You will pay a fee at closing but it is minimal.

The 200k are sitting on my bank account, are there any options for me to minimize my tax bill?

Sounds like a terrible plan to me, unless you think you're going to spend significantly more time there than your post indicates or the expenses of alternative local living arrangements outweighs this cost of owning this unit.The way I see it, your plan hinges on market appreciation, which may or may not come.

But I'm looking for a low risk deal to minimize financial damage. 

And you have otherwise good economic indicators but poor performance on this site?

I went through this great building that needs minimal work (sub $10k)...only issue is when you drive up to the front of the building the street is filled with people just "hanging around".

(unauthorized pets, evictions, slow pay tenants,etc.)and a myriad of other questions...Experience is the number one indicator of success.

More specifically, code section 16-18-070 seems to indicate that it may be possible to get this fee waived if the area meets the goals in the City Space Plan.There are many, many pages of reading material online about the plan, but we are trying to figure out how to tell if the goals for our area are being met.Property is pretty squarely between the actual parks of Wicker Park and Humboldt Park and close to the 606, so this may not be one of the areas of the city requiring additional green space.Basically, if there is a viable way (by meeting current criteria of the City Space Plan) we’d like to not pay the fee if we can supply the correct information.It is very challenging to decipher this and we get one shot at getting the fee waived.If it matters, we are taking an existing 2 flat and turning it into a 3 flat – allowed by area zoning and there are no changes to the footprint of the existing building.We still have more research to do but we couldn’t even find specific information on the progress of the plan’s goals and what areas meet the Open Space Requirements now.16-18-070 Individualized Assessment Of Impact.

A stunning victory for Trump and the Republicans indicates a short lifespan for Dodd-Frank and the CFPB ,fire up those owner finance  and rent to own programs 

Your cost is usually minimal assuming you represent yourself.