$34 Million Food Business Incubator Opens In East Garfield Park

CHICAGO — A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday to celebrate the opening of a food and beverage incubator in Chicago's East Garfield Park neighborhood. The 67,000-square-foot, $34 million facility will help local food entrepreneurs launch and develop their businesses, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.

“The Hatchery will create new jobs, support local entrepreneurs and strengthen Chicago's position at the forefront of the food industry,” the mayor said in a media release. “Even more importantly, this facility will extend the success of Chicago’s thriving food industry directly into our neighborhoods and drive future economic growth on the West Side."

Local nonprofits Accion Chicago and the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago partnered to create the facility with support from a long list of donors, the city said.

The new building sits on the corner of Lake Street and Kedzie Avenue, near the Kedzie Green Line station. The facility includes 54 private food-grade kitchens, 5 shared kitchen bays, dry-cold storage, open office space and loading docks for distribution.

“Incubators like The Hatchery give local entrepreneurs the resources they need to collaborate with other community members and open up their own small businesses,” Senator Tammy Duckworth said in a statement. “It will also provide access to a neighborhood market and job-training for those aspiring to work in these new kitchens, which will help strengthen the Garfield Park neighborhood’s economy and create good-paying jobs.”

The Hatchery will offer a full suite of business incubation services to support small business owners and host networking events, classes, and other local functions that will be open to the public, the city said.

The space will also be the permanent home for the Garfield Park Garden Network Neighborhood Market. Neighborhood entrepreneurs in any industry will have access to loan capital and coaching from Accion, which will relocate its headquarters to The Hatchery.

Chef Rick Bayless has announced he will partner with Accion and ICNC to create a chef-training program that will provide "life and knife skills" for cohorts of young West Side residents.

“The goals of the Culinary Core Institute are to equip our city's young people with a low-cost, solid culinary education and to provide Chicago's world-class restaurants with job-ready cooks,” Chef Rick Bayless said in a media release. “We look forward to sending these graduates into the workforce and making our industry, and our city, stronger."

Chicago’s food and beverage industry is currently second largest in the nation with 4,500 companies, 130,000 employees and $32 billion in sales. Food manufacturing accounts for the majority of the industry’s regional employment and over a third of sales.

Image via Google Maps Streetview.