Quad Communities Development Corporation latest news

2013 Think Green Project

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:00:00 -0600

QCDC celebrates 10th anniversary.

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:00 -0600

On Thursday, May 16, 2013, hundreds of people gathered at Maggiano's Restaurant in River North to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Quad Communities Development Corporation (QCDC).

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle Keynote Speaker

Bill Healy

Shops and Lofts at 47 to anchor Bronzeville retail

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:00:00 -0600

Once completed in 2014, Shops and Lofts at 47 will feature a 41,000 sq. ft. Walmart Neighborhood Market, 14,000 sq. ft. of neighborhood retail and 96 rental apartments—an $46 million project in total. At the groundbreaking, Mayor Rahm Emanuel pointed out that Shops and Lofts at 47 aligns with the recently announced “Chicago Neighborhoods Now” program, an initiative to improve seven communities across Chicago, including Bronzeville. "Shops and Lofts at 47 is not an island, but an anchor project that will leverage and accentuate other investments," Mayor Emanuel said, adding that it's the “beginning of a new chapter for Bronzeville."

Turning the page to this new chapter has been far from easy. In normal cases, a development of this size should not take seven years. It all started when Bernita Johnson-Gabriel, the spitfire executive director of QCDC, and her consultant Chinwe Onyeagoro went to Las Vegas to an International Council of Shopping Centers conference to market Bronzeville and the Cottage Grove corridor to developers. There they met the development teams that make up Mahogany Ventures, the lead developer of Shops and Lofts. Since that first meeting, however, this project has battled many hurdles. Originally planned as a mixed-use condominium project, the development lost its anchor tenant. That setback then delayed the project, pushing it smack dab into the middle of the great recession. It weathered three aldermanic transitions, the built and lost hopes of Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid that would have spurred additional investment in the community, and the many skeptics who didn’t see the vision local leaders did. In this time, the team grew, bringing on The Community Builders, a national affordable housing developer, who led the charge to transition the deal from for-sale housing to mixed-income apartments. Through it all, when many would have walked away, the partners remained committed.

This project never would have been realized without stalwart visionaries like Cook County Board President and former 4^th Ward Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, 4^th Ward Ald. Will Burns, former Ald. Newsome, Johnson-Gabriel, and the countless others who knew the potential of their community and made sure others could see it, too.

For MPC, Shops and Lofts at 47 has special meaning. We have spent the last five years supporting efforts to develop and retain retail in Bronzeville and have helped local leaders focus energies on fulfilling the potential of 47^th Street, a key corridor that connects the community from the Dan Ryan Expressway to Lake Michigan. This project is important to me personally, as I've lived in Bronzeville for the past nine years and serve as a board member of QCDC. I hope you will join us in 2014 at the ribbon cutting!

MPC Research Assistant Cecilia Gamba contributed to this post.

Quad Communities Development Corporation celebrates our Tenth Year Anniversary Luncheon

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:00:00 -0600

10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY FUNDRAISER

2003-2013

10 Years of Pursuing the Vision: Connecting the Past, Present and Future

Thursday May 16, 2013

11:30 am to 1 pm

Sponsorship packages available

For more information contact:

Yvette Kelly Special Events Coordinator

at 773-268-7232 or ykelly@qcdc.org

To purchase your ticket and register online: http://pursuingthevision.eventbrite.com/

MK Communications

WBDC Micro Loan Days

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:00:00 -0600

Business Resource Fair

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:00:00 -0600

Smart Phone Pictorial Tour

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:00:00 -0600

Elev8

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:00:00 -0600

October 8, 2012 kicked off another session of the Elev8 Extended Day program at Reavis Elementary School. This year we are moving to an extended schedule called Elev8 University. The program is set up similar to college where there are 7 core program areas that the students can participate in: Leadership Development Career and Education Development, Life Skills, Health/Wellness/Fitness, Arts (visual, performing, language, etc.) Academic Enrichment and Community and Parental Engagement. Reavis students choose a class in either Leadership Development or Career and Education Development that they major in for the entire school year.

The classes offered in those categories are: Peace and Leadership Council as facilitated by Mikva Challenge, Chicago Youth Animators (CYA), and Jr. Achievement. The researched based curriculum of these classes benefits from having the same students week after week to build upon their skill sets. By the end of Elev8 University, the students will have developed the tools they need to be productive and successful leaders among their peers.

In addition to the majors the students choose, they also choose electives to take each trimester. Some classes being offered are: Healthy Cooking, Music Production, Hip Hop dance and Cheerleading. The students will be in these classes until the end of December, and then when they return from Winter Break, will take a new elective class in a different core program area. Reavis is hosting the annual Elev8 Winter Showcase on December 20, 2012 from 5-6:30pm.

Connect 4 "Promoting Community Togetherness" VIP Reception and Awards Gala.

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 12:00:00 -0600

CONNECT 4:
Our mission is to connect the past, present and future by highlighting the historically significant and culturally rich communities of North Kenwood, Oakland, Douglas, and Grand Boulevard.
Connect 4 "Promoting Community Togetherness"
The name, Connect 4, is based on four vital components of a vibrant community: Community, Beautification, Political Will and Business. This annual event recognizes the efforts of those who work tirelessly through civic leadership to enrich and enhance our communities.

To register: http://bronzevilleevents.eventbrite.com/

Past recipients:
Business:
2010: Johnny Blair CEO The Bronzeville Chamber of Commerce
2011: Norman Bolden "Norman's Bistro & Room 43"
Cliifford Smith "Fort Smith Clothing"

Beautification:
2010 :Nathaniel Mc Gowan, Superintendent 4th Ward Street
& Sanitation
2011: Milton Misenberg "Kenwood Oakland Art & Design"
SSA 47 "Special Service Area Comisssion

Community:
2010: Pamela Perkins/Owner of Bronzeville Little Feet Day Care
2011: Monica Haslip "Little Black Pearl"
Lanette Stigsen "Community Advocate"

Political Will:
2010: Alderman Toni Preckwinkle 4th Ward
State Representative Will Burns
State Senator Kwame Rauol
2011: Pat Dowell Alderman 3rd Ward"
Will Burns "Alderman 4th Ward"

Operation Safe Zone Youth Place-Making Program

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Jimmy Guzman

Breast and Cervical Cancer Awareness

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:00:00 -0600

2012 Harvest Festival & Petting Zoo

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Open House Chicago 2012

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Open House Chicago 2012 Facts

October 13 & 14, the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) will host Open House Chicago 2012 (OHC), a free event that takes the public behind the scenes of more than 150 of the city’s greatest spaces and places. OHC is made possible through the generous support of: Kemper Corporation, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Transit Authority, WBEZ Chicago Public Media, NBC5 Chicago, ComEd, Designer at Home and Room & Board.

OHC is free! No registration required. Sites will be open on a first-come, first-served basis.

CAF members enjoy “preferred access: to sites. Itineraries are self-guided and informed by a printed event directory (available in the Chicago Tribune on October 11) or online after early September at www.openhousechicago.org.

OHC sites in 13 diverse neighborhoods including downtown Chicago are available at varying times between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Check listings for details. OHC neighborhoods include:

Black Metropolis/Greater Bronzeville (For more information call Yvette Kelly 773-268-7232)
Little Village
Chinatown (New for 2012)
Pilsen (New for 2012)
Downtown
Prairie District (New for 2012)
Garfield Park/ North Lawndale
Rogers Park/ West Ridge
Gold Coast (New for 2012)
South Shore (New for 2012)
Humboldt Park (New for 2012)
Uptown (New for 2012)
Hyde Park

Visitors arrrange their own transportation to the communities/sites they want to tour. Take a CTA train or bus. Walk. Ride a bike. Roller-skate—any method is welcome. Depending on the community, parking may also be widely available.

OHC weekend will provide access to a wide variety of sites with diverse styles and functions. Locations include: residential spaces, offices, hotels, restaurants, theaters and performance halls, private landscapes, design/architecture studios, schools, places of worship as well as retail, manufacturing, cultural and government facilities. This diverse selection of sites allows visitors to plan itineraries according to their own specific interests.

The Chicago Tribune will be printing 500,000 copies of an OHC Event Guide and packaging them in their full regular circulation (home delivery and newsstand) on Thursday, October 11. A limited supply of free directories will also be available at OHC sites and at the CAF headquarters at 224 S. Michigan Avenue beginning two weeks prior to the event weekend.
Become a CAF member at architecture.org to receive a “CAF Member Priority Access Pass,” which grants you quicker access to OHC sites.
Sign up to receive the OHC newsletter for updates on venues and the latest information on special programming. Also consider volunteering as a “greeter” at an OHC site—it’s fun, easy and offers great benefits. www.openhousechicago.org/volunteer
OHC is modeled after similar popular programs in dozens of cities around the world, including New York, London and Tl Aviv. www.openhouseworldwide.org

OHC is a celebration of Chicago’s neighborhoods and communities. The community partners helping make OHC 2012 happen are: Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago, Chicago Loop Alliance, Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, Division Street Business Development Association, Enlace Chicago, Foundation for Homan Square, Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, Institute of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture, Little Village Chamber of Commerce, Quad Communities Development Corporation, The Resurrection Project, Rogers Park Business Alliance, Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society, South East Chicago Commission, South Shore Chamber, Inc., Uptown United and West Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

Jazz @ the People Spot

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:00:00 -0600

An event of this nature has not been done before, as it is attempting to bring a mix of people of all ages and musical interests under one roof to celebrate and enjoy the arts. The icing on the cake is that this event will also be a stop along the Open House Chicago self-guided tours and is featured as a Chicago Ideas Week Affiliate event.

The event is absolutely FREE!!! RSVP below:

http://jazzinbronzeville.eventbrite.com/

This micro-festival will be held at Little Black Pearl on 47^th and Greenwood on Saturday, October 13^th 12:00 – 5:30 pm. It will be hosted by Vocalo.org radio personality, Brian Babylon, and features an array of jazz and jazz-inspired artists like Koku Gonza, theBronzeville Diva, Sara Marie Young and trumpeter extraordinaire Corey Wilkes.

Jazz @ the People Spot - Saturday, October 13, 2012

“Donate to Bring Jazz and the Arts to Bronzeville”

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:00:00 -0600

CLICK HERE TO BRING JAZZ TO BRONZEVILLE CAMPAIGN WEEK!

Fall 2012 Chicago Vintage Home Series Workshops

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:00:00 -0600

With summer rapidly winding to a close – at least on the calendar anyway – Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, Inc. and the Historic Chicago Greystone Initiative® have lined up a group of presenters that will help you prepare your home for winter, as well as dig into the history that makes it unique. This Fall’s Chicago Vintage Home Series Workshops include:

· Batten Down the Hatches: Roof Maintenance & Repair – Presented by NHS Construction Specialist and home improvement expert Sean Heath, this workshop will address common roofing materials and problems, key historic features to try and retain, and when to repair vs. replace.

· Preparing Your Vintage Home for Winter – Presented by green building and home weatherization expert Tim Heppner, this workshop will address practical, cost effective strategies for enhancing the comfort, energy efficiency, and safety of your vintage home this winter.

· Discover Your Home’s History – Presented by architectural historian and historic preservation expert Carla Bruni, this workshop will give you the tools and resources you need to uncover the unique history of your home, block, or neighborhood.

For more information on these programs, please see the attached flyer or visit http://www.nhschicago.org/site/3C/category/workshops. Space is limited so please RSVP early!

www.nhschicago.org

Request for Proposals

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Quad Communities Development Corporation (QCDC) plans to respond to a "Request for Proposals" from Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)

QCDC plans to partner with Reavis Math and Science Specialty School @ 834 E. 50th st. to create a 21ST Century Community Learning Center. Proposal deadline is September 18,2012.

Virginia Commonwealth University visits Dyett Green Youth Farm

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Meghan Z. Gough, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Urban/Regional Studies & Planning Co-Director visits the Dyett Green Youth Farm to further her research on Public Gardens and the impact of having public and private community partners.

Meghan Z. Gough, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Urban/Regional Studies & Planning Co-Director, VCU Sustainable Communities Institute Virginia Commonwealth University. Bernita Johnson-Gabriel, Executive Director, Quad Communities Development Corporation and Patsy Benveniste, Vice President Education and Community Programs Chicago Botanic Garden

Yvette D. Kelly

Historic Chicago Greystone Initiative

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:00:00 -0600

At Last, Bronzeville’s 'Alleluia'

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Executive director Bernita Johnson-Gabriel and board chair Shirley Newsome of Quad Communities Development Corp. were among those who persevered for seven years to get the Shops and Lofts off the ground.

JOHN MCCARRON

It’s the indispensible virtue. Especially for anyone out to do comprehensive community development in these hard times.

She’s the executive director of Quad Communities Development Corporation(QCDC). And for a Biblical-sounding seven years she’s been trying to redevelop the strategic-but-blighted corner of 47^th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue – a crossroads of Chicago’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood.

Two previous deals for a mixed-use, residential-over-retail complex had fallen through. The banks weren’t lending; the condo market went kaput; a hoped-for supermarket chain changed its mind.

But Johnson-Gabriel and her unflappable board chair, longtime homeowner and activist Shirley Newsome, just kept plugging away. QCDC worked with the city to create and then guide not one, but two, special taxing districts. It also worked with wider efforts to redevelop the Mid-South Side, such as the Bronzeville Retail Initiative and the Bronzeville Alliance, which in turn called in expert technical assistance from regional resources like the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the non-profit Metropolitan Planning Council.

Booster shots
More impressive was the way QCDC leveraged timely booster shots from LISC Chicago and its New Communities Program (NCP). Since 2003, QCDC has been one of the 14 original neighborhood groups partnering with LISC Chicago in this closely-watched experiment in comprehensive community development.

Typically, LISC recruited existing community organizations as its NCP local partners. But in Bronzeville LISC more-or-less created QCDC, which in turn reached out to other groups ... with a strong assist provided by former 4^th ward Ald. Toni Preckwinkle. (Preckwinkle, of course, has since gone on to become president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.)

During its 10-year run as an NCP local lead, QCDC leveraged a series of “seed” grants via LISC to help start everything from an in-school community health center, to a street-and-sidewalk cleanup patrol, to an elaborate scheme to “get rid of the gray” on Cottage Grove by engaging local art students to design street furniture and banners that sing “The Grove!”

A Walmart neighborhood store will anchor the five-story, $46 million Shops and Lofts development.

The biggest dividend, though, just may have sprung from one of LISC’s smallest investments – a few hundred dollars in 2005 to send Johnson-Gabriel and development consultant Chinwe Onyeagoro to Las Vegas.

Bet on Bernita
Las Vegas? It’s where to meet and mesh with thousands of developers, retailers and investors at the annual confab of the International Council of Shopping Centers. The pair went armed with a market analysis by LISC’s MetroEdge research unit, which showed nearly half of Bronzeville residents have incomes above the city’s median, yet a majority shop elsewhere for lack of decent local stores. MetroEdge estimated Mid-South Side shoppers “export” some $450 million-a-year.

Most developers weren’t interested, remembers Johnson-Gabriel of the Vegas trip. Then and now it’s easier to sub-divide cornfields than reclaim abandoned corners of the inner city. But one development group, an Ohio-based partnership called Mahogany Ventures, wanted to know more.

This was seven years ago.

So one can excuse Johnson-Gabriel for sounding, well, a bit too-good-to-be-true when she climbed the rostrum of Chicago’s City Council chambers on July 10 and delivered QCDC’s endorsement of “Shops and Lofts at 47.”

“We’ve had several iterations, but this one will be the best,” she testified to the city’s Community Development Commission, the urban renewal panel that oversees disposition of city-owned land. After she spoke, the commission approved a staff proposal to sell three acres of vacant, city-owned property to the Mahogany group, led by Skilken and The Community Builders.

“This project undoubtedly will spark interest from others,” she hoped, “and validate what we’ve known all along – there is good reason to invest in our neighborhood.”

LISC Chicago kept the Shops and Lofts project alive with more than $1 million of pre-development financing over seven years.

The project will contain an anchor Walmart, whose initial Chicago stores were opposed by organized labor and some aldermen. But Johnson-Gabriel declared: “We are thrilled to have them. We’ve had positive discussions around employment and around local minority suppliers. They’ve even agreed to consider a section of the store where local business owners could sell pre-packaged products.”

She might have added, but wisely didn’t, that signing America’s No. 1 retailer to a lease for a 41,000-square-foot “Neighborhood Market” all but guarantees that this time – the third time – is the charm.

“Alleluia!” declared Johnson-Gabriel. “This has been a journey. We’ve had a long courtship. Now it looks like we’ll finally get the wedding.”

Survival mode
It’s an apt analogy. To win the fair maiden, the classic suitor overcomes all manner of obstacles, never wavering in his desire for the intended.At first it seemed like a slam-dunk. QCDC’s 2005 LISC/NCP quality of life plan confidently listed among its goals the redevelopment of Cottage Grove Avenue, once the commercial spine of the Mid-South Side. Special focus was placed on the 47^th Street intersection, then site of a grimy, by-the-pint package liquor store.

Residential Bronzeville, moreover, was undergoing change on a scale almost unimaginable. The city and the Chicago Housing Authority were tearing down the Wells/Madden low- and mid-rise public housing to the east of Cottage Grove as part of the federally funded (Hope VI) Plan for Transformation. Ditto to the west, where wreckers were leveling the Stateway Gardens and Robert Taylor high-rises – the nation’s largest, poorest concentration of public housing.

"They bum-rushed us, and they did it successfully," recalled Adam Troy of Mahogany Ventures, referring to the QCDC team of Bernita Johnson-Gabriel and Chinwe Onyeagoro showing up at his conference booth at the ICSC show in Las Vegas without an appointment.

In their place were rising the first of what were to be a forest of privately developed townhouses. There the displaced poor, after getting help to find employment, would live next door to middle-class families, paying market or moderately subsidized mortgages and/or rents.

Then came 2007, the crash of Lehman Brothers, the collapse of the mortgage and housing markets, the Great Recession and the enduring non-recovery. The CHA’s Transformation build-out stalled at mid-point for lack of mortgage-able buyers for the market-rate units. Many who did buy found themselves “under water.”

Little wonder the 2010 Census found the population of Quad Communities (Douglas, Kenwood, Oakland and Grand Boulevard) had plunged by 19 percent during the decade. It’s not exactly a number funders want to see on grant renewal applications.

Retail developers, likewise, had counted on an influx of working families with disposable incomes. Many got cold feet.

All this may sound familiar because similar versions of this story have been playing out in cities across America. By the mid-2000s, many down-but-promising neighborhoods had been cleared for takeoff … only to find their flight had been cancelled by the recession.

“We’ve had a blackout period of two to three years,” admitted Ald. William Burns, a Preckwinkle successor in the 4^th Ward. “So to have a national retailer like Walmart pick this up, it’s huge.”

“There were a lot of good reasons to walk away,” remembers Joel Bookman, director of programs at LISC Chicago, which over the seven years kept the project alive with more than $1 million in various types of pre-development financing. “But in this case nobody walked away. It was sheer persistence and tenacity on the part of all the partners. There were a lot of types of predevelopment financing, including sources from State Farm and MB Financial."

The leadership network of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle (left) helped form the backbone of QCDC, which through Bernita Johnson-Gabriel's leadership "will finally get the wedding."

ALEX FLEDDERJOHN

Comes Emanuel
Tenacity? Even as developers and lenders backed off, the city proceeded with land acquisition at 47^thand Cottage, eventually buying all 23 vacant lots, plus a three-flat now slated to be rehabbed, plus that liquor store … which is no more.

It helped that Mayor Rahm Emanuel vowed in his 2010 campaign to eliminate all the city’s “food deserts. And that, once elected, he extended an olive branch to Walmart … and to any big-box grocer willing to help him deliver on his promise. It helped, too, that Emanuel had asked Andrew Mooney, former head of LISC Chicago, to stay on as commissioner of the city’s Department of Housing and Economic Development. Mooney gets the turf … and the tools.

Piece by piece, then, and in spite of the tepid economic recovery, a $46 million deal was painstakingly snapped into place. The CHA agreed to lease long-term 28 of the 72 apartments that will rise to a height of five stories above Walmart and a set of smaller storefronts. JPMorgan Chase will purchase $7.5 million in city tax increment bonds as well as $3.3 million in New Market tax credits. Other financial institutions are purchasing housing tax credits, and the city is fronting both housing bond and neighborhood stabilization (NSP2) revenues.

“It’s been a very long road,” said Frank Petruziello, president of Columbus, Ohio-based Skilken, the lead developer. “We’ve made many friends and hardly any enemies … there’s a real neighborhood going on here.”

As for Bernita, Chinwe and that first Las Vegas encounter seven years ago, Petruziello remembers, with a smile: “Yes, they dragged us here . . . and they never let go.”

More information:
Joel Bookman, LISC Chicago jbookman@lisc.org
Bernita Johnson Gabriel, QCDC, bgabriel@qcdc.org

Earlier stories about Shops and Lofts:
"Agencies learn art of the deal," 4/25/08
"Shops and Lofts move forward -- with rentals," 2/3/10

Walmart to add Neighborhood Market in Grand Boulevard

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Walmart will open another Neighborhood Market store in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood on the South Side, the company announced Tuesday.

This will be the fifth smaller format store, which sell groceries, that the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer's plans to open in Chicago by 2014.

The new store, at 47th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, will be part of a new mixed-use development known as the Shops and Lofts at 47. It's expected to employ 100 associates when it opens in 2014, according to Walmart officials.

"Our community needs access to a full service grocer that can bring to customers name brand products and services at everyday low prices, as well as the other economic opportunities that come with this kind of development," said Bernita Johnson-Gabriel, Executive Director of Quad Communities Development Corporation in a statement. "By locating in Grand Boulevard, Walmart is helping to fill a void as both a merchant and a good corporate citizen."

Neighborhood Markets are smaller versions of Walmart's supercenters that tend to populate rural and suburban areas. Walmart opened its first neighborhood market stores in 1998 and expects to open roughly 80 across the country this year. They account for 150 of the retailer's more than 4,400 stores in the United States.

Whereas supercenters tend average around 185,000 square feet, Neighborhood Markets average 42,000 square feet. The smaller format stores sell groceries, home goods and have a full-service pharmacy.

This is the third Walmart planned for the South Side that the company has announced this month. Last week, the retailer announced plans to open two new Neighborhood Markets, in Back of the Yards and Little Village. Planned Neighborhood Markets to be located in Lakeview and West Englewood will open later this year. The company also plans to open a Supercenter in Pullman this year.

crshropshire@tribune.com | Twitter:@corilyns

Bronzeville Community Market Update 2012

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Week two of the Bronzeville Community Market June 23, 2012.

Walmart Announces Plans to Open Another Chicago Walmart Neighborhood Market

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Chicago, IL. July 2, 2012- Walmart announced that it has plans to open another Chicago Walmart Neighborhood Market in the Grand Boulevard neighborhaood, bring jobs, tax revenue and more affordable grocery options to the community.

Highlights from the Bronzeville Community Market 2012

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:00:00 -0600

We had a blast. PLease come out and join us every Saturday from 8am - 1pm. There is something for everyone at the Bronzeville Community Market.

HIghlights from the Bronzeville Market. See our picture presentation.

Yvette Kelly

Mission Small Business Grant - Deadline June 30

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Mission: Small Business? Learn More

Demonstrating their ongoing commitment to small businesses, Chase and LivingSocial are sponsoring "Mission: Small Business?" a grant program awarding up to $3 million to small business owners nationwide.

The Program, which will provide up to 12 individual grants of $250,000 was developed to provide small businesses with resources needed to make a positive impact on their business.

Mission: Small Business? invites small business owners who have been in business for at least two years and have less than 100 employees to apply for a Grant for their business. Small business owners will be required to tell us why their business is unique, outline a proposed plan for utilizing the Grant to grow their business and describe how the business is involved with its community.

Consumers are encouraged to get involved by clicking the "Support" button at missionsmallbusiness.com and voting for their favorite registered small businesses. Each time a consumer clicks to support small business, Chase will add five dollars to the Grant Pool, up to a maximum of $3 million. Each registered small business must receive at least 250 votes to be considered for a Grant. The voting period is open from May 7, 2012 through June 30, 2012.

At the end of the Voting Period, small business applicants that have received 250 votes will have their applications evaluated and Grant Recipients will be chosen. Grant Recipients will be announced on or before September 15, 2012.