Chicago, Illinois
Our second market. Every figure on this page comes from the current Chicago qualification cycle, run on issued permit records from the City of Chicago open data portal. The city updates the dataset daily; the newest permits in this cycle were issued about a day before the run. Other markets open only after their data passes the same checks; the markets section on the home page shows what is live and what is in preparation.
Latest 30-day run of the qualification engine on City of Chicago records.
How to read the volume honestly: 1,874 of the 2,756 raw records (68 percent) are Express Permit Program permits, the city’s fast track for small jobs, so raw Chicago volume skews small and owner-led. The median stated project value this cycle is $22,955. By stated value: 970 projects under $25,000, 565 between $25,000 and $150,000, 328 over $150,000, and 180 with no value stated in the record. Of the 328 projects over $150,000, 260 are Class A. Subscriber digests filter by value and permit type, so a trade sees the slice that fits its work instead of the whole feed.
Chicago’s source publishes no residential or commercial class, so PermitScope does not split Chicago projects that way. Projects are described by their recorded scope and stated value, never by an invented segment.
More cycle facts: 65.0 percent of projects (1,328 of 2,043) name at least one contractor party, and 99.4 percent name the owner. 91.2 percent of projects carry a stated valuation. 753 projects carry a record confidence of 70 or above, and 1,260 carry 60 or above.
How Chicago projects are classified
Every project carries one class, and the class says only what the record supports. No class claims that any scope of work is unfilled.
Class A Led by a party typed as general contractor in the city record
A contact on the project’s permits is typed as general contractor in the city record (the record’s own contact types include CONTRACTOR-GENERAL CONTRACTOR and GENERAL CONTRACTOR). That typing is declared by the filer, not verified by PermitScope or the city, and some Class A leads are trade firms typed as general contractor on their own renovation permits. These are the projects where the record names who is running the job and who hires the trades.
Class B Trade-led or owner-led
No party is typed as general contractor in the record. A trade party or the owner is named instead, which often means the project is being run without a general contractor, or the general contractor is simply not on the record. One of this cycle’s ten largest projects by stated value is Class B (see the table below), so class follows the named parties, never the dollar figure.
Class C Watchlist
No contractor or applicant is named yet. Chicago’s current cycle has no Class C projects, because Chicago records name an owner or another party on effectively every permit. The class exists in the system and will appear in any cycle where a record names nobody.
Mapped from real Chicago permit scope
These trades are mapped from the scope text of Chicago permits in the current cycle. Implied trades are PermitScope inference from that scope text, and they are labeled as inference on every project card in every report.
Matched against representative contractor profiles this cycle: Electrical 742 projects (36.3 percent), Plumbing 273 (13.4 percent), Roofing 249 (12.2 percent), Framing & Carpentry 214 (10.5 percent), Concrete & Flatwork 184 (9.0 percent), Painting 174 (8.5 percent), Solar 159 (7.8 percent), Excavation & Grading 85 (4.2 percent), HVAC / Mechanical 42 (2.1 percent). 1,349 projects (66.0 percent) carry at least one implied trade. Read the electrical figure with the Express disclosure above: it reflects many small Express electrical permits, not 742 large opportunities.
Solar is a served trade in Chicago. The feed contains 187 Small-Scale Solar PV System permits this cycle, and PermitScope matches solar projects from those permit records: 159 projects this cycle.
One trade is deliberately not served: pool and spa work. Chicago pool permit volume this cycle was minimal, 4 matched records, of which 2 are unambiguous pool projects, so Pool & Spa is not presented as a served Chicago trade.
Territory in Chicago works by ward, community area, or radius around a base address. The source publishes no site ZIP code: 99.0 percent of records carry a ward, and 98.8 percent of projects can be placed from the latitude and longitude in the record. Chicago territory is never ZIP based.
Largest projects by stated value in the record
Values are the filer’s reported cost, printed only when the record states at least $500. The party named is the contact typed as general contractor in the city record on that project’s permits.
| Project | Stated value | Party typed as general contractor in the record | Recorded scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1331 S WELLS ST | $94,000,000 | PEPPER CONSTRUCTION COMPANY | Enclosure only permit for a 4-story stadium on piles (1 permit, issued 2026-10-20) |
| 225 W RANDOLPH ST | $44,919,084 | REDMOND CONSTRUCTION CORP. | Interior alterations, office floors 10 to 16, buildout for Golub Capital (1 permit, issued 2026-10-06) |
| 333 W WOLF POINT PLZ | $29,000,000 | CLUNE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, L.P. | Initial buildout of 56,721 SF commercial office space, floors 19 to 21 (1 permit, issued 2026-10-08) |
| 8332 S DR MARTIN L KING JR DR | $25,000,000 | SKENDER CONSTRUCTION LLC | New construction, 52-unit senior residential building (1 permit, issued 2026-10-09) |
| 705 W CHICAGO AVE | $22,600,000 | GILBANE BUILDING COMPANY, INC. | Landscaping, park, and riverwalk for adjacent casino, hotel, and event center (1 permit, issued 2026-10-16) |
| 4717 S CALUMET AVE | $21,000,000 | BURLING BUILDERS, INC | Foundation, grade beams, and underground utilities for a new 2-story senior center (2 permits, issued 2026-09-29 and 2026-09-30) |
| 315 S JEFFERSON ST | $19,000,000 | SUMMIT DESIGN & BUILD, LLC. | New construction, 9-story mixed-use building with basement on caissons (1 permit, issued 2026-10-05) |
| 1700 W ADAMS ST | $15,000,000 | ARCO/MURRAY NATIONAL HOLDINGS INC | New two-story precast concrete church with auditorium, child care areas, and office space (1 permit, issued 2026-10-01) |
| 4641 N ASHLAND AVE | $14,000,000 | MACON CONSTRUCTION GROUP, INC. | Five-story residential addition to an existing masonry building, 78 units (1 permit, issued 2026-10-14) |
One top-ten project is honestly Class B: 1651 E 95TH ST, $18,230,600, mechanical repair and replacement, with no party typed as general contractor in the record. Value alone does not make a Class A lead; the class follows the named parties.
Real reports, built from this cycle’s records
The Chicago sample below was generated from live records by the same engine that builds subscriber digests, and its featured projects were re-verified permit by permit against the city’s live data.
Chicago Construction Intelligence, sample report
The cycle at a glance, the largest projects with the parties named in the record, activity by trade, measured data quality, and three verified concrete project cards.
Read the sample reportMethod and honesty notes
• Valuations are filer-reported costs, not verified budgets. 13.2 percent of records state no value. Small placeholder values exist ($1 and $100 are the most common); the 28 projects that rest on placeholder values only are flagged and never printed as dollar figures. 137 projects carry conflicting valuations across their permits; the engine shows the conflict rather than summing them.
• Status is missing on 261 records this cycle (9.5 percent). Those records are excluded, never assumed active.
• A permit says work was authorized. It never says a scope is open, a bid is being taken, or a contractor is hiring. No project on this page claims availability of work.
• Address completeness in the source is 99.96 percent; exactly one project this cycle is missing an address.
Data: City of Chicago Open Data, Building Permits dataset (dataset identifier ydr8-5enu), public records as published, used under the portal’s terms with attribution to the City of Chicago. PermitScope reads the records; the city does not endorse this service, and subscribers receive no advance or privileged access to them.
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