Wealth Our Way Initiative Chooses Grantees

From left to right: Sarina Shane, Inez White, Jeffrey Hitchens, Cosette Ayele. Photo provided by Rudd Resources.
From left to right: Sarina Shane, Inez White, Jeffrey Hitchens, Cosette Ayele. Photo provided by Rudd Resources.

Wealth Our Way Initiative Chooses Grantees

By Tia Carol Jones

A program that provides direct capital to workers cooperatives, people owning businesses and storefronts; and Community Investment Vehicles (CIVs) has chosen six shared ownership businesses across the city of Chicago to receive a share of more than $2 million.

Wealth Our Way, a partnership between the Community Desk Chicago and the Chicago Department of Planning and Development (DPD), aims to give low- to moderate-income neighborhoods in the city more economic control by empowering residents to create a shared ownership model of business and real estate.

Quilombo Chicago and Bennett Place are two of the six shared ownership business projects. Quilombo Chicago, 173 E. 79th St., in South Shore will use the $500,000 grant to acquire and rehabilitate a mixed-use building as affordable rental housing, as well as community focused retail and office space.

According to the city, the total cost of the project is $3.5 million. Bennett Place, 7051 S. Bennett Ave., in South Shore, will use the $500,000 grant to build a 5,000 square foot restaurant on the first floor of a collectively owned building. According to the city of Chicago, the total project will cost $5.4 million.

“These brick-and-mortar projects will help activate a variety of underutilized spaces as part of a national movement toward community-driven investment through shared-ownership models,” DPD Commissioner Ciere Boatright said in a release.

The other projects include CrossTreats, 7920 S. Greenwood Ave. in Avalon Park, which received $500,000; E.G. Woode, 1116 W. 63rd St., in Englewood, which received $345,333; Five Point Holistic Health, 2864 N. Milwaukee Ave., in Avondale, which received $116, 553; and HAZ Cooperative, 1706 S. Halsted St., on the Lower West Side, which received $200,000.

Community Desk Chicago President and CEO Ja’Net Defell said the projects that were chosen help enhance the quality of life and create holistic livings for the communities where they will be located. She said the Wealth Our Way program allows residents to define how their wealth shows up in their community and it is defined in their way. She said it was a concerted effort to ensure the initiative supported worker co-ops and CIVs.

“We were really big about that because we wanted to be able to support communities and residents and business owners who want to co-own properties and businesses in their neighborhood,” Defell said.

Defell said three of the projects were worker co-ops and three projects were CIVs. She said the Wealth Our Way program is a way to create a path for residents to own in the neighborhoods where they live. She said the projects chosen are also a win-win, because they are revitalizing buildings and those buildings are owned by local community members, which has a positive impact on the community.

The grantees also receive wraparound services, which includes an operation coach and a real estate coach, who will partner with the grantees throughout the design and construction project. Defell said the goal is to have all of the projects in construction by March 2026 and 99% fully constructed by the end of 2026.

She added that it is the Community Desk Chicago’s expectation to continue the program, which is why the organization is being very intentional in helping the grantees to get their projects up and moving. Defell said that the Community Desk Chicago believes that shared ownership models can be used as a tool for revitalizing communities and the Wealth Our Way is the proof of concept.

“We believe that these sorts of shared ownership models allow for collective ownership, it allows for community revitalization, but it also allows for a way for communities to control what comes into their neighborhoods,” she said. She added that this is the next community development tool, it puts communities in the driving seat.

For more information about the Wealth Our Way program, visit https://communitydeskchicago.org/wealth-our-way.

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