Land Acquisition and Planning

Openlands serves as an open space land acquisition consultant, providing technical assistance to local government entities that own and manage property in northeastern Illinois and the surrounding region.

• Negotiating and structuring innovative and cost-effective transactions;
• Arranging and managing the due diligence process, including appraisals, environmental site assessments, and title and land survey work; and
• Providing interim financing and serving as an interim landowner.
  

Why use Openlands to purchase land?

• We can move at the speed of any private buyer to purchase land.
• We have specialized expertise to negotiate and acquire land for government entities for use as open space.
• As a not-for-profit organization, we can be the beneficiary of bargain sales and other means that insure the lowest possible purchase price.
• We can hold the land on your behalf—up to three years—while you assemble funding.
• We can provide interim financing and lease the property to you so that you have immediate use of the site.
• We can assemble multiple parcels, including land secured from tax sales, to form large open space

Our property acquisition work focuses on natural areas, parks and recreation, stream corridors and trails, and parcel-by-parcel assemblages to create large public open spaces. The size of properties we’ve acquired range from small city lots to hundreds of acres, with price tags spanning hundreds of thousand to millions of dollars.

Over the past thirty years, we have assisted nearly 100 government entities—including the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), the Forest Preserve District of Will County, Lockport Township Park District, as well as many cities, villages, and townships—in preserving public open space.

Land Acquisition Planning
Under special circumstances, Openlands also works with local officials, community groups, and landowners to develop strategies to acquire specific parcels of land. 

Examples of our land acquisition and planning work include:

• Kishwaukee River Meander, Boone County
• Black Crown Marsh, Lake County
• Hartigan Beach and Park Expansion, Chicago
• Hoover Boy Scout Camp, Yorkville
• Nature Center for Hidden Lakes, Bolingbrook
• Broman Park Expansion, Chicago
• Van Vlissingen Prairie, Chicago
  

For more information, please contact Openlands Land Preservation Specialist Emy Brawley via e-mail or by phone at 312-863-6274.

Openlands 25 E. Washington St., Suite 1650, Chicago, IL 60602
312-863-6250 | 312-863-6251 (FAX)
info@openlands.org

Copyright © 2010 Openlands