Sample ReportBuilt From Live Records

Chicago Construction Intelligence

A sample PermitScope report for Chicago, generated from live records pulled from the City of Chicago Open Data portal. Deduplicated projects, the parties named in the city record, values as the source states them, and the data quality of the feed measured instead of asserted.

Data as of October 23, 2026. Current cycle: permits issued between September 23 and October 22, 2026, fetched in one pull of 2,756 records. Report generated from City of Chicago Open Data, Building Permits (dataset ydr8-5enu).

This report groups 2,300 active permits into 2,043 distinct projects at one site address after removing 257 duplicate permit records (11.2 percent of the active set). Distinct projects, not raw permit counts, is the honest unit in this market. No residential or commercial split is reported anywhere in this document: the source publishes no class, so PermitScope invents none.

How to read this report: the Express Permit Program dominates raw volume. 1,874 of 2,756 raw records this cycle (68.0 percent) are Express permits, the city’s fast track for small jobs, and Chicago has no value threshold that separates them. The median stated project value is $22,955. Lead with stated value and recorded scope, not with project counts.

Cycle at a glance

Projects after deduplication: 2,043
Active permits grouped: 2,300
Permits excluded before grouping: 456
Class A, led by a party typed as general contractor in the city record: 513
Class B, trade-led or owner-led, no party typed as general contractor: 1,530
Class C watchlist: 0; every project names at least one party
Projects naming a contractor party: 1,328 (65.0 percent)
Projects naming the owner: 2,030 (99.4 percent)
Projects with a stated valuation: 1,863 (91.2 percent)
Record confidence 70 or above: 753 projects
Record confidence 60 or above: 1,260 projects

All 456 exclusions are documented in the run: 181 already complete, 261 with no status published in the source, 12 stormwater plan approvals that authorize no construction, 1 phased permitting record, and 1 suspended record. The pull reconciled against the city’s own count for the window with zero unexplained difference.

Verified projects

The three cards below survived permit-by-permit verification against the city’s live data: each address, valuation, party typing, and status was re-checked on the live record before this sample was published, and each card links to its source record.

Five-story, 78-unit addition at Ashland and Leland in Uptown (Ward 47)

Record confidence 80 / 100

Class A · Party typed as general contractor named in the city record

Address: 4641 N ASHLAND AVE, Chicago, IL
Stated project value: $14,000,000
Party typed as general contractor: MACON CONSTRUCTION GROUP, INC. (general contractor)
Project basis: 1 permit grouped at this address
Permit status: Active
Lead permit issued: 2026-10-14
Territory: Ward 47, community area Uptown

Recorded scope

DDS 2019 CRBC: ERECT A FIVE (5) STORY RESIDENTIAL ADDITION TO AN EXISTING EXISTING FOUR (4) STORY MASONRY BUILDING AT THE CORNER OF LELAND AND ASHLAND WITH GROUND FLOOR PARKING; 78 DWELLING UNITS FLOORS 1-5...

Implied trades (PermitScope inference from the recorded scope): Framing, Roofing, Stucco & Siding, Drywall. PermitScope also infers that residential apartment volume applies. Inference, not a city record field, and not a claim that any scope is unfilled.

Project basis: permit 101083833, issued by the City of Chicago on 2026-10-14, status ACTIVE in the source. The party above is typed as general contractor in the city record; that typing is declared by the filer, not verified by PermitScope or the city. Verify current status before acting. Source record: City of Chicago record for permit 101083833.

Thirty-first-floor office buildout at 222 W Adams (Ward 42)

Record confidence 90 / 100

Class A · Party typed as general contractor named in the city record

Address: 222 W ADAMS ST, Chicago, IL
Stated project value: $7,993,887 on the lead permit; a companion permit at this address states $328,450. The two are shown, never summed.
Party typed as general contractor: JC ANDERSON INC (general contractor)
Project basis: 2 permits grouped at this address
Permit status: Active
Lead permit issued: 2026-09-28
Territory: Ward 42, community area Loop

Recorded scope

SELF-CERT 2019 CBRC: ALTERATION OF INTERIOR OFFICE SUITE ON FLOOR 31 IN AN EXISTING 35 STORY BUILDING (OCCUPANCY GROUP B / TYPE 1A CONSTRUCTION)

Implied trades (PermitScope inference from the recorded scope): Drywall, Painting, Flooring, Electrical, Plumbing Fixtures, Framing. PermitScope also infers that an office buildout on an upper floor applies. Inference, not a city record field, and not a claim that any scope is unfilled.

Project basis: lead permit 101086966, issued by the City of Chicago on 2026-09-28, status ACTIVE in the source; companion permit 101089203, issued 2026-10-16, names BEAR CONSTRUCTION COMPANY typed as general contractor in the city record. The valuation conflict between the two permits is shown, never summed. Verify current status before acting. Source records: lead permit 101086966 and companion permit 101089203.

Satellite 2 Concourse terminal work at O’Hare (Ward 41)

Record confidence 90 / 100

Class A · Party typed as general contractor named in the city record

Address: 10000 W OHARE ST, Chicago, IL
Stated project value: $5,700,000 on the lead permit. Seventeen permits are grouped at this campus address; values across them are shown per permit, never summed.
Party typed as general contractor: HUNT CONSTRUCTION GROUP INC (general contractor)
Project basis: 17 permits grouped at this address
Permit status: Active
Lead permit issued: 2026-10-01
Territory: Ward 41, community area O’Hare

Recorded scope

NEW CONSTRUCTION OF CAISSONS ONLY FOR THE SATELLITE 2 CONCOURSE (CONCOURSE E) TERMINAL BUILDING.

Implied trades (PermitScope inference from the recorded scope): Stucco & Siding, Drywall, Electrical. PermitScope also infers that a large institutional, multi-permit campus program applies, and that aviation construction applies. Inference, not a city record field, and not a claim that any scope is unfilled.

Project basis: lead permit 101079761, issued by the City of Chicago on 2026-10-01, status ACTIVE in the source; a second general-contractor permit at this address, 101084138 issued the same day, names BLINDERMAN CONSTRUCTION CO., INC. Verify current status before acting. Source records: lead permit 101079761 and permit 101084138.

Trade activity in this cycle

Counts, with the Express caveat attached

Counts are projects carrying at least one implied trade, matched against representative contractor profiles. Electrical 742 (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 honestly: 68.0 percent of raw records this cycle are Express Permit Program permits (1,874 of 2,756), the city’s fast track for small jobs, and a large share of those are small electrical jobs filed by owners. PermitScope does not present Express volume as large-project opportunity; digests filter by stated value and permit type.

Solar, matched and served

The feed contains 187 Small-Scale Solar PV System permits this cycle, identified by the permit type in the record. PermitScope matches solar projects from those permit records: 159 projects carry the Solar trade this cycle, and solar appears as a served trade in this report. Pool and spa work, by contrast, is not a served Chicago trade: only 4 records matched this cycle, of which 2 are unambiguous pool projects.

Data quality, measured

Status missing in the source: 261 records (9.5 percent), excluded, never assumed active
Source rows with a site ZIP field: 0 of 2,756 (0.0 percent); the source has no ZIP field
Records carrying a ward: 99.0 percent
Geocodable projects: 98.8 percent, from latitude and longitude in the record
Projects missing an address: 1
Projects resting on placeholder values only: 28, flagged and never printed as dollar figures
Projects with conflicting valuations across permits: 137, shown, never summed
Records stating no value: 13.2 percent
Projects naming a contractor party: 65.0 percent
Contacts typed as general contractor: 76.0 percent of contractor contacts; typing is declared by the filer
Owner named: 99.4 percent
Address completeness: 99.96 percent of permits

Honesty notes

• Most Chicago volume is small. 68.0 percent of raw records are Express permits and the median stated value is $22,955. Any Chicago volume figure without that disclosure is marketing, and PermitScope does not publish one.

• No residential or commercial split exists in this market’s source data. Reports describe projects by recorded scope, stated value, ward, and named parties, and nothing else.

• General-contractor typing is declared by the permit filer in the city record. PermitScope reports the typing as recorded and never presents it as verified.

• A permit authorizes work. It does not say a scope is open, a bid is being taken, or a contractor is hiring. Nothing in this report claims any of those things.

Generated October 23, 2026, from a live pull of 2,756 permit records issued between September 23 and October 22, 2026. Methodology: same qualification engine as the Austin market, with Chicago-specific exclusions documented in the run (see the market page for the full reconciliation).

Data source: City of Chicago Open Data, Building Permits (dataset ydr8-5enu), public records as published. Reported costs are the filer’s stated values, not verified budgets. PermitScope is not affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Chicago.

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Chicago projects are organized by ward, community area, and distance. ZIP filtering is not available for Chicago because the city permit data does not include ZIP codes.