• Posted: August 16, 2019
• Community Building

Powering Chicago is proud to help Related Midwest in its quest to create a first-of-its kind, cross-industry loan fund that will guarantee money for minority-and women-owned firms competing for work on The 78 project.

Related Midwest’s Thursday night fundraiser, “Paving a Path to the Future: A Night Supporting Chicago Minority Small Business Owners,” raised nearly half a million dollars for small businesses from Chicago’s South and West sides to use for loans.

Powering Chicago donated $50,000 to the event.

“I’ve never seen a collaboration like this in my 33 years in this business,” said IBEW Local 134 Business Manager, Don Finn. “I just can’t wait to see the faces of the contractors tomorrow who are going to get this money to be able to make something happen. This is huge.”

The funds generated from Thursday’s event will help fuel low-interest loans ranging between $10,000 to $500,000 for minority contractors to bid work on the project.

Related Midwest’s Senior Vice President Don Biernacki said last year that he anticipates the $7b South Loop development will need thousands of tradespeople to complete the project that will become Chicago’s 78^th neighborhood.

“We anticipate that we will need 10,000 to 12,000 tradespeople to complete this project,” Biernacki said. “That doesn’t even count construction management and others involved with that aspect of this job. It doesn’t include architects, engineers, or other professional services either.

“It’s 62 acres of vacant land that is a wonderful blank slate for us to put together a plan that not only supports the amazing mixed-use concept that we have but that also will finally connect the downtown area with some of the communities down there like Chinatown, West Pilsen, and Bronzeville,” Biernacki added.

The 78 is schedule to take 15-20 years to complete. You can read more about it here.