The Hatchery

In January 2018, CDF provided $5 million in NMTC allocation for construction of The Hatchery, a new 67,000-square-foot kitchen incubator for emerging food businesses, located immediately adjacent to the Kedzie CTA Green Line station in East Garfield Park. The Hatchery was founded as a nonprofit joint venture between Accion Chicago, a nonprofit microlender, and the Kinzie Industrial Development Corporation (KIDC) in 2016 to deliver programming and services for entrepreneurs in the food industry. The project includes 56 private, rentable kitchens (26 small and 30 mid-sized) and a variety of shared spaces, including a shared kitchen, dry and cold storage, warehousing facilities, and shared office space. Accion will move its offices to the project.

The Hatchery will have capacity to serve 50 to 75 small businesses at a time. Tenants will receive industry specific services tailored to help them succeed, including sales and distribution support, marketing strategy, accounting, finance and human resources offerings; assistance with business licensing and permitting; workforce development services; and networking opportunities with industry experts. The Hatchery’s partnership with Accion Chicago will further provide tenants and members with access to flexible capital. Additionally, The Hatchery will offer monthly entrepreneurship classes for community members free of charge, discounted pricing on membership to The Hatchery for 20 community residents and will work with other local organizations to promote community development through entrepreneurship, among other offerings. Within five years the project will have supported 457 retained FTE positions and created over 450 new FTE positions as tenant businesses grow. The Project also supported over 40 temporary construction jobs.

Community Reinvestment Fund, FirstPathway, and Partners for Common Good provided $22.5 million in NMTC allocation for the project. NMTC equity and an additional $2.5 million in NMTC allocation were provided by PNC Bank.