of affordability in these units — 30% affordability across all of them. That’s nearly 2,000 units that are coming online.
We’ve got 10 other nonsubsidized projects that are moving forward. That’s a big deal. 500 North Michigan Avenue was a non-city-assisted project from an East Coast developer who’s pretty bullish on Chicago. This particular project was approved in less than 30 days at the Plan Commission. Not only are we working hard to really help to prime the pump for a lot of these conversions, but we’re working really closely with developers to ensure that the deals can move fast. Time kills deals, and we know that, and we have no business slowing down the approval process.
Between the city-assisted projects and privately developed projects without any subsidy, that’s 3,000 units and over $1.3B of investment.
Bisnow: How does repopulation downtown connect with broader housing and neighborhood goals for the city?
Boatright: When we talk about repopulation, it’s not just downtown that we’re focused on. I have a goal: 3 million people. The city was planned for over 5 million people, but I’ve never seen 3 million people in Chicago in my lifetime. We’re not that far off. We can get there, and it can’t just be one community area. It can’t just be the Loop. It can’t just be Fulton Market. We really have to think about all the community areas growing in population.
The reality is, we have seen consistent growth over the last two years, but we need more. … Often we talk about food and culinary deserts and challenges with crime and other things. The reality is, an increase in people will help many of those challenges.
Over the last 50 years, we’ve lost population in our city that’s equivalent to Boston’s current population. We’ve got to be aggressive. We’ve got to be far more bullish on attracting people back to Chicago and making it a place where people want to live, work and visit. It’s important that we have the supply to support the housing demand throughout our city and that we’re unapologetic about creating density.
Bisnow/Ryan Wangman
Ciere Boatright at the Thompson Center redevelopment launch
Bisnow: Let’s talk about the Missing Middle. Tell us about how the program got started.
Boatright: The Missing Middle is our new housing initiative supported through our new housing and economic development bond. For far too long, the city relied on tax increment financing to advance projects. I’ve used a lot of TIF on projects. It works well when it works well. But the reality is, we have some communities that don’t have TIFs, and we have some communities that don’t have healthy TIFs. We need other economic development tools in our toolbox to support and advance projects.
Our new bond that was approved under this administration is $1.25B split between the Department of Planning and Development and the Department of Housing that allows us to go deeper in terms of our investment in communities that either don’t have TIFs or don’t have those healthy TIFs, and really focus on more catalytic projects. I’ve got $75M set aside for Missing Middle.
The cost for construction is the same whether I’m constructing in Lincoln Park or Englewood. However, the appraised value will vary drastically depending on what neighborhood the properties are being sold in. What we’ve done is leveraging our city lots, the majority of which are on the South and West sides. We take a block-by-block, node-by-node approach to leveraging those vacant lots, leveraging our new bond, request for proposals in those lots in the areas that have the most vacancy in terms of city-owned land and promoting more dense development. Not single-family homes, two units up to six units, so there’s the opportunity for the owner-occupant to build wealth through the rental income that’s coming from those rental units.
Bisnow: What have been the early returns from the first pilots?
Boatright: We launched our very first pilot in North Lawndale last October, and those projects — over 100 units — are breaking ground this year. Our second pilot was announced in April, and we’ve selected three community areas on the South Side: South Chicago, Morgan Park and West Chatham. Last week, we announced our development teams, and that’s going to bring another 110 units of housing online. On Oct. 1, we’re going to announce our third pilot, in a neighborhood to be announced.
We’re providing up to $150K per unit in subsidy to the developer so that we can ensure that we can sell those properties affordably. And so that’s one example of how we can help use the bond to really advance and prime the pump. We’re creating a market where a market either doesn’t exist or it’s not as strong as it can be.
With $75M, that can bring approximately 500 new units of housing. Is that going to solve the housing crisis? No, but it’s one very important strategy and an innovative approach. When we couple Missing Middle and thousands of conversions and support what the private market is doing in terms of new construction and rehab, we’ve got a pretty stable path to achieving more stability and vibrancy within the housing market.
Bisnow: How effective has the cut-the-tape initiative been in streamlining development?
Boatright: A lot of my frustration from when I worked on the development side had been with the city and with the Department of Planning and Development. It felt like analysis paralysis. And because we know in the development world that time kills deals, it felt like the city was killing deals.
We think about cutting the tape, listening to our developers and operating in the spirit of partnership. Our developers see the changes that we’re making. I’ll give some concrete examples. The large-scale projects that have to go through Plan Commission for their approvals, we’ve gone from 135 days to 79 days for approval. That’s something that we can actually quantify. 500 North Michigan Avenue, one of our conversions, was approved in less than 30 days.
Those are examples of how we’re working far more collaboratively. It’s not enough for us to say, “Hey, DPD is done with our checklist, now see your way to the next department and come back when you’re done.” It’s far more collaborative. … In addition, we’ve gone from three design reviews to one design review, which ultimately reduced the timeline for developers. It reduces the expense that you’re putting forth to advance these projects.
When we think about development, the tone is different as well. We start every conversation with the commitment to get to yes. Now, that doesn’t mean that it’ll always end up with yes, but I think with a commitment to start to get to yes, it changes the tone in which we communicate with our development partners.
Bisnow/Ethan Rothstein
The Chicago skyline
Bisnow: What’s the next key area you’re focused on streamlining?
Boatright: I can’t pick one. We’ve got a lot of improvements to make, but one thing we’re pretty bullish on is proactive rezoning. We are in the process of proactively rezoning over 2,000 parcels throughout the city. … It’s important for us to really understand what the priorities are along key corridors and ensuring the zoning reflects those priorities so when a developer comes to us, it’s already zoned appropriately, allowing them to move much faster.
Additionally, 70% of our vacant lots are now being reserved for vertical development, with 30% being set aside for open space and side yards. It’s important for us to get those parcels back on the property tax roll, and it’s important for those neighborhoods to see robust economic investment and economic development. With our focus on proactive rezoning, vertical development and the new housing and economic development bond, it’s the perfect opportunity for us to think far more holistically than I think we ever have in terms of activation and community development and investment. It’s important for us not just to say, “Developers, figure it out,” but pull our sleeves up and say, “How do we figure it out together?”
Bisnow: How does transit-oriented development come into play in the city’s strategy?
Boatright: We announced a few RFPs on Aug. 1, and on Oct. 1, we’ll announce a couple more transit-oriented RFPs. The cost for parking can range from $25K to over $75K for a space. That’s not inexpensive. When we think about the cost to develop, I would much rather you invest in more units than to invest in more parking spaces. The city has no business telling developers how many parking spaces you should put in a development. … This is why the city and some of our partners have been so bullish on the elimination of parking requirements.
Bisnow: What else is important for people to know?
Boatright: Our Plan Commission pipeline looks amazing. Eleven billion dollars for 2024 — that’s more than 2022 and 2023 combined. Year to date for Plan Commission, we’re at over $8.5B, and that ultimately will lead to more cranes in the sky, more shovels in the ground and, ultimately, more ribbons cut. Oftentimes, we use cranes in the sky as the only indicator of real estate and economic vitality, and it’s an important one, but it’s not the only one. Those conversions that I mentioned, you’ll never see a crane for any of those buildings. But those units are important, that $1.3B of investment is important. Projects that are smaller in scale, those neighborhood projects, they may not yield cranes, but that’s catalytic investment that’s just as important as some of our megasites.
DPD has its doors open and cut the tape is not a one-time kind of thing. This is an iterative process. We want to hear what’s working really, really well from time to time, but most importantly, tweaks that we can make that makes development a lot easier.
Challenges that we’re seeing are national challenges, but there are things within my control that can make the development process faster, far more predictable and easier as a whole.