Thomas DiPiazza: Mayor's Daley's Insider Who Turns $50,000 Parcel of Land into $1.2 Million Six Years Later

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Mayor Richard Daley took an hourlong boat ride on the Chicago River in fall 1997 and came back with a vision of improving the riverfront in the city's neighborhoods.

Just about that time, Thomas DiPiazza, an ally of Daley's, also took an interest in the riverfront, buying a highly contaminated piece of land that was slated to become a public park under the mayor's plan.

Nearly 10 years later, the park still has not opened, but DiPiazza's real estate investment has paid off handsomely, according to a Tribune investigation.


DiPiazza and a partner bought the vacant, odd-shaped property in Daley's native Bridgeport neighborhood for $50,000 in 1998. Six years later, the city paid them $1.2 million for the land.

The investors benefited from ever-escalating appraisals. The final one tripled the land's estimated value after the city broke from its usual practice of valuing land at its current zoning.

Here we are in 2007,and Alderman Roti's name is still being mentioned by the Chicago Tribune.