CHICAGO— Today, Mayor Brandon Johnson joined Ald. Monique Scott, Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright, the Westside Community Group, and members of the North Lawndale community to break ground on the Trumbull Collection, a group of nine market-rate three-flat apartment buildings being supported by the Johnson administration's Missing Middle infill housing program.
The $6.5 million project will replace eight vacant lots on the 1600 and 1800 blocks of S.
Drake Ave. and S.
Trumbull Ave. with 27 mid-density homes.
“Missing Middle is about development without displacement,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson. “By advancing our local developers’ plans and supporting construction costs, we’re contributing to neighborhood stability, wealth-building opportunities, and ultimately, the development of safer, more affordable communities.
My administration will continue to make the investments needed to ensure working families can afford to stay in the communities they love, raise their children in the communities they love, and build their future here in Chicago.
The City-backed project is being led by Westside Community Group, a North Lawndale based real estate development firm.
Following completion of the Trumball Collection, the firm intends to lead development of a subsequent 33-unit Missing Middle project in East Garfield Park.
“Today is more than a groundbreaking, it’s a full-circle moment.
I was raised just blocks from here.
I’ve worked in this community, my daughter was born at the neighborhood hospital, and real estate became the tool that changed the trajectory of my life,” said Jasmine Shaw, Founder and Developer at Westside Community Group. “To now return to the very community that poured into me and help create new pathways to homeownership and wealth-building is an incredible honor.
Trumbull Collection represents what’s possible when we intentionally invest in neighborhoods that have long deserved investment.”
The Johnson administration provided approximately $4 million in developmental assistance made available through Mayor Johnson’s $1.25B Housing and Economic Development Bond.
“The Missing Middle program creates generational wealth for households that purchase and live within each unit, it supports the minority-led development teams that are responsible for their construction, and it fosters population growth that is synonymous with communities on the rise,” saidDPD Commissioner Ciere Boatright.
The Westside Community Group project was selected in January 2025 from among 30 developer responses to a DPD Request for Proposals for 36 City lots between Ogden Avenue and Douglas Boulevard.
Developer responses to a DPD Missing Middle RFP for 30 vacant lots in South Chicago and West Englewood are under review.
The project is one of five Missing Middle projects in North Lawndale.
The five minority-led development teams are approved to construct 40 multi-unit buildings valued at $37.7 million.
Consisting of 115 market rate, for-sale units, the buildings will replace 35 vacant City lots.â¯
Across the entire West Side, developments have been approved to replace 55 vacant lots with 70 multi-unit buildings valued at $68 million.
Missing Middle is at the center of Johnson administration’s strategy to repopulate neighborhoods throughout Chicago by leveraging vacant City land and HED financing to facilitate construction of contemporary, medium-density housing that has become “missing” from South and West Side communities following decades of disinvestment.
The program provides City-owned lots for $1 and HED funds to empower minority-owned developers to create homes with purchase prices that are commensurate with market rates.
To date, the administration has secured approval for more than 100 Missing Middle buildings containing more than 300 homes across the West and South Side. Total project costs are over $11 million.
Mayor Johnson remains committed to delivering more affordable homes and supporting projects that drive greater economic vitality in North Lawndale and communities across Chicago.
The Johnson administration has put the construction of a larger, more diverse housing stock and thousands of new affordable homes at the center of its strategy to make Chicago more affordable for working people.
More information about the program and selected projects isavailable on the Missing Middle website.