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. A4CB has moved its offices to the project.

The Hatchery has capacity to serve 50 to 75 small businesses at a time. Tenants 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 A4CB provides tenants and members with access to flexible capital. Additionally, The Hatchery offers monthly entrepreneurship classes for community members free of charge, discounted pricing on membership to The Hatchery for 20 community residents. The project tenants employ over 140 FTEs, and construction supported 136 temporary FTEs.

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.