Accion Chicago and the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago for The Hatchery

East Garfield Park may have lost its manufacturing jobs over past decades, but it never lost its entrepreneurs. Few know that better than Accion and the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago (ICNC). Accion’s loans to business start-ups and ICNC’s incubator space for emerging companies have been beacons of hope to those with big ideas but few resources. With deep relationships with food and beverage entrepreneurs, Accion and ICNC became keenly aware that, just as Chicago was producing an ever-more-diverse and growing group of food entrepreneurs and aspiring chefs, there were few locations where their needs for affordable cooking and storage space could be met. With what can only be described as entrepreneurial ingenuity, Accion and ICNC turned challenge into opportunity. Vetting their ideas with users and working with West Side leaders, they envisioned a facility with kitchens, storage, meeting space, and even financial services that could support and serve the needs of cooks and bakers at all levels and, at the same time, bring new investment to the East Garfield neighborhood.Today, on the site of a former bakery, is The Hatchery. A visually striking structure, it provides:54 private kitchens leasable by the year and six shared kitchen spaces available by the hourdry/cold storage, loading docks and meeting spaceworkshops and education seminars so that entrepreneurs can “grow in place”on-site Culinary Training Program, spearheaded by renowned Chicago chef Rick Bayless, that trains aspiring chefs and places them in the city’s best restaurants Accion’s headquarters officeJust as important, the East Garfield community has adopted the building as a place for meetings and events, and the natural place to expand the Garfield Park Neighborhood Market year-round. .Angela Taylor from the Garfield Park Community Council said, “As I look around at people cooking, at young people learning, at the investment that the building itself represents, I am proud to be a part of this vote of confidence in East Garfield Park and our people.”For its thoughtful design that, in form and function, meets the needs of its diverse users, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Outstanding Non-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project goes this year to The Hatchery.