Woodlawn Pointe — West Woodlawn, Chicago

Impact Report

For decades, the lots along Evans Avenue in West Woodlawn sat vacant — a physical marker of the redlining that cut this community off from capital for generations. Greenlining Realty USA® was built to answer exactly that history, and Woodlawn Pointe was its first proof of concept: nine new and renovated homes delivered on ground the market had written off, in the same neighborhood where founder Lamell McMorris grew up. Where a red line once meant "no investment here," Woodlawn Pointe drew a new one — in green.

Project Overview

  • Developer

    Greenlining Realty USA® (founded 2016)

  • Location

    Evans Avenue, West Woodlawn, Chicago

  • Groundbreaking

    June 23, 2020

  • Completion

    New construction: fall 2020. Full 9-home development: January 2021

  • Investment

    Multimillion-dollar investment 

Housing Delivered

  • 9 total housing units

    • 7 new-construction homes

    • 2 fully renovated homes (1 single-family, 1 multi-family)

  • Home designs reflect the neighborhood's historic architecture; the development's three home models are named after notable former Woodlawn residents.

  • Homes sold at under-market rate. 

Land Acquisition

  • 7 lots acquired through the Cook County Land Bank Authority, sold at below-market rates under a program requiring buyers to be community-based developers who rehab and deliver finished homes to homeowners.

  • The Cook County Land Bank Authority characterized Woodlawn Pointe as the first project under its umbrella to involve multiple nearby homes being built or rehabbed simultaneously — an infill model the Land Bank has since promoted as a template.

Partners

  • Greenlining Realty USA®

  • National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), via its GROWTH initiative / NCRC Housing Rehab Fund

  • Cook County Land Bank Authority

  • Constructive Renovations (builder)

Community Impact Context

Data points establishing why this development matters, independent of Woodlawn Pointe's own numbers:

  • Homeowners in Chicago's historically redlined neighborhoods have lost an average of $232,000 in home equity compared to homeowners in greenlined neighborhoods — a gap of 101% in median home equity ($462,000 vs. effectively half that), per Redfin research.

  • Between 2012–2018, 68.1% of housing purchase loan dollars in Chicago went to majority-white neighborhoods, versus 8.1% to majority-Black neighborhoods and 8.7% to majority-Latino neighborhoods, per a WBEZ/City Bureau analysis.

Recognition

  • Named a finalist in Fast Company's 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards, Spaces, Places, and Cities category.

  • The project's virtual groundbreaking (held remotely due to the pandemic) drew participation from national civil rights and political figures, including Pete Buttigieg, Martin Luther King III, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. — an unusual level of national attention for a 9-home South Side infill project.

Timeline Summary

Milestone/Date

Groundbreaking / June 2020

New construction complete / Fall 2020

Full development complete / January 2021

Fast Company recognition / 2021