Lightfoot alters Rahm Emanuel’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund to make it her own

Four years ago, the City Council signed off on Rahm Emanuel’s plan to generate a pot of money to rebuild struggling neighborhoods at the expense of downtown developers.

Despite concerns it would create a mayoral “slush fund” akin to tax-increment financing, aldermen agreed to let developers in a broader downtown area build bigger and taller projects so long as they agree to share the wealth with long-ignored South and West Side neighborhoods.

Now, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is making Emanuel’s Robin Hood program her own with reforms tailor-made to fuel her $250 million plan to bring “transformative change” to ten South and West Side neighborhoods.

“I had heard from small businesses all over the city for two-plus years that NOF [Neighborhood Opportunity Fund] wasn’t really meaningful for them. It was a matching grant. And, when you don’t have the funds, you can’t match,” the mayor said Tuesday, without acknowledging Emanuel’s role in creating the program.

“Another thing that we heard is, ‘I need start-up money. I need money to do the build-out. I need money to come up with my business and marketing plan.’ So, we’re releasing those funds at a much earlier stage in the process so they are meaningful and have a catalytic effect.”

Lightfoot said the changes, outlined in an ordinance she introduced last week, will give Neighborhood Opportunity Fund recipients “much more intensive support from the city at every stage of the process.”

“We want to get you to ‘yes,’” she said.

The changes pave the way for businesses to recoup 100% of a project’s total price tag, provided they are owned and staffed by local residents.

Entrepreneurs will have access to lending coaches, design professionals, construction advisers and program “concierges” to put them on, what Planning and Development Commissioner Maurice Cox calls, a “path to success.”

Instead of making Neighborhood Opportunity Fund grants annually, grants will be awarded twice-a-year. Applications for the first $10 million of this year’s grants opened Tuesday for and will be accepted through Feb. 29 at www.chicago.gov/nof.

Applications within 10 South and West Side neighborhoods included in the mayor’s “Invest South/West” program will get top priority. They are Englewood, Auburn Gresham, North Lawndale, Austin, Humboldt Park, Bronzeville, New City, Roseland, South Chicago and South Shore.

“NOF will allow funding for up to 50% of a project’s construction costs, with the remaining 50% being given for local residency of the business owner and their commitment to hire residents locally,” Cox said Tuesday.

“This is really, really important that we ground this in a local narrative of these businesses. I believe these program enhancements are vital to the mayor’s promise to turn around decades of disinvestment that impaired the city’s equitable growth across all neighborhoods.”

The changes were announced at a news conference Tuesday at 345 Gallery, 345 N. Kedzie Ave.

Owner Corry Williams recently completed a $262,000 expansion made possible by a $201,000 grant from the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund.

“Coming up, I was like these kids in front of me. Not a lot of resources or options for us in the neighborhood,” Williams said, choking back tears.

“I said, ‘When my opportunity comes, I’m gonna do something about it as opposed to complain.’ I said, ‘I want to open up an art gallery. I’m an art collector.’”

The road Williams chose wasn’t easy. The gallery he opened “wasn’t a cash cow.” The early money came out of his own pocket.

“The first 3 1/2 years, this has been all me and self-funded. It was tough. But every event I had with the kids, people coming to the West Side giving them a destination — they were amazed [saying], ‘Wow. What is this doing here? This should be downtown.’ No. It should be right here,” Williams said.

“I appreciate the NOF for financially assisting me with the expansion because it hasn’t been an easy road. Acquiring the land, renovation, hosting events every month for the kids. It’s definitely not easy.”

The Neighborhood Opportunity Fund has become an embarrassment of riches, thanks to the downtown development boom.

It now has roughly $190 million in commitments and $68.2 million in collections.

The biggest payment to date was generated by the nearly-completed Bank of America Tower project at 110 N. Wacker Dr., with a whopping, $18.3 million contribution.

The downtown bonus system that directs 80% of its receipts to NOF, with the remainder going to landmarks and local infrastructure, has generated approximately $237 million in commitments and $85.2 million in collections to date, according to Planning and Development spokesman Peter Strazzabosco.