Construction has started on the Trumbull Collection, a new multifamily community planned for North Lawndale. The city-backed initiative will bring nine market-rate, three-flat apartment buildings to a series of vacant parcels, creating a mid-density residential cluster on the 1600 and 1800 blocks of S. Drake Avenue and S. Trumbull Avenue. In total, the $6.5 million development is expected to deliver 27 new homes on eight former vacant lots.
The project is being led by Westside Community Group, a North Lawndale-based real estate development firm. Working in partnership with the city, the firm is advancing an infill strategy that targets underutilized residential land in an established neighborhood. The new buildings are designed as market-rate three-flats, a format that aligns with the “Missing Middle” housing concept by adding density without the scale of high-rise product.
Public support for the Trumbull Collection is being provided through the Johnson administration, which has allocated approximately $4 million in development assistance to the project. Those funds are sourced from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $1.25 billion Housing and Economic Development Bond, which is intended to support housing production, neighborhood investment, and related economic development initiatives across the city. The Trumbull Collection is identified as one of five Missing Middle projects in North Lawndale moving forward under this framework.
According to the city, the five minority-led development teams participating in the North Lawndale Missing Middle initiative have been approved to construct a total of 40 multi-unit buildings valued at $37.7 million. The Trumbull Collection represents a portion of that pipeline, adding 27 units through its nine three-flat structures. Collectively, the program is designed to reactivate vacant lots, diversify the local housing stock, and support incremental density in an existing neighborhood fabric.
Following completion of the Trumbull Collection, Westside Community Group plans to lead development of an additional Missing Middle project in East Garfield Park. That subsequent initiative is described as a 33-unit development, further extending the firm’s focus on neighborhood-scale, mid-density housing on the city’s West Side. City leaders have framed these efforts as tools for neighborhood stability and wealth-building, with the mayor emphasizing that support for local developers and construction costs is intended to contribute to safer and more affordable communities over time.
