This dataset contains all current and active business licenses issued by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. This dataset contains a large number of records /rows of data and may not be viewed in full in Microsoft Excel. Therefore, when downloading the file, select CSV from the Export menu. Open the file in an ASCII text editor, such as Notepad or Wordpad, to view and search.

Data fields requiring description are detailed below.

APPLICATION TYPE: 'ISSUE' is the record associated with the initial license application. 'RENEW' is a subsequent renewal record. All renewal records are created with a term start date and term expiration date. 'C_LOC' is a change of location record. It means the business moved. 'C_CAPA' is a change of capacity record. Only a few license types my file this type of application. 'C_EXPA' only applies to businesses that have liquor licenses. It means the business location expanded.

LICENSE STATUS: 'AAI' means the license was issued.

Business license owners may be accessed at: http://data.cityofchicago.org/Community-Economic-Development/Business-Owners/ezma-pppn
To identify the owner of a business, you will need the account number or legal name.

Data Owner: Business Affairs and Consumer Protection

Time Period: Current

Frequency: Data is updated daily

Business licenses issued by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection in the City of Chicago from 2002 to the present. This dataset contains a large number of records/rows of data and may not be viewed in full in Microsoft Excel. Therefore, when downloading the file, select CSV from the Export menu. Open the file in an ASCII text editor, such as Notepad or Wordpad, to view and search.

Data fields requiring description are detailed below.

APPLICATION TYPE: ‘ISSUE’ is the record associated with the initial license application. ‘RENEW’ is a subsequent renewal record. All renewal records are created with a term start date and term expiration date. ‘C_LOC’ is a change of location record. It means the business moved. ‘C_CAPA’ is a change of capacity record. Only a few license types may file this type of application. ‘C_EXPA’ only applies to businesses that have liquor licenses. It means the business location expanded. 'C_SBA' is a change of business activity record. It means that a new business activity was added or an existing business activity was marked as expired.

LICENSE STATUS: ‘AAI’ means the license was issued. ‘AAC’ means the license was cancelled during its term. ‘REV’ means the license was revoked. 'REA' means the license revocation has been appealed.

LICENSE STATUS CHANGE DATE: This date corresponds to the date a license was cancelled (AAC), revoked (REV) or appealed (REA).

Business License Owner information may be accessed at: https://data.cityofchicago.org/dataset/Business-Owners/ezma-pppn. To identify the owner of a business, you will need the account number or legal name, which may be obtained from this Business Licenses dataset.

Data Owner: Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. Time Period: January 1, 2002 to present. Frequency: Data is updated daily.

This dataset contains the owner information for all the accounts listed in the Business License Dataset, and is sorted by Account Number. To identify the owner of a business, you will need the account number or legal name, which may be obtained from theBusiness Licenses dataset: https://data.cityofchicago.org/dataset/Business-Licenses/r5kz-chrr. Data Owner: Business Affairs & Consumer Protection. Time Period: 2002 to present. Frequency: Data is updated daily.

This dataset contains all current and active business licenses issued by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. This dataset contains a large number of records /rows of data and may not be viewed in full in Microsoft Excel. Therefore, when downloading the file, select CSV from the Export menu. Open the file in an ASCII text editor, such as Notepad or Wordpad, to view and search.

Data fields requiring description are detailed below.

APPLICATION TYPE: 'ISSUE' is the record associated with the initial license application. 'RENEW' is a subsequent renewal record. All renewal records are created with a term start date and term expiration date. 'C_LOC' is a change of location record. It means the business moved. 'C_CAPA' is a change of capacity record. Only a few license types my file this type of application. 'C_EXPA' only applies to businesses that have liquor licenses. It means the business location expanded.

LICENSE STATUS: 'AAI' means the license was issued.

Business license owners may be accessed at: http://data.cityofchicago.org/Community-Economic-Development/Business-Owners/ezma-pppn
To identify the owner of a business, you will need the account number or legal name.

Data Owner: Business Affairs and Consumer Protection

Time Period: Current

Frequency: Data is updated daily

A list of current (unexpired) permits for sidewalk cafes -- outdoor restaurant seating on the public way. Because businesses may begin sidewalk cafe operations on March 1 and operate through December 1, there may be no records outside that time period each year.

For more information on this type of permit, see https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bacp/supp_info/sidewalk_cafe_current_permits.html.

Current active liquor and public place of amusement business licenses issued by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection in the City of Chicago. This dataset contains a large number of records/rows of data and may not be viewed in full in Microsoft Excel. Therefore, when downloading the file, select CSV from the Export menu. Open the file in an ASCII text editor, such as Notepad or Wordpad, to view and search.

Data fields requiring description are detailed below.

APPLICATION TYPE: 'ISSUE' is the record associated with the initial license application. 'RENEW' is a subsequent renewal record. All renewal records are created with a term start date and term expiration date. 'C_LOC' is a change of location record. It means the business moved. 'C_CAPA' is a change of capacity record. Only a few license types may file this type of application. 'C_EXPA' only applies to businesses that have liquor licenses. It means the business location expanded.

LICENSE STATUS: 'AAI' means the license was issued.

Business License Owner information may be accessed at: https://data.cityofchicago.org/dataset/Business-Owners/ezma-pppn. To identify the owner of a business, you will need the account number or legal name, which may be obtained from this Business Licenses dataset.

Data Owner: Business Affairs and Consumer Protection

Time Period: January 1, 2006 to present

Frequency: Data is updated daily

Limited Business Licenses (LBLs) are required for all Chicago businesses not specifically exempt from licensing requirements. This includes all business that provide services, or engage in office operations or general sales. Currently the performance target for processing Limited Business Licenses is 3 days.

All restaurants and food stores selling perishable items are required to apply for a Retail Food License (RFL). This metric tracks the average number of days the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) takes to issue RFLs. The target response time for processing is within 15 days.

A list of current (unexpired) permits for sidewalk cafes -- outdoor restaurant seating on the public way. Because businesses may begin sidewalk cafe operations on March 1 and operate through December 1, there may be no records outside that time period each year.

For more information on this type of permit, see https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bacp/supp_info/sidewalk_cafe_current_permits.html.

A list of permits for sidewalk cafes -- outdoor restaurant seating on the public way. Businesses may begin sidewalk cafe operations on March 1 and operate through December 1.

For more information on this type of permit, see https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bacp/supp_info/sidewalk_cafe_current_permits.html.

A list of flavored tobacco products that may not be sold within 500 feet of a school in Chicago. See http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdph/policy_planning/Board_of_Health/FlavoredTobaccoRules_Final_Dec112015.pdf for the specifics of the regulation. This list will be updated periodically. A list of tobacco flavor terms that may be used to determine if a product is flavored is available at https://data.cityofchicago.org/d/fkci-tsq8.

Current industrial corridors in Chicago. The data can be viewed on the Chicago Data Portal with a web browser. However, to view or use the files outside of a web browser, you will need to use compression software and special GIS software, such as ESRI ArcGIS (shapefile) or Google Earth (KML or KMZ), is required.

Cook County Certified Veteran Owned Businesses

Industrial corridor boundaries in Chicago. To view or use these files, compression software and special GIS software, such as ESRI ArcGIS, is required.

To improve access to capital, the City of Chicago seeded a $2MM revolving loan fund and partnered with Accion to create the Chicago Microlending Institute (CMI). CMI helped train two new local microlenders, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI) and Women’s Business Development Corporation (WBDC), to help connect small businesses around the city to affordable access to capital. These microloans vary in size from $500 to $25,000 and the average loan size is around $10,000. This dataset reflects the lender, location, business industry, and borrower demographics for small businesses supported by the City’s revolving loan fund. Certain data elements could not be included on a per-loan basis for privacy reasons but are summarized in the https://data.cityofchicago.org/id/4s8s-adbr dataset.

Business licenses and building permits are required to operate a business in Chicago or to ensure that a building construction project conforms to the minimum standards of the Chicago Building Code. Currently the performance target for processing most business license types is approximately 15 days.

The Small Business Improvement Fund (SBIF) program uses Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenues to help owners of commercial and industrial properties within specific TIF districts to repair or remodel their facilities for their own business or on behalf of tenants. The chart shows the amount (in dollars) in both grant money, and leveraged capital. Spending is counted in the month in which the project was completed.

To improve access to capital, the City of Chicago seeded a $2MM revolving loan fund and partnered with Accion to create the Chicago Microlending Institute (CMI). There is a full list of loans in the https://data.cityofchicago.org/id/dpkg-upyz dataset. Certain data elements could not be included for privacy reasons but are summarized in this dataset. Loans without a date are not included in the summary.

All restaurants and food stores selling perishable items are required to apply for a Retail Food License (RFL). This metric tracks the average number of days the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) takes to issue RFLs. The target response time for processing is within 15 days.

A list of tobacco flavor terms. These terms may be considered, along with other evidence, to determine if a tobacco product is flavored. See http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdph/policy_planning/Board_of_Health/FlavoredTobaccoRules_Final_Dec112015.pdf for the specifics of the regulation regarding restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco products within 500 feet of schools. A non-exhaustive list of restricted flavored tobacco products is available here: https://data.cityofchicago.org/d/5wce-bks2.

Beginning July 1, 2017, pharmaceutical representatives who market or promote pharmaceuticals within the City of Chicago for more than fifteen calendar days per year are required to obtain a Pharmaceutical Representative License, under an ordinance passed by City Council in the fall of 2016.

Pharmaceutical representatives must complete an online education session at the time of initial application and then complete at least five hours per year of approved continuing education thereafter. When requested by the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, pharmaceutical representatives also must disclose information related to the marketing or promotion of the pharmaceuticals, pharmacological classes, or categories of pharmaceuticals listed on the Chicago Department of Public Health website.

For more information on the Pharmaceutical Representative License, see https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdph/provdrs/behavioral_health/svcs/pharmaceutical-representative-license.html.

The Small Business Improvement Fund (SBIF) program uses Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenues to help owners of commercial and industrial properties within specific TIF districts to repair or remodel their facilities for their own business or on behalf of tenants. Spending is counted in the month in which the project was completed.

Industrial corridors in Chicago that were effective through December 2012. The data can be viewed on the Chicago Data Portal with a web browser. However, to view or use the files outside of a web browser, you will need to use compression software and special GIS software, such as ESRI ArcGIS (shapefile) or Google Earth (KML or KMZ), is required.

A Bed and Breakfast License is required to rent out rooms in a home to overnight guests, and to provide a breakfast meal. Currently the performance target for processing Bed and Breakfast Licenses is 15 days.

Limited Business Licenses (LBLs) are required for all Chicago businesses not specifically exempt from licensing requirements. This includes all business that provide services, or engage in office operations or general sales. Currently the performance target for processing Limited Business Licenses is 3 days.