It would be interesting to find out if Chicago Terminal actually owns the land under the tracks or simply has an easement. Chicago Terminal tried that move at the end of Kingsbury between Halsted and Evergreen only to learn it did not actually own the land.
When parent Chicago Milwaukee Corporation (CMC) sold its Milwaukee Road railroad subsidiary to Soo in 1985 it typically retained ownership of the property and Soo (and later, CP and Chicago Terminal) had an easement to operate over it in Chicago as was the case on the strip of land from Clybourn north to Fullerton, and in the West Loop area where the railroad once had freight yards and warehouses, leaving a narrow strip owned by Metra for commuter and long-distance Amtrak passenger trains.
Once railroad operations ceased on land owned by then CMC and its successor owners were free to sell the land or develop it themselves.
CMC existed after it shed its railroad operations to sell off in chunks its once vast property holdings of the railroad, especially timberlands out west. It paid a very high dividend then sold off its last assets by the mid-2000s, liquidating itself. That was the end of the last corporate connection to the former Milwaukee Road.
CMC over the years became CMC Heartland then simply Heartland Partners.
