The city owns two vacant lots near 63rd and Sangamon streets. A 98-year-old mixed-use building at 917 W. 63rd St. has been owned by a north suburban investor since 1987, who bought it for $38,000 at a sheriff's sale, according to property records. Meanwhile, a 101-year-old storefront at 921-23 W. 63rd St. was last sold in 1996 for $40,000, but the local owner most recently mortgaged the property for $150,000 in 2004, according to documents on file at the Cook County Recorder of Deeds office. The latter property has since gone into foreclosure, says Department of Planning and Development project manager Michelle Nolan. Attempts to contact the owners to negotiate sales have been unsuccessful so far, she adds.

While Kennedy-King College is relocating four blocks north to a $192-million campus at 63rd and Halsted streets, retail operations there also are moving a few blocks north, to a $23-million center in the 5900 and 6000 blocks of South Halsted Street. The city also is moving to acquire a 38-unit townhouse development between the new retail center and city college, as many of the units now belong to HUD following foreclosures.

An administrative law judge ruled the owner of 921 W. 63rd St. was in violation of five counts of the city's building code, and assessed $2,500 in fines. However, one of the four-unit building's two occupants is the Chicago Department of Transportation, Nolan notes.