Five homebuilding firms plan to fill up to 42 vacant lots in the Bronzeville neighborhood with new houses sold at market rates in a project Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) announced late Tuesday.

The lots, all owned by the city, are scattered on the 3900 to 4500 blocks of Prairie, Calumet and Indiana avenues. The city will sell the lots to developers for $1 each, and the completed homes are expected to be priced from $440,000 to $589,000, according to a press release issued by Emanuel's office.

"I am looking forward to seeing these vacant lots finally being turned into much-needed homes for families in Bronzeville," Dowell said in a statement.

For the builders, "it's an opportunity to be part of the transformation of a community, Lenox Jackson told Crain's. His firm, Urban Equities, will build a house with a contemporary exterior and what he describes as a "soft-loft-like interior."

Having the lots scattered over several blocks instead of in one contiguous space will provide reassurance both for buyers of the new homes and residents of existing homes, Jackson said. Buyers "aren't coming in to some new isolated community," and people who live in the extant buildings on the blocks "can see the new energy that replaces those vacant lots."

Benjamin Van Horne of Greenline Homes said recent development in several South Side neighborhoods has been sprinkled over a large area, where its impact is reduced. "With a critical mass like this," he said, "we can send a stronger signal to the market that you can have confidence living in this neighborhood."

The first five houses in the so-called Third Ward Parade of Homes should be complete by August, with others following as sales occur, according to participants. The other builders involved are R&D Builders, Wade Enterprises & Associates, and Click Development, according to the mayor's press release.

“The parade of homes will foster new residential development that, in turn, will support commercial development that's occurring throughout Bronzeville,” Emanuel said.

Recent enhancements to the neighborhood around where the homes will be built are the Arts & Recreation Center at Ellis Park, the new Mariano's grocery store on King Drive and a dramatic new pedestrian bridge over Lake Shore Drive at 35th Street, the press release noted.