Crain's Chicago Business

NOTABLES: These execs have redoubled efforts to support LGBTQ causes. PAGE 25

CRAIN’S LIST: The area’s biggest foundations gave more. PAGES 13-14

CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | August 9, 2021 | $3.50

A rethinking of community college life

Aiming to serve students in need, this new law sets the stage for construction of on-campus housing

JOHN R. BOEHM

Now that he’s a member of the Illinois General Assembly, Nick Smith isn’t embarrassed to say he struggled early in college.

As he bounced back and forth between classes and his job, he spent little time on campus.

It wasn’t until Smith got a workstudy job at Olive-Harvey College, a Far South Side community college, that things changed.

“I started to feel immersed in the academic setting. I started to feel focused,” he recalls. After completing the two-year program, Smith went on to get a bachelor’s degree from nearby Chicago State University, and since 2019

IS PORTILLO’S ANOTHER MCDONALD’S?

OR ANOTHER POTBELLY?

Latest local restaurant IPO joins a cast with a checkered past “THEY ARE GOING TO BE SUBJECT TO SOME PRETTY HEADY EXPECTATIONS FOR GROWTH.” Sean Dunlop, analyst, Morningstar

BY ALLY MAROTTI

WITH ITS PLANNED PUBLIC OFFERING OF STOCK, Portillo’s Hot Dogs follows

in the footsteps of local restaurant chains that have racked up a mixed record on Wall Street.

On one hand, Chicago-based burger giant McDonald’s has delivered consistently superior results for investors during its more than five decades as a public company. On the other, Potbelly and Cosi have served up subpar returns.

Is Oak Brook-based Portillo’s more like McDonald’s or more like Potbelly and Cosi? That will depend on the 67-store chain’s ability to See PORTILLO’S on Page 34

JOHN R. BOEHM

BY DENNIS RODKIN AND ELYSSA CHERNEY

State Rep. Nick Smith he has represented the 34th District in the State Assembly.

With his personal experience in mind, Smith introduced legislation in Springfield this year that allows community colleges See COLLEGES on Page 33

Hotel investors bet on a rebound The pandemic-battered downtown market looks like a prime opportunity to some players

BY DANNY ECKER If John Murphy wants to prove himself as the type of real estate investor who zigs while others zag, his latest Chicago purchase would do the trick.

The veteran developer in June paid close to $23 million for the outmoded Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza overlooking Wolf Point, a bet that most would call

daring amid the early days of recovery from the worst crisis in modern hospitality history. If that wasn’t enough, he’s already underway with a plan to spend at least $40 million more renovating the 522-room property atop the office building at 350 N. Orleans St., wagering he can ride up the market when the COVID-19 See HOTELS on Page 39

NEWSPAPER l VOL. 44, NO. 32 l COPYRIGHT 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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EDUCATION

RESTAURANTS

Springfield blocks Chicago from closing more schools.

PAGE 3

How many eateries have closed since COVID? PAGE 8

8/6/21 4:09 PM

2 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Illinois risks losing its electric-vehicle edge T GREG HINZ there wasn’t a fly in the ointment.

The biggest questions concern electric truck and van-maker Rivian, which has converted the sprawling former Mitsubishi plant in downstate Normal into a production center that soon will start rolling out product. It’s the star of Illinois’ electric-vehicle industry, and it’s currently the electric vehicle-maker’s only assembly plant.

But ask whether Illinois is in the running for a second plant that the company recently anIT WOULDN’T BE ILLINOIS IF THERE nounced it wants to build somewhere in America, WASN’T A FLY IN THE OINTMENT. and everyone is uncharacteristically mum. “It’s confidential,” insists Team Pritzker, growth area. Be it U.S. Sen. Tammy which like most groups usually is Duckworth, D-Ill., helping get willing to talk, at least privately, money to build electric charging about all of the job opportunities stations; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the boss is laboring to bring home. meeting with the CEO of industry Maybe there’s some secret player Rivian; or Gov. J.B. Pritkzer hush-hush deal coming that is so bragging about new companies big and juicy no one wants to talk he’s bought here, vehicle electrifiabout it. Maybe. Or maybe I ought cation has become a favorite baby to listen to some other industry that the pols can kiss. sources out there who say that, But it wouldn’t be Illinois if here is no hotter industry in America right now than making electric vehicles.

From Washington to Springfield, and California to Texas, politicians and auto-industry execs alike are scrambling to best position themselves in an emerging technology that augurs to reshape both the industry and states in which it operates.

For a rare change, Illinois has a chance to really compete in such a

while Rivian might have good reasons to locate a new plant elsewhere if only to diversify its workforce, it doesn’t help that the auto industry recently has experienced some speed bumps in a state not known for being business-friendly.

Like automaker Stellantis, which owns the Jeep Cherokee factory in Belvidere near Rockford.

Despite the impact of COVID restrictions that required the plant to shut down for a while and then a severe shortage of computer chips that has hobbled automakers worldwide, Stellantis recently was informed by the state that it’s losing its roughly $9.5 million-ayear Edge tax credit because it’s fallen short of its employment goals. State officials say they had to enforce the Edge contract and suggest the company had reduced its staff before COVID hit. But it all comes across as kicking a company when it’s down, doesn’t it?

Another example: Over intense opposition from automakers, Pritzker recently signed a bill requiring

ON POLITICS

when it asked about getting a better deal in Springfield.

All by no means is lost. Dietmeier notes that the company now has more than 2,000 people on the payroll here with “more jobs in the pipeline.” Patrick Hoban, CEO of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council, says he’s heard no gripes from Rivian and notes the company just bought 300 acres across from its current plant with an eye toward expansion.

But Dietmeier won’t say if Illinois is on the list for the second plant. Hoban says he doesn’t know. Which brings me back to the question of whether Illinois will claim a prize it ought to have an edge to win.

Don’t mess this one up, governor. There’s too much at stake.

that autos still under warranty be repaired at auto dealerships at retail prices, not wholesale or negotiated rates. Pritzker labeled it a pay-equity move. Counters Illinois Manufacturers’ Association President Mark Denzler: “This will cost (automakers) an extra $250 million a year in costs and send a terrible message to auto manufacturers that Illinois is not a welcoming place.”

Then there’s the desire by Rivian and other automakers to sell directly to the consumer on the internet rather than via middleman dealerships. Rivian spokesman Zach Dietmeier says the company is content with a ruling from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul allowing it to sell at Normal and via the internet.

Other sources say the nonunion company ran into labor objections

The big cybersecurity risks exposed by the Raoul hack

C

redit Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul with this: Faced with an embarrassing and costly failure by his office to protect itself against a cybersecurity attack, he at least has been open about the breakdown and its costs.

The cleanup operation alone has run to $2.5 million, Raoul said last week. His office has created a new security-analyst position and plans to staff it adequately to build a comprehensive cybersecurity program.

Raoul paid no ransomware, he told reporters for the Chicago Tribune and the Better Government Association. And he acknowledges uncertainty about how much information the cyberthieves stole— anything from private data about state residents to the confidential findings of AG investigations to who knows what else.

The candor is laudable. But it doesn’t begin to answer all the questions that still hang over the successful hack of Raoul’s office, apparently by a major Russia-­ based criminal cabal.

In January, Raoul received a bald warning from the state’s Auditor General. In the draft of a report that would be released in February, the state-government auditor found “weaknesses in cybersecurity programs and practices” that included “significant deficiency and noncompliance.”

Raoul’s official reaction at the time, as indicated by the written response to audit findings, was less than urgent. “The office emphasizes that it maintains a highly secure computer environment that safeguards confidential and personal information from attacks and unauthorized disclosure,” it said.

And also, “the office administers its cybersecurity system as though all data in is possession is at high risk and susceptible to attack.”

Eight weeks later to the day, those systems were breached.

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And nearly four months now since the breach, many of the computer systems in Raoul’s office are still shut down. One of the reasons, Raoul explained, is that to move too fast might create vulnerabilities that future hackers could exploit. Besides, he needs to avoid destroying evidence as federal investigators seek to discover how the hack occurred.

The lack of an urgent and effective response by Raoul’s office came against the backdrop of a fire alarm that has rung across the state of Illinois. Back in January, he was told his office was on a list that would grow to include 29 state agencies and universities with significant cybersecurity weaknesses.

Since then, the auditor general has reported breaches at the Department of Human Services and the Department of Healthcare & Family Services, too.

The lack of an effective response

by Raoul’s office, particularly after the audit warning, was on the mind of state Rep. Brad Holbrooke, a Republican from downstate Shelby County, during a legislative hearing into the hack.

“I’m just curious what we’re doing, why we didn’t anticipate this, why we didn’t have redundant systems in place to be ready to roll in case something happened like this?” Halbrook asked, according to coverage by Capitol News Illinois.

“I don’t know what the satisfactory answer that you’d want to your question,” Raoul responded. He went on to express pride in his staff for its post-breach cleanup efforts.

The satisfactory answer might be for Raoul to report the specific steps taken between the warning and the breach, as well as an analysis of why those steps were not effective.

And taking the question beyond just Raoul’s office, a satisfactory answer from state government might include an explanation of why 29

government units in Illinois remained vulnerable as of the auditor general’s most recent reckoning.

The warnings have been clear for years. Five years have passed since the Illinois Board of Elections suffered the most damage from a Russian government effort to infiltrate election systems. The hackers gained access to private information about 76,000 Illinois voters.

Since 2019, Rockford’s public schools, LaSalle County and Heartland Community College have been hacked, the BGA and Tribune reported. Southern Illinois University even paid a

DAVID GREISING ON GOVERNMENT

$472,000 ransom.

And at the height of the COVID pandemic last summer, the Illinois Department of Employment Security suffered a massive breach.

Raoul has said that other agencies can learn from the cleanup effort.

Some lessons about the cleanup effort will be a good thing. Even more valuable would be for Raoul

and all the others with vulnerabilities to detail how they responded in efforts to prevent the break-ins in the first place.

Crain’s contributor David Greising is president of the investigative watchdog Better Government Association.

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8/6/21 3:02 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • AUGUST 9, 2021 3

In energy talks, some Dem allies get zapped

Under a proposal to merge three North Lawndale schools, Sumner Elementary would be home to a new academy focused on science, technology, math and arts.

Unions, enviros square off, forcing lawmakers to take sides on key Pritzker policy

JOHN R. BOEHM

BY STEVE DANIELS

Springfield suspends Chicago school closures

Moratorium comes as steadily declining enrollment leaves more desks empty A LITTLE-NOTICED PROVISION OF THE NEW LAW creating an elected school board to govern Chicago Public Schools bars school closings until January 2025, when the first elected members are seated.

It’s a victory for the Chicago Teachers Union and organizers who have been pushing to stop school closures since the mid-2000s. But in a district with falling enrollment, hundreds of schools operating far below capacity and looming fiscal pressures, the moratorium prevents CPS management from significantly restructuring school operations.

State Sen. Rob Martwick, D-Chicago, who sponsored the legislation signed by the governor last month, says the moratorium was included to allay concerns of activists fearing a rush to close schools before the elected board is fully phased in. He says city negotiators pushed back: “They said, ‘The mayor isn’t interested in closing a bunch of schools; why are you tying our hands?’ I said, ‘It’s not about you; I don’t know who the next mayor’s going to be.’ ” See CPS on Page 38

BY A.D. QUIG

A DECADE OF DECLINE CPS enrollment has dropped more than 15 percent since the 2010 school year, exacerbating an existing mismatch with the number of buildings the district operates.

CPS ENROLLMENT 400K 300K

340,658

200K 100K 0

’10-’11 ’11-’12 ’12-’13 ’13-’14 ’14-’15 ’15-’16 ’16-’17 ’17-’18 ’18-’19 ’19-’20 ’20-’21

Source: Chicago Public Schools

The outsourcing of energy policy to friendly interest groups hasn’t worked. Now Democratic leaders in Springfield will have to make some decisions that could upset loyal constituencies if there’s any chance for comprehensive energy legislation.

In June, unions and environmental groups were tasked by Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, with sorting out their differences over the future of fossil fuel power plants in Illinois so that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s bill to eliminate the power industry’s carbon emissions could move forward. Two months later, both sides not only haven’t budged but appear to have moved further apart.

With Exelon on course next month to shutter the first of two nuclear plants slated for early closure this year, time is short. Also at risk is hundreds of millions already set aside for new solar-power development in Illinois that will be returned to ratepayers in the fall if legislation isn’t passed to free up the funding.

Pritzker, who in an Aug. 2 letter took the side of environmentalists in their bitter remaining battles with organized labor, says policymakers now must make calls that one or both interests may well oppose.

“This is not something that’s left to interest groups to decide,” Pritzker told reporters Aug. 4 in a thinly veiled swipe at Harmon’s approach. “This is a decision that gets made by the Legislature and the governor. And here we are.”

Senators are working on a new compromise proposal aimed at resolving the remaining issues.

See ENERGY on Page 38

Baxter seeks a technology infusion Acquiring Hill-Rom would advance CEO Almeida’s digital ambitions

BLOOMBERG

BY STEPHANIE GOLDBERG

Baxter International CEO Joe Almeida

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Baxter International is making moves to transform from a medical-products maker into a data-driven digital health care company.

Deerfield-based Baxter reportedly is in talks to acquire Chicago-based hospital-bed maker Hill-Rom Holdings, which is in the midst of its own digital transformation. Baxter also ap-

proached Omnicell, a Mountain View, Calif.-based medical technology firm, according to reports late last year.

CEO Joe Almeida hasn’t commented on the possible deals, but he has emphasized the need to expand Baxter’s digital health business.

“There’s no way not to be in the connected market going forward,” Almeida told analysts during the company’s latest earn-

ings call, noting, “We need to make sure that we have the ability to deploy capital in that area.”

The digital shift would connect Baxter with new growth opportunities amid sluggish sales in some of its biggest established businesses. Revenue grew 3 percent to $11.7 billion in 2020 as demand for acute dialysis products used to treat COVID patients eased the impact of declines in pharmaceuticals and medication

2010-2011 402,681 2011-2012 404,151 infusion products. two 2012-2013The latter 403,461 2013-201441 percent 400,545 of segments represent 396,683 Baxter’s total2014-2015 sales. A year earli392,285 er, before the2015-2016 pandemic boosted 381,349 acute dialysis2016-2017 sales, total revenue grew just2017-2018 2 percent. 371,382 361,314 “Baxter has2018-2019 been on the hunt 2019-2020 M&A355,156 for a meaningful target 2020-2021took over 340,658the since Joe Almeida

CEO role in January 2016,” J.P. Morgan analyst Robbie Marcus wrote in a recent report. “While there have been a number of See BAXTER on Page 16

8/6/21 4:28 PM

4 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

JOE CAHILL

CHICAGO COMES BACK

ON BUSINESS

has shipped 130 Maxes since U.S. aviation regulators lifted the grounding order in November.

Surprising analysts who expected more red ink, Boeing swung to a $567 million profit from a $2.4 billion loss in the year-earlier quarter. More important to Wall Street was Boeing’s slowing cash consumption. The company burned $705 million in cash, far less than the $2.8 billion Wall Street expected.

Boeing still has steep hurdles to clear. An upgraded 737 Max flew to China last week for a regulatory review that Boeing hopes will clear the jet to fly again in the biggest growth market for commercial jets. Boeing also is grappling with flaws in its lucrative 787 wide-body jet and testing setbacks for its Starliner space capsule.

Nevertheless, Boeing CEO David Calhoun feels confident enough about the future to curtail layoffs, saving about 10,000 jobs.

“We are turning a corner and the recovery is gaining momentum,” Calhoun told analysts on the earnings call.

Confidence is up at Illinois Tool Works, too. The diversified raised its fullSOME WORRIES LOOM OVER THE manufacturer year forecasts for revenue and earnings after a strong SUNNY OUTLOOKS, THOUGH. second quarter. Revenue surged 43 percent to $3.7 bilthe massive infrastructure packlion and profit more than doubled age Congress is expected to pass. to $775 million. Glenview-based Yet profit margin pressures that surfaced in the second quarter ar- ITW reported sharp sales growth en’t going away. Cat execs warned in all its business lines. Even automotive posted 19 percent analysts on the second-quarter earnings call that higher costs will growth, despite the semiconductor shortage that has slowed continue to pressure margins in production at ITW’s automaker the second half. customers. Construction products Rising food consumption and restaurant equipment, two and higher crop prices boosted sectors benefiting from economic Moline-based Deere as farmers reopenings, both posted sales opened up their wallets to buy combines, tractors and other gear. growth above 20 percent.

There’s no telling how long The world’s largest maker of farm the good times will keep rolling equipment reported quarterly for local manufacturers. Pent-up profit jumped 169 percent to $1.8 demand doesn’t last forever, and billion on a 30 percent revenue a resurgent coronavirus could increase to $12.1 billion. send the economy into another Deere raised its full-year profit nosedive. Even if strong demand forecast to a range of $5.3 billion continues, shortages and rising to $5.7 billion from a previous costs for labor, materials and othrange of $4.6 billion to $5 billion. er essentials could take a bigger However, Deere coupled the bite of profits. guidance increase with a caution For now, it’s encouraging to see from CEO John May, who said Chicago’s concentration of old“Deere expects to see increased supply chain pressure through the line industrial companies provide an economic boost. In recent debalance of the year.” cades, our reliance on this mature Even benighted Boeing, sector has led to subpar growth hammered by the travel slump compared to regions with more and a seemingly endless series fast-growing tech companies. of self-inflicted wounds, shows A manufacturing recovery also signs of a revival. Quarterly helps offset weakness elsewhere revenue soared 44 percent to $17 in the local economy. For exambillion from last year’s depressed ple, packaged-foods companies levels, helped by deliveries of 737 that boomed last year when lockMax jets that had been grounddowns forced people to eat more ed since March 2019 after two meals at home now face slowing fatal crashes killed 346 people. sales as restaurants reopen.

Chicago-based Boeing said it Chicago’s industrial behemoths, laid low by COVID-19 a year ago, are picking up steam on pent-up demand for everything from airliners to tractors.

Second-quarter financial results from the largest local manufacturers show sharply rising sales and profits, along with increasingly optimistic expectations for the future. Looming over the sunny outlooks, however, are worries about supply chain shortages, rising costs and the delta variant’s potential impact on commerce.

Deerfield-based heavy-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar saw strong growth as economies around the world rebounded.

Net income tripled to $1.4 billion in the second quarter as revenue shot up 29 percent to $12.9 billion on rising sales in all of Cat’s business segments. Sales of construction equipment, boosted by a buoyant housing market, leapt 40 percent. Even perpetual problem child mining equipment posted 41 percent sales growth.

Looking ahead, Cat is well positioned to capitalize on continued housing demand and capture a healthy share of spending under

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What small businesses need to make it through

ISTOCK

The good times are rolling for Chicago manufacturers

The president of the Small Business Advocacy Council has advice and a forecast for the sector as entrepreneurs navigate a pandemic still in flux

BY EMILY DRAKE AND TODD CONNOR Chicago Comes Back is a weekly series on ChicagoBusiness.com providing leadership insights to help your business move forward, written by leadership consultants Emily Drake and Todd Connor.

Drake and Connor facilitate Crain’s Leadership Academy. Drake is a licensed therapist, owner of the Collective Academy and a leadership coach. Connor is the founder of Bunker Labs and the Collective Academy and is also a leadership consultant. Check out previous installments at ChicagoBusiness.com/comesback.

This week Chicago Comes Back welcomes Elliot Richardson, co-founder and president of the Small Business Advocacy Council, an organization dedicated to advocating for small businesses in Illinois. We wanted to get a sense of how smaller firms are faring at this phase of the pandemic, as well as forecast how they’re preparing for the future.

TODD CONNOR: Elliot, thanks for spending time with us. The pandemic upended the environment for lots of small businesses— something some Chicagoans have experienced in very personal ways. What was the experience of your members’ last year?

ELLIOT RICHARDSON: The pandemic devastated many small businesses, and the speed by which vibrant businesses were suddenly shuttered was stunning. Small-business owners and entrepreneurs had to scramble, navigating PPP and other governmental relief programs during a remarkably uncertain time. The resilience of the small-business community was inspiring. Small-business owners approached the pandemic with the same grit and determination that defines entrepreneurs.

EMILY DRAKE: Grit and determination—indeed, two must-haves this past year. What’s the mood among small-business owners these days? Optimistic? Entrepreneurial? Cautious?

ER: They seem cautiously optimistic, given these uncertain

times. Many are still struggling to recover from the pandemic, and an emerging challenge for small businesses is the inability to hire qualified employees.

That being said, the pandemic prompted many aspiring entrepreneurs to start businesses.

While a post-pandemic economy presents significant challenges for some business owners, it offers opportunities for others.

Our economy is different, and small-business owners are continuing to adapt to the changing landscape.

TC: Part of what your organization does is advocate for legislative action. Government has a role to play, presumably, in supporting small businesses.

What point of view has the SBAC staked out? What are your members asking for?

ER: The SBAC believes the small-business community must have the opportunity to shape new programs being launched to support struggling small businesses through the American Rescue Plan Act. Giving small-business owners and advocates a seat

at the table, as policies are being designed and implemented, will ensure those policies are best tailored to provide them relief. We are also focused on passing legislation and establishing programs that provide incentives to small businesses that retrain and hire new employees. There are many more advocacy initiatives we are working on, from property tax to occupational licensing reform.

There has never been a more important time to advocate for the small-business community.

ED: Any forecast on the future?

Or advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

ER: It seems things are in a constant state of flux, given the unpredictable nature of the pandemic.

My advice for entrepreneurs and small-business owners is to stay connected and engaged. Get involved in organizations that will advocate for your interests and update you on important developments that may affect your business. Critical mass makes a difference, and by coming together, the small business community can make a huge impact.

8/6/21 2:45 PM

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6 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

After reaching a full boil, housing market cools to a simmer

The euphoria of getting back to a normal summer has dialed down the pandemic-era fervor for buying homes

BY DENNIS RODKIN

LUXURY HOME OF THE WEEK Advertising Section

The fast-moving housing market that burst out of COVID shutdowns almost a year ago and raced along at a frenetic pace has begun to ease up, new data shows.

On four indicators, the Chicago-area housing market has simmered down in the past month, according to a report released by Midwest Real Estate Data.

Two indicators—the number of home purchases closed and the number of new listings put on the market—have both run below last year’s figures for four consecutive weeks. On two other indicators, the increase from a year ago has narrowed. They are the number of homes going under contract to a buyer and the increase in the median purchase price compared to a year earlier.

As one example: The median price of homes sold in the Chicago area in the week that ended Aug. 2 was $290,000, according to MRED. That’s up 10.7 percent from a year earlier. It’s a robust increase, but it’s the smallest in a string of 47 weeks when each week the median sale price was up by double digits from the same time a year earlier.

None of the four indicators shows a pause or a downturn in the market, but taken together they demonstrate that “the frenzy is gone,” as Elaine Pagels, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Chicago in the western suburbs, puts it.

A key reason may be 2021’s souped-up version of something very familiar: summer. Always a time for relaxation and travel, summer this year brought with it a sense of rediscovered freedom.

‘SUMMER ON STEROIDS’

With the vaccine taming the virus and people free to entertain and travel again, “it’s summer on steroids,” said Jenny Ames, who heads the Engel & Volkers real estate brokerage in Chicago.

After staying home and isolating for more than a year, “everybody’s out doing everything they used to

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take for granted but couldn’t do last year,” Ames said. That evidently doesn’t include house hunting.

It’s now well-known that the hectic run-up in home sales and prices of previous months, made possible by low interest rates, was largely driven by people’s pandemic-era focus on the spaces they were quarantining in and a desire for something more suitable.

Now, Ames and Pagels say, there’s a related phenomenon slowing the market down.

“They’ll get to buying a house later,” Ames said. “Right now, they want to enjoy summer outdoors, take a vacation, go to their lake house.” The euphoria of this newfound freedom is made even more intense, both Ames and Pagels said, by the recently dawned prospect of another round of at-home time, as the delta variant and the failure to vaccinate everyone has pushed case counts back up.

HESITANCE

Another reason for the slowdown is “nervousness,” says Betty Clayton, managing broker of Sincere Real Estate based in Auburn Gresham. Fast-rising prices, bidding wars and long lines to see the few new homes that pop onto the market shook some people out of the market, at least for the moment.

Clayton said that’s particularly true with first-time buyers.

“They’re usually nervous getting into this big purchase anyway,” Clayton said, but in this wild year, “they’re saying, ‘I can’t do this.’”

Late summer is always a time when the housing market slows because people are on vacation.

But relative to the action-packed summer of 2020, which behaved like “new spring” after most shutdowns ended, “it feels extra slow now,” Pagels said.

Bagels and Ames both said they expect to see the exuberance of pandemic era home buying come back into the market in the fall, not only because summer’s distractions will be over but because of still-low interest rates and further uncertainty about the path of the pandemic.

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8 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

How many Chicago-area restaurants have closed since the pandemic began?

With delta variant, owners worry more could be coming

DAMAGE DONE

The renewed threat comes as data reveals the toll COVID has taken on the Chicago area’s restaurant industry. In the 16 months since the pandemic struck, 18.8 percent of restaurants in Chicago have closed, according to data from research firm Datassential. That’s up from 8.7 percent in the 16 months prior to the pandemic.

In the counties surrounding the city, 12.3 percent of restaurants have closed, up from 7.2 percent in the months before March 2020.

Those numbers remain lower than industry predictions. The Illinois Restaurant Association has warned that 20 percent of the state’s more than 25,000 eating and drinking establishments will close because of the pandemic.

But the carnage is expected to continue piling up.

P008_CCB_20210809.indd 8

town to work, and all of that has been slower to recover, said Sam Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association.

Toia has been pushing to get the federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund replenished. Regardless of the full patios and booked-up reservations restaurants enjoyed this summer, many are still in need of financial aid, he said.

He’s also advocating hard for vaccines and expects more restaurants will begin checking customers’ vaccine cards. New York City announced Aug. 3 that it would require proof of vaccination for people participating in indoor activities such as dining, gyms and performances.

MANDATES

RACHEL BIRES

IN HUMBOLDT PARK, Spinning J Bakery and Soda Fountain halted indoor dining. In Logan Square, cocktail bar Scofflaw reinstated its mask mandate for workers and customers.

Around the city and suburbs, restaurant operators are watching COVID case counts rise once again and instituting their own policies to protect workers and customers. It feels like a dark deja vu for operators, who are still paying off bills that piled up during previous state- or city-mandated restrictions and recuperating lost revenues.

“It feels like I just caught up and somebody tripped me,” said Erick Williams, owner and executive chef of Virtue Restaurant & Bar in Hyde Park. “Like I just got out of the abyss and now all of a sudden it’s coming back my way.”

In Chicago last week, the average number of new cases per day was 252, up 40 percent over the previous week, according to the city’s COVID dashboard. Meanwhile, hospitalizations were up 15 percent, and deaths were up 60 percent. Vaccinations continued to rise as well, but breakthrough cases—though still rare—were also gaining attention nationwide.

Virtue never stopped taking the temperature of everyone who enters. Seats at the bar are still socially distanced, and its customer-facing workers are still required to wear masks. But Williams worries about what rising case counts might mean for business and whether new restrictions are coming. The fourth quarter is typically the most lucrative for restaurants, and he hoped to make up for lost revenue and put some money away again.

“Consumer spending is high, and we lost it last year,” he said.

“God help us all this year.”

BY ALLY MAROTTI

Testaccio in Logan Square started requiring customers to wear masks again last week.

“We’re going to see more closures until we get past the pandemic and herd immunity and anti-­vaxxers,” said Darren Tristano, CEO at Chicago-based food industry research consultancy FoodserviceResults. “We’re going to get to a point where we’re all comfortable and people aren’t getting sick, and when that happens it’s going to make a big difference.”

But until then, restaurants are likely to struggle, he said. Most restaurants operate constantly on the verge of closure, with low profit margins and high operating costs. “COVID was an accelerant,” Tristano said.

Illinois restaurants were closed to indoor dining for more than five months altogether last year.

In Chicago, capacity limits remained in place through much of the spring. Many restaurants rolled out new revenue streams to try to make up for the losses, but it wasn’t enough for some.

Additional closures from rising case counts could also exacerbate staffing issues, which restaurants have been grappling with since the city started reopening in the spring. Workers left the industry during the pandemic after suffering through furloughs, and many willing to return are demanding more livable wages and benefits.

Many operators of establishments that haven’t reopened or returned to full operating hours say their inability to hire workers is to blame, and the situation is not improving.

Tony Antonacci, owner of Pennyville Station and Taco Melly in downtown Park Ridge, said he had to close his taco joint a few weeks ago “because we couldn’t staff it any longer.” Antonacci said he has increased pay, offered

RESTAURANT CLOSURES In the 16 months leading up to March 2020, 8.7 percent of restaurants in Chicago closed.

In the Chicago area, including the city, that number was 7.8 percent. Both figures have more than doubled in the 16 months since the pandemic struck.

Area

Suburban Cook Chicago

Percent closed 12.4% 18.8%

Permanently Temporarily Total closed closed restaurants

676

59

5,933

1,266

305

8,370

DuPage

12.8%

272

42

2,448

Kane

13.2%

121

16

1,040

317

29

2,925

137

13

1,325

2,789

464

22,041

Lake Will Grand Total

11.8% 11.3% 14.8%

Source: Data essential

benefits and more, but it’s not enough to attract workers.

“We had to make a decision and decided to focus on Pennyville for now,” he said. “The really hard part now is all the college kids are going back in the next couple weeks.”

When that happens, Antonacci plans to modify the layout of Pennyville and take tables away.

It’s hard to explain to customers that they can’t be seated because there aren’t enough servers when the customer sees empty tables.

Meanwhile, some operators are starting to look at tougher steps, like requiring customers to prove they’re vaccinated. That’s what Metropolitan Brewing in Avondale was doing starting Aug. 5.

Meanwhile, staffing issues have caused a delay for reopening at several of Fifty/50 Restaurant Group’s 17 establishments, said co-owner Scott Weiner.

The restaurant group required its roughly 400 employees to get vaccinated, so Weiner doesn’t plan on making any protocol changes yet amid rising case counts. But he is worried that increasing COVID numbers might hurt business. The Roots Handmade Pizza in Lincoln Square is frequented by families with kids under 12 years old, who are not eligible for the vaccines. Will they be deterred?

“It really is neighborhood by neighborhood,” Weiner said.

Recovery has varied by location, too, and that is reflected in the figures from Datassential.

Restaurants in the city were hit harder with closures than the suburbs, partly because people stayed home and ate nearby instead of coming to the city. Chicago restaurants also depend more on tourism, convention traffic and professionals flocking down-

Some restaurant operators in Chicago say they are adamantly against shutting down indoor dining again and will do what it takes to avoid that fate. One said he didn’t have enough faith in the legitimacy of vaccine cards to check them at the door.

Chicago has no plans to mandate vaccines or masks for bar or restaurant patrons, city health commissioner Dr. Alison Arwady said at a press conference Aug. 3.

The city is also not likely to mandate masks indoors again unless it enters high-risk territory in case count.

“It’s a big decision to impose that on a whole class of businesses,” she said. Plus, she added, New York has embraced the concept of vaccination passports to a larger extent than Illinois and the Midwest.

Most restaurant operators hope it doesn’t come to that but feel they became versatile and nimble in weathering the roller coaster of restrictions over the past 16 months. If they did it before, they can do it again. But they’d certainly rather not.

“I hope I’m not going back to” an indoor dining ban, said Aldo Zaninotto, owner of Osteria Langhe and Testaccio in Logan Square. “I don’t believe it will go back to (that), but you never know at this point. The good thing is, we went through that drill so we kind of know now.”

Osteria Langhe and Testaccio was requiring customers to wear masks again starting Aug. 4. Zaninotto said he talked to the staff about whether they would be comfortable staying open, and they decided to implement the mask mandate and see how things go. He hopes it will be enough.

“I think the masks should do it at the moment and people feel safe,” he said. “I want to do my share. . . .Let’s not try and go back to where we were before. Let’s prevent this.”

Jon Asplund contributed.

8/6/21 3:19 PM

THE WORK IS NOT OVER. OUR NEIGHBORS STILL NEED US. The need for food remains high. It will outlast the pandemic—hundreds of thousands of our neighbors will still face hunger. So we’re strengthening a community-wide response to hunger, investing in our local partners and in strategies to address racial inequity. Food insecurity has always affected people of color disproportionately, making our efforts even more crucial.

In four decades of feeding our community,, we have never faced a need so great.

WE NEED YOU. DONATE NOW

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10 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

EDITORIAL

It’s good to be reminded now and then that diversity matters for reasons beyond mere virtue signaling: When corporations and governments are guided by leaders who represent a wide swath of America, the decisions they make tend to be fairer and more responsive to the needs of the entire community, not just a well-connected few.

The latest case in point comes in the infrastructure bill that’s been the subject of epic negotiation, horse-trading and arm-twisting in D.C. for months now. The legislation in its current form earmarks $1.75 billion in federal accessibility grants for the installation of elevators and other sorts of technology to make public transit stations fully accessible to people with disabilities—particularly those who use wheelchairs to get around. That funding is there, in part, as a result of behind-thescenes wrangling by U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who happens to be a double amputee, having lost both legs during her service in the Iraq War. Duckworth can walk with crutches, but generally uses a wheelchair for longer trips, and she can relate more than one personal horror story of the perils of public transit for wheelchair users. She recently told Crain’s political columnist Greg Hinz, for instance, that she no longer uses the Chicago Transit Authority’s el system because she has been “locked in,” as she put it, once too often either on glitchy elevators or on platforms where the elevators are out of service.

Argue all you like about the current D.C.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth

definition of infrastructure and whether it should include “soft” priorities like child care or community care for seniors alongside more traditional elements like roads and bridges—there’s not a lot of room for doubt that installing and maintaining the elevators, escalators, bus lifts and other sorts of equipment needed to help disabled people use public transit is as “hard” as infrastructure gets. This is essential infrastructure, plain and simple, and it merits serious investment.

While Duckworth and her congressional allies succeeded in securing funding for this priority, she was dealt a setback when the Senate voted 48-50 to reject her call to require transit agencies receiving that $1.75 billion in federal aid to create an explicit plan for how they would prioritize accessibility for people with disabilities. A clause in the amendment also stipulated that transit agencies commit to addressing “equity of service to all riders regardless of income,

GETTY IMAGES

Making public transit accessible to all age, race, or ability, taking into account historical and current service gaps for low-income riders, older individuals, riders from communities of color and riders with disabilities.”

One of Duckworth’s Senate colleagues, Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, blasted this measure on the Senate floor on Aug. 3, calling it “politically correct virtue signaling” and “a woke planning mandate.”

Duckworth, for her part, countered that her aim was to ensure accountability from the transit agencies that receive the money—a reasonable priority given her firsthand experience of how well some local systems maintain their existing infrastructure.

While corporate America rightly focuses its attention on diversity, equity and inclusion, it’s crucial that this conversation encompasses people with disabilities. And a key part of creating economic opportunity for these people and increasing their participation in the workforce is ensuring that they can access the public transit systems that so many of us take for granted as we come and go from our places of work.

Duckworth is right to push for this kind of spending in the federal infrastructure bill—and she’s also correct in saying local agencies need to be held to a higher standard.

As the senator herself put it in response to Toomey’s jabs, “If making sure that somebody in a wheelchair can actually access mass transit is ‘woke,’ then there are worse things to be criticized for.”

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A new standard for megadevelopments

mate resident amenities—parks, ver the last decade, walking paths, eateries and megadevelopments have community hubs—have come to increasingly dominated matter more than ever. And imthe U.S. construction market, pressive resident amenities are growing in number, size and exactly what megadevelopments complexity. And for good readeliver. However, “luxury” is the son: Renters and buyers covet operative term in most megadeeasy access to live, work and play velopments these days. With communities and first-rate serdazzling housing options, beauvices, and big projects let developtifully manicured green spaces, ers maximize vacant or depressed Jim Reynolds is plentiful niceties and high-end sites, resources and economies of CEO of Loop retail, projects like Manhattan’s scale to deliver just that.

Capital in Hudson Yards, Boston’s Seaport The results are transformative. Chicago and the Square and Sunrise, Fla.’s MeTurning large, vacant tracts of second-largest tropica prove the point. land into useful and productive equity partner in Like Manhattan, Boston and communities is good for cit- Bronzeville LakeSunrise, Chicago is no stranger ies’ residents, job numbers, tax front’s developto the megadevelopment. We bases and more. Initially, many ment team. have a notable success story speculated COVID would kill the megadevelopment, but the opposite with the 28-acre Lakeshore East, and more is proving true. Annual construction put are in the works—all destined to revitalin place between 2019 and 2029 for U.S. ize empty acreage, create tax revenue and megadevelopments will increase by near- spur meaningful economic impact. Linly 600 percent, going from about $50 bil- coln Yards and the 78 are underway, while River District and One Central are emerlion to over $350 billion.

But post-pandemic, inviting and inti- gent. But all of these communities exem-

plify a disturbing national trend to reframe most half MWBEs and Black-owned. Yet large tracts of land by nondiverse develop- we’re just getting started; GRIT is working to meet a goal of 65 percent minority supment teams that are 93 percent white.

But Bronzeville Lakefront—a 100-acre, pliers.

But first and foremost, in a city with the $8.2 billion megadevelopment on the former Michael Reese Hospital site on nation’s widest racial gap in life expectanChicago’s South Side—is an exception to cy—residents of mostly white Streeterville this trend. It is the only Chicago megade- live 30 years longer than residents of mostvelopment with a diverse team—GRIT ly Black Englewood—GRIT has built a deChicago—that goes a long way toward reflecting its locale’s demographics. It is part of the broader BRONZEVILLE LAKEFRONT IS BEING historic area dubbed Bronzeville DEVELOPED BY A DIVERSE TEAM THAT by the Chicago Defender in 1932.

Today’s community area snapshot REFLECTS ITS COMMUNITY AND OUR CITY. shows it’s 68 percent Black, 14 percent Asian, 11 percent white and 3 per- velopment model to address this issue and tailored to not only to Chicago’s needs but cent Hispanic.

GRIT Chicago is committed to building the South Side’s immediate needs. One of an inclusive, equity-driven project that those needs is for Blacks to have more eqwill be transformative for a broader popu- uity in the large developments being built lace locally and beyond. It is a team of six in Chicago, particularly those on the city’s equity partners, including my firm, Loop South and West sides.

In fact, thanks to the diversity of the Capital, the second-largest participant in the project behind the master developer. GRIT team, every aspect of Bronzeville We are 50 percent Black, and contractors Lakefront—from its community-driven, hired to-date for the development are al- sustainable design and construction pro-

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Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Chicago Business, 150 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601, or email us at letters@chicagobusiness.com. Please include your full name, the city from which you’re writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes.

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • August 9, 2021 11

YOUR VIEW Continued gram to a pioneering health innovation center anchor intended to create health equity—is designed to spur massive economic development. It will range from substantial temporary and permanent job creation to the significant generation of income through business creation, commerce and industry.

Unlike other Chicago megadevelopments, Bronzeville Lakefront will be home to residents of all races and income levels thanks to its mix of senior, family, workforce and affordable housing. Unlike many other megadevelopments, all the affordable housing will be on-site. And its health innovation anchor—the Chicago ARC Innovation Center—is already attracting global attention thanks to its partnership with Israel-based Sheba Medical Center, world-renowned for its track record for revolutionizing health care on a global scale.

Even the development’s name is authentic and reflects the community. Bronzeville Lakefront was

chosen through a rigorous community engagement process that included multiple community meetings.

But most significantly, unlike other megadevelopments in Chicago and most of those in the rest of the nation, Bronzeville Lakefront is being developed by a diverse team that reflects its community and our city.

Even better, it’s not only aligned with the values of 4th Ward residents and Chicagoans but also accomplishes the goals that Mayor Lori Lightfoot has laid out in her Invest South/West campaign. With all of its assets and uniquely positioned anchor—the Chicago ARC Innovation Center, which is designed to create global health care businesses—it will be transformative for the South Side, our city and health equity worldwide.

Bronzeville Lakefront comes at the right time. Transformative for “some” rather than “all” is no longer enough.

Royal Bank offers commercial loans with attractive rates and terms.

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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Advertising Section To place your listing, visit www.chicagobusiness.com/peoplemoves or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

BANKING

DESIGN / BUILD

FINANCIAL SERVICES

HEALTH CARE

LAW

Byline Bank, Chicago

Air Comfort Corporation, Broadview

Mesirow, Chicago

Chico & Nunes, P.C., Chicago

Byline Bank, a subsidiary of Byline Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BY), welcomes Stephen Ball as Senior Vice President, Head of Business Banking. Ball brings nearly 30 years of direct retail banking experience to Byline and is responsible for ensuring a strong small business presence through the branch network and specialized business bankers. He connects businesses to experienced bankers who offer sound advice and can help businesses with access to capital as well as cash management optimization.

Air Comfort Corporation, one of the Chicago area’s largest mechanical contractors, is pleased to announce the promotion of Mike Devito to President. His new role begins as the company enters an exciting phase of growth in partnership with Orion Service Group. Mike has more than 30 years of industry experience and is dedicated to developing his team of problem solvers, delivering quality solutions and providing exceptional customer service.

Marcin Bednarczyk has joined Mesirow Currency Management as a Senior Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager. In this role, he will focus on implementing the team’s investment strategy and portfolio management functions while supporting a recently expanded suite of products and continued increase in AUM. Most recently, Marcin served as Senior Portfolio Manager at Russell Investments.

Mesirow was recently named one of the Best Places to Work in Chicago

by Crain’s Chicago Business.

Health Care Service Corporation, Chicago Sarah Soong joins Health Care Service Corporation as the company’s vice president and treasurer. Sarah is responsible for leading the company’s treasury strategy, including enterprise treasury operations, corporate finance and banking relationships, corporate capital structure, investment management activities, and capital expenditures on internal initiatives. She most recently served as vice president and treasurer for Xcel Energy Inc.

Chico & Nunes, P.C. is pleased to announce attorney, Gina C. Adduci, has been promoted to partner. Gina focuses her practice on MWDBE issues including certification, government contracting, and procurement law. Practicing law since 2010, Gina represents a broad range of clients, including prime contractors, subcontractors, professional service firms and material suppliers in doing business with federal, state and local governments.

LAW BUSINESS SERVICES / CONSTRUCTION

EDUCATION

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Clark Hill PLC, Chicago

J.C. Anderson, Chicago

Erikson Institute, Chicago

Million Dollar Round Table, Park Ridge

J.C. Anderson, a leading Chicagoland General Contractor specializing in interiors, is pleased to announce that the firm has hired Brian Vogt to join the team as senior estimator. He brings six years of estimating and account management experience with him. Prior to joining J.C. Anderson, he was an account manager with Clarion Construction, Inc., where he worked for nine years. He graduated from Western Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in Construction Management and minor in Business Management.

Mariana Souto-Manning, Ph.D., has been named President of Erikson Institute. She is a visionary leader with a passion for early childhood and extensive experience in higher education administration.

Currently Professor of Early Childhood Education and Director of both the Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Special Education Programs at Teachers College, Columbia University, Souto-Manning’s research focuses on inequities and injustices in early childhood teaching and teacher education.

The Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) recently appointed Joe Ferrazza as Director of North America Channel Relations. A Chicago native and insurance business veteran, Ferrazza will lead the financial association in expanding its North American footprint, equipping U.S. and Canadian financial services professionals with the resources needed to protect their clients, grow their practice and propel both to next-level success.

Jose Vela Jr. joined Clark Hill’s Healthcare group in Chicago as Sr. Counsel, following 20+ years of service at the U.S. Dept. of Justice as Asst. U.S. Attorney/Lead Trial Attorney handling healthcare fraud cases. Vela was an Asst. State’s Attorney for Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office and is a retired Lt. Colonel/U.S. Army with a distinguished 28-year career. He represents healthcare industry clients regarding compliance, insurance payment/reimbursement and information technology issues.

CONSTRUCTION Mortenson, Chicago Mortenson welcomes Maggie Beckley as Healthcare Development Executive based in our Chicago office. She is focused on strategic vision, long term growth, development of client relationships, and creating and executing development opportunities for the healthcare vertical. Maggie came to Mortenson from Advocate Aurora Health, where she was Director of Real Estate. Maggie holds an MBA in Real Estate from Roosevelt University where she held honors as a Goldie Initiative Scholar.

FOOD / BEVERAGE ENGINEERING / CONSTRUCTION

Blue Plate Catering, Chicago

Cyclone Energy Group, Chicago

Blue Plate, one of Chicago’s premier caterers, is proud to announce the arrival of Charles Haracz as their new Executive Chef. Chef Haracz comes to Blue Plate after 10 years as Executive Chef at the Art Institute of Chicago where he oversaw all Culinary Operations.

In his role as Executive Chef he will lead menu development and oversee all kitchen and field operations for a culinary team of more than 100. He will also continue to build Blue Plate’s successful business dining program.

Megan Starner has been named Director of Operations for Cyclone Energy Group. In this role, Megan brings nearly 20 years of project management experience to reach across department lines to increase the collaboration and delivery of internal initiatives. Prior to this, Megan was the energyPLAN Account Manager and focused on working with property teams to ensure that the monitoring of building data and implementation of cost-saving initiatives were meeting or exceeding building expectations.

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES Kinsale Contracting Group, Inc., Westmont Kinsale Contracting Group, Inc. is pleased to announce the promotion of Alexander E. Tennant to Vice President of our Environmental Division.

Alex will be overseeing operations by working closely with our Estimating Teams and Field Supervisors to ensure project continuity, initiate new strategies and continue to maintain quality services provide by Kinsale. With over 30 years of experience, Alex’s proficiency and knowledge has made him a respected leader in the environmental industry.

P012_CCB_20210809_v2.indd 1

HEALTH CARE ENGINEERING / CONSTRUCTION SPAAN Tech, Inc., Chicago Julie Hernandez-Tomlin joins SPAAN Tech, Inc. as Executive Vice President of Business Affairs, where she will advise, coordinate, structure, and negotiate on business matters for the firm. Her decades of experience with government, construction management, operations, budgeting and finance, personnel, labor relations and procurement will be a valuable asset to the SPAAN Tech team. More recently, Hernandez-Tomlin served as First Deputy Commissioner for the Chicago Department of Water Management.

Caravel Autism Health, Chicago Caravel Autism Health, a leader in the diagnosis & treatment of children on the autism spectrum, welcomes Michelle Wright to its board of directors. Wright has extensive healthcare leadership experience as an executive at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and as a consultant. A parent of a child with autism, she is deeply invested in advocacy for people with disabilities. Wright will help Caravel guide its investments in talent & data-driven technology to deliver better autism treatment outcomes.

LAW Benesch, Chicago Jake A. Cilek has joined Benesch as a Partner in the Benesch Healthcare+ Practice Group. Jake’s practice focuses on healthcare law and encompasses a range of regulatory, transactional and corporate matters. His work includes counseling clients with regard to the legal aspects of dayto-day operations, including general corporate matters; anti-kickback and Stark issues; self-referral, corporate practice of medicine and fee-splitting prohibitions; and HIPAA and health information privacy.

LAW Benesch, Chicago J. Scott Humphrey has joined Benesch as a Partner and Chair in the firm’s Trade Secrets, Restrictive Covenants and Unfair Competition Practice Group. He has extensive litigation, arbitration, and counseling experience involving a wide range of complex commercial contract disputes and business torts, including matters arising from trade secret appropriation, breach of restrictive covenants, contract disputes, manufacturing and distribution issues, fraud, and insurance disputes.

LAW Benesch, Chicago Hersh Mehta has joined Benesch as a Partner in the firm’s IP Litigation Practice Group. He represents clients in intellectual property litigations and transactions throughout the United States.

A patent attorney with an electrical engineering degree, Hersh has served as lead counsel in the U.S. District Courts, Courts of Appeals, International Trade Commission, and Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

NON-PROFIT Chicago Commons, Chicago Chicago Commons welcomes Dana Thomas, CPA as the new Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Thomas brings over 20 years of experience in planning, budgeting, analyses, reporting, and extensive managerial experience within public accounting, for profit and nonprofit industries. Prior to joining Chicago Commons, Thomas was Vice President of Accounting for EAB Solutions Inc., specializing in financial analysis, budget modeling, process improvement, and implementation of internal control policy and procedures.

REAL ESTATE Newcastle Limited, Chicago Jiten C. Sood joins Newcastle Limited as Controller. Jiten will lead the firm’s accounting and reporting functions.

He will partner with the division heads to improve the firm’s processes and move business initiatives forward. Jiten brings a wealth of real estate accounting experience to his new role. He earned a BS from Northern Illinois University and holds an MBA from Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business.

To order frames or plaques of profiles contact Lauren Melesio at lmelesio@crain.com or 212-210-0707

8/4/21 9:43 AM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • August 9, 2021 13

CRAIN’S LIST CHICAGO’S LARGEST FOUNDATIONS

John Palfrey President

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$311.5 $283.8

PIF

4

4

2

2

THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST 225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 2200, Chicago 60601; CCT.org

Helene D. Gayle President, CEO

$3,717.6 $3,352.2

$613.6 $369.8

CF

4

4

4

4

4

3

3

JEWISH UNITED FUND/JEWISH FEDERATION OF CHICAGO 30 S. Wells St., Chicago 60606; JUF.org

Lonnie Nasatir President

$2,268.2 $2,357.5

$242.4 $223.4

FF

4

4

4

4

4

4

ROBERT R. MCCORMICK FOUNDATION 205 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 4300, Chicago 60601; McCormickFoundation.org

Timothy P. Knight $1,966.6 President, CEO $1,838.9

$75.0 $67.1

PF

5

5

JOYCE FOUNDATION 321 N. Clark St., Suite 1500, Chicago 60654; JoyceFdn.org

Ellen S. Alberding $1,250.8 President $1,097.8

$45.0 $42.4

PIF

Na’ilah Suad Nasir $672.7 President $497.6

$21.1 $20.6

PIF

6

New SPENCER FOUNDATION 625 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1600, Chicago 60611; Spencer.org

4

7

6

TERRA FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN ART 120 E. Erie St., Chicago 60611; TerraAmericanArt.org

Sharon Corwin President, CEO

$595.0 $585.5

$7.0 $7.9

PIF

4

8

7

POLK BROS. FOUNDATION 20 W. Kinzie St., Suite 1110, Chicago 60654; PolkBrosFdn.org

Gillian Darlow CEO

$418.8 $412.5

$24.5 $27.6

PIF

4

9

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STEANS FAMILY FOUNDATION 50 E. Washington St., Suite 410, Chicago 60602; SteansFamilyFoundation.org

Patricia Ford Executive director

$330.0 $344.0

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PIF

Elizabeth Walder President, executive director

$262.2 $254.6

$27.5 $6.6

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4

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New WALDER FOUNDATION 5215 Old Orchard Road, Suite 1050, Skokie 60077; WalderFoundation.org

4

4

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193

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$30.0; Hampton University

91

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$27.4; Jewish Federations of North America

391

$2.5; United Way-McCormick Partnership for Strong Neighborhoods

128

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$0.7; Natural Resources Defense Council

28

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$1.0; Strategic Education Research Partnership Institute

19

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$1.0; IFF

27

$0.3; Various recipients1, 2

13

$0.5; UCAN Chicago

14

$1.5; Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago

10

$1.0; Anonymous

13

$0.3; Ducks Unlimited

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4

$0.8; Chicago Community Foundation Together We Rise Fund

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$0.2; Community Restorative Justice Hubs

7

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IRVING HARRIS FOUNDATION 191 N. Wacker Drive, Suite 1500, Chicago 60606; IrvingHarrisFdn.org

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PIF

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GAYLORD AND DOROTHY DONNELLEY FOUNDATION 35 E. Wacker Drive, Suite 2600, Chicago 60601; GDDF.org

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PIF

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COLEMAN FOUNDATION INC. 651 W. Washington Blvd., Suite 306, Chicago 60661; ColemanFoundation.org

Shelley A. Davis President, CEO

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14

12

LLOYD A. FRY FOUNDATION 120 S. LaSalle St., Suite 1950, Chicago 60603; FryFoundation.org

Unmi Song President

$179.5 $187.6

$8.7 $8.1

PIF

4

15

13

PRINCE CHARITABLE TRUSTS 140 S. Dearborn St., Suite 1400, Chicago 60603; PrinceTrusts.org

Charles C. Twichell $167.3 Executive director $156.0

$5.7 $5.3

CT

4

16

14

ILLINOIS CHILDREN’S HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION 1200 Jorie Blvd., Oak Brook 60523; ILCHF.org

Heather H. Alderman President

$163.3 $145.1

$13.0 $5.6

PIF

17

17

GRAND VICTORIA FOUNDATION 230 W. Monroe St., Suite 2530, Chicago 60606; GrandVictoriaFDN.org

Sharon Bush President

$151.9 $141.3

$6.5 $5.5

PIF

18

15

RRF FOUNDATION FOR AGING 8765 W. Higgins Road, Suite 430, Chicago 60631; RRF.org

Mary B. O’Donnell $149.1 President $145.8

$6.3 $6.0

PIF

19

16

MICHAEL REESE HEALTH TRUST 1707 N. Randall Road, Suite 200, Elgin 60123; WeAreMichaelReese.org

Gayla Brockman President, CEO

$145.0 $141.9

$7.0 $7.0

PF

20

19

THE BRINSON FOUNDATION 737 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1850, Chicago 60611; BrinsonFoundation.org

Christy Uchida President

$131.2 $121.8

$4.8 $4.6

PIF

21

18

HEALTHY COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION 19 Riverside Road, Suite 6, Riverside 60546; HCFdn.org

Maria S. Pesqueira $129.6 President $130.4

$8.5 $5.4

PIF

22

21

CME GROUP FOUNDATION 20 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago 60606; CMEGroupFoundation.org

Kassie Davis Executive director

$118.0 $115.0

$5.8 $5.6

PCF

Julie Christman President, CEO

$114.3 $102.1

$5.0 $4.9

CF

4

4

4

4

4

4

New COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE FOX RIVER VALLEY 111 W. Downer Place, Suite 312, Aurora 60506; CFFRV.org

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

$0.2; Piedmont Environmental Council

5

4

4

$0.9; Bridgeway; Chestnut Health Systems; Rosecrance; Rush University Medical Center1

6

4

4

$0.5; Chicago Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Illinois Response Fund

10

4

4

$0.4; United Way of Metropolitan Chicago

8

4

4

$1.2; Acclivus

8

$0.1; California Institute of Technology; University of California, Davis; University of Chicago1

4

$0.5; Chicago Community Trust, Illinois Immigration Funder’s Collaborative

7

$1.0; City Colleges of Chicago

1

4

4

4

24

23

DUPAGE FOUNDATION 3000 Woodcreek Drive, Suite 310, Downers Grove 60515; DuPageFoundation.org

David M. McGowan President, CEO

$111.0 $102.9

$9.1 $7.2

CF

4

4

25

22

ALPHAWOOD FOUNDATION 2401 N. Halsted St., Suite 210, Chicago 60614; AlphawoodFoundation.org

James D. McDonough Executive director

$99.0 $104.5

$6.3 $15.2

PIF

4

4

4

4

Largest grant in 2020 (millions); beneficiary

Full-time local employees 12/31/2020

$6.0; The New Venture Fund (Catalytic Capital Consortium); League of Conservation Voters Education Fund1

11

23

Employment

4

4

4

4

4

Education

Foundation type

Human services

JOHN D. & CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION 140 S. Dearborn St., Suite 1200, Chicago 60603; MacFound.org

Top foundation official

Health

1

Foundation

Disaster relief

Civic and community

1

2020 rank

Legal aid

Giving areas

Arts and culture

Assets (millions) 2020; 2019

Total grants paid out (millions) 2020; 2019

Econ. development and public policy

Ranked by 2020 assets.

4

4

4

4

4

4

$0.8; West Aurora School District 129

6

4

4

$1.8; Swifty Foundation

10

$0.4; University of Chicago, Center of the Art of East Asia

5

4

Includes foundations headquartered in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake (Ill.), Lake (Ind.), McHenry and Will counties. NA: Not available. PIF: Private independent foundation. PCF: Private corporate foundation. CF: Community foundation. PF: Public foundation.

CT: Charitable trust. FF: Federated fund. 1. Each beneficiary received the grant amount. 2. Grant recipients were Chicago High School for the Arts; Window to the World Communications; Navy Pier; Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago; Greater ­Chicago Food Depository; Big Shoulders Fund. 3. 2020 grant total given has not yet been officially audited.

Researched by Sophie Rodgers (sophie.rodgers@crain.com)

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14 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Foundations atop Crain’s list opened checkbooks in 2020 The emphasis on grant-making to address racial equity and the pandemic could be a recurring theme in 2021

BY SOPHIE RODGERS The organizations on this year’s list of Chicago’s largest foundations dealt with 2020’s turmoil by making sizable grants. In total, the top 25 foundations paid $1.5 billion in grants in 2020. This is approximately a 28.5 percent increase from the $1.17 billion paid by last year’s top 25 in 2019. (See this year’s list on Page 13.) In general, these foundations gave their largest grants to beneficiaries addressing environmental injustice, racial equity and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among this year’s foundations that gave to environmental-focused beneficiaries, the largest grants came from the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Joyce Foundation.

The MacArthur Foundation holds its recurrent No. 1 spot on our list. The foundation, with $8.2 billion in assets, gave $6 million to the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, which supports communities and individuals most affected by climate change.

The Joyce Foundation, No. 5 on our list with $1.2 billion in assets, gave $650,000 to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a non-

P014_CCB_20210809.indd 14

profit environmental advocacy organization.

Several foundations also awarded their largest grants to beneficiaries with an emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Chicago Community Trust keeps its No. 2 position on our list, with $3.7 billion in assets.

This foundation paid out the single largest grant of the year, $30 million to Hampton University, a historically Black college and university, or HBCU, in Virginia.

“The events of the past year and a half and the social justice issues that have come to the forefront have underscored the desire for many of our donors to connect their philanthropy to impact. We saw several of our donors intentionally recommend grants to HBCUs,” said Jason Baxendale, ­ chief development officer at the Chicago Community Trust.

The Terra Foundation for American Art, No. 7 on this year’s list with $595 million in assets, gave $1 million to IFF, a community development financial institution. In 2020, IFF specifically supported nonprofits led by people of color or that helped vulnerable communities hit hard by the pandemic.

The Grand Victoria Foundation, No. 17 on our list with $151.9 million in assets, gave the Chicago Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Illinois Response Fund $500,000.

Emphasis on grant-making that addresses racial equity and the COVID-19 pandemic could be a

recurring theme in 2021. The Polk Bros. Foundation, No. 8 on the list with $418.8 million in assets, announced in a press release that its board of directors “approved up to $8.5 million in additional grant-making through its upcoming fiscal year to help Chicago re-

cover from the pandemic in a way that addresses persistent and significant racial inequities.”

The full Excel version of the list includes 38 foundations. To download the full list, become a Crain’s Data Member and head over to our Data Center.

8/6/21 2:40 PM

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16 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

For Baxter, acquiring Hill-Rom would advance CEO Almeida’s digital ambitions targets suggested in the press, there hasn’t been any sizable M&A to speak of during the past few years.”

Baxter shares fell 5.5 percent to $77.38 on July 29, following reports that Hill-Rom rejected the company’s $9.6 billion buyout offer. Bloomberg reports that talks are ongoing and the company could come back with a higher bid. Baxter and Hill-Rom decline to comment.

Days later, in an Aug. 2 statement, Baxter said it’s accelerating its digital transformation to improve patient care and deliver data-driven insights to customers. The company is looking to double down on devices that collect and transmit patient data, as well as new analytics capabilities

the DoseEdge Pharmacy Workflow Manager, a tool that helps clinicians track intravenous and oral liquid doses, and the Sharesource remote patient management platform, which lets providers monitor patients’ home dialysis treatments and adjust therapy as needed.

ADDING PRODUCTS

Technology-focused acquisitions would give Baxter more connected products, such as Hill-Rom’s increasingly popular smart hospital bed system, which continuously monitors patients to improve health outcomes and reduce clinician burnout.

“Financially the deal makes sense to us; strategically we could make the case, but it isn’t rock solid,” Marcus writes, noting that Hill-Rom isn’t growing fast enough to raise Baxter’s growth rate. HillRom’s revenue grew just 2 percent to $2.9 “THERE’S NO WAY NOT TO BE IN THE billion in 2019.

Hill-Rom isn’t the CONNECTED MARKET GOING FORWARD.” only potential medical technology target Joe Almeida, CEO, Baxter International for Baxter. Reports surfaced late last and automated processes. Shift- year that Baxter had offered $5 ing to cloud-based data storage billion for Omnicell, an $892 milwill speed up the launch of digital lion-revenue company that proproducts and quickly expand of- vides medication adherence tools ferings to new markets, according to hospitals and pharmacies. Baxto the statement. ter and Omnicell decline to comBaxter’s digital offerings include ment on the report.

GETTY IMAGES

BAXTER from Page 3

Baxter is looking to double down on devices that collect and transmit patient data, as well as new analytics capabilities and automated processes.

If Almeida has an appetite for larger digital deals, Baxter could pursue rival Boston Scientific or Hill-Rom competitor Stryker. But it’s more likely that he’ll focus on smaller acquisitions, Morningstar analyst Julie Utterback says in an email.

One thing that’s for certain: “Connecting patient data within the broad health care system will

become increasingly important going forward,” Utterback says.

Asked for insight into his M&A strategy during the latest earnings call, Almeida said Baxter looks at “what is going to make a difference in health care in five to 10 years,” noting that the company is doing a lot in connected health.

Many medical-products com-

panies have been developing “technologies and therapies that were either targeted to home care or targeted to outpatient or ambulatory surgery centers,” says Credit Suisse analyst Matt Miksic. “Many of those things were accelerated because of the needs of caregivers during the pandemic. Baxter is very much in that same situation and has had that same process.”

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18 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

CEO change at the former DeVry Lisa Wardell, one of the country’s only Black female chief executives at a publicly traded company, will step down 2018 as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secreLisa Wardell, one of the coun- tary. He previously worked as an try’s only Black female CEOs at a attorney in the corporate and sepublicly traded company, will step curities group at Schiff Hardin and down from Chicago-based Ad- as executive vice president, chief administrative officer talem Global Education, and general counsel of officials announced last Heidrick & Struggles Inweek. ternational.

Adtalem also anAdtalem, formerly nounced a change in known as DeVry Edustrategy, shifting its focus cation Group, has 6,500 away from financial seremployees and runs vices education and ina handful of for-profstead doubling down on it schools, including health care education.

American University of Wardell, who’s led the Stephen Beard the Caribbean School of multinational for-profit education company for five years, Medicine and Chamberlain Unihas attracted national attention for versity.

Adtalem noted that the leadrising to the top in business. She will transition to the role of execu- ership change marks “one of the tive chairman of the board of direc- few times in corporate history tors for one year, the company said that a major company has had two consecutive Black CEOs.” in a news release.

Her successor, Stephen Beard, It comes after retirement and is the company’s chief operating investment management firm officer and will take over as CEO TIAA made news in February as on Sept. 8. He joined Adtalem in the first Fortune 500 company to

BY ELYSSA CHERNEY

Adtalem Global Education CEO Lisa Wardell led the multinational for-profit education company for five years. name two Black CEOs in a row.

Wardell took over Adtalem during rocky times, just after the Federal Trade Commission sued DeVry University in 2016 over what the agency alleged were “deceptive claims” about how its degrees would advance students’ careers and earning potential. Later that year, DeVry agreed to a $100 million settlement—with more than half of the money going toward debt relief for unpaid student loans and tuition-related expenses. Adtalem sold DeVry University in 2018 and also faced separate lawsuits by former students.

More recently, Adtalem drew

scrutiny from investors over its planned purchase of Walden University, which was under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. The federal probe ended in April without civil action against Walden, and the sale is still pending.

Wardell said Beard “spearheaded” the deal and is “driving the integration planning process that will allow us a running start when the acquisition is completed by the end of” the first quarter of fiscal 2022.

Adtalem said that it will review “strategic alternatives” to the financial services institutions that it operates, which include the As-

sociation of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, Becker Professional Education and OnCourse Learning.

“No timetable has been established for the completion of the strategic review, and the company does not intend to disclose further developments with respect to its strategic review process, unless and until its board approves specific actions, or otherwise concludes the strategic review,” the company said.

Other notable local Black female executives include Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Mellody Hobson, president and co-CEO of Ariel Investments.

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T O

P018_CCB_20210809.indd 18

D O N A T E

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8/5/21 3:14 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • August 9, 2021 19

Sterling Bay buys site in Fulton Market near Google

The developer shows no sign of slowing its streak of big bets on the neighborhood

BY DANNY ECKER Sterling Bay has teed up what could be another big development in Fulton Market, buying a site kitty corner from Google’s Midwest headquarters from one of the last remaining food processors in the former meatpacking district.

The Chicago developer paid close to $21 million last week for the property at 345 N. Aberdeen St., according to sources familiar with the deal.

Sterling Bay bought the site from poultry processor Cougle Commission, which recently moved from its 20,000-square-foot building on the property to a new facility along the South Branch of the Chicago River.

The deal signals that Sterling Bay has no intention of slowing its streak of making big bets on the gritty-turned-trendy corridor, even as the COVID-19 pandemic has raised questions about the future vibrancy of downtown. It’s unclear what the developer is planning for the site, but the property could be transformed with an apartment building now that the city has lifted its ban on new residential development in Fulton Market north of Lake Street.

“Fulton Market is consistently ranked as one of the most in-demand submarkets in the United States, and 345 N. Aberdeen offers a unique opportunity to build out a less dense, yet very central, site in the neighborhood,” a Sterling Bay spokeswoman said in a statement.

Fulton Market has been relatively quick to bounce back from the initial sting of COVID-19. While office leasing activity elsewhere downtown has mostly sputtered this year, Fulton Market landlords have inked a series of deals with companies including Kimberly-Clark, Tock, Calamos Investments and TikTok. Developers have forged ahead with construction of new office buildings in the neighborhood without lining up tenants in advance, and the new city rules on residential development in the neighborhood have triggered a run of big apartment building proposals. That includes a couple from Sterling Bay, which has pitched plans for a 320unit apartment project at 160 N. Morgan St. and another 350-unit building at 1245 W. Fulton St. Those would cater to the run of companies that Sterling Bay and other developers have helped bring to Fulton Market, including major corporate players Google, McDonald’s and Mondelez International. Sterling Bay also plans to build an 18-story office building across the street from Cougle at 1000 W. Carroll Ave., a project it was going to develop entirely for Google but was thwarted by the onset of the pandemic.

Cougle, which has been headquartered in Chicago since 1873 and moved its operations in April to its new building at 2801 S. Ashland Ave., adds to a long list of old-line industrial companies cashing out of

P019_CCB_20210809.indd 19

Fulton Market real estate as property values in the neighborhood have skyrocketed. Sterling Bay has often been the buyer for such properties, including the Pioneer Wholesale Meat property at 1000 W. Carroll Ave., which the developer bought before the pandemic for nearly $20 million, according to Cook County property records.

Sterling Bay is also seeking to cash out on its own property across the Metra tracks from the Cougle building at 370 N. Carpenter St., a site with a 10,000-square-foot building it bought in 2013 for $4 million and has leased to various tenants.

Based on sums paid for similar parcels in recent years, the property could fetch $17 million or more.

345 N. Aberdeen St.

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8/5/21 3:11 PM

20 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Co-working firm set to open in revamped Marshall Field building the floors from Macy’s in 2018 for $30 million. Consumer-insights Co-working provider Industri- company Numerator was the first ous is closing in on a deal to open tenant to sign on and has opened a location in the upper floors of the its 60,000-square-foot office at the Marshall Field building in the Loop, property.

Bringing in Industrious would a move the developer behind the ambitious projects hopes will help be a step toward filling the rest of the space for Brookfield, which draw more tenants to the property.

Industrious is finalizing an agree- like many downtown office landment with developer Brookfield lords is competing for tenants that Properties to occupy about 50,000 are rethinking their office needs square feet in the building at 24 E. after adjusting to life with many remote workers. Comhave flooded A RECENT UPTICK IN LEASING ACTIVITY panies the downtown market with a record amount HAS PROMISED SOME MEASURE of space available for sublease, helping push OF RELIEF FOR OFFICE LANDLORDS. the overall office vaWashington St., according to sourc- cancy rate in the central business district to an all-time high. es familiar with negotiations.

A recent uptick in leasing activIf the deal is completed, Industrious would be the second com- ity has promised some measure of pany to move into the six-floor, relief for landlords, but the recent 650,000-square-foot block of of- emergence of the COVID-19 delfices above the Macy’s on State ta variant may slow companies’ Street, which Brookfield has spent decision-making on new leasthe past couple years convert- es and is already raising quesing into workspace after buying tions of whether companies will

BY DANNY ECKER

be returning to offices in greater numbers this fall as many have planned.

Industrious would not only absorb some of Brookfield’s available space, but the co-working firm could help bring other users in the door as many companies unsure of their post-pandemic workspace needs seek out the flexible, shortterm leases that Industrious and its peers offer.

Terms of Industrious’ deal are unclear, but sources said the company is finalizing a management agreement with Brookfield similar to those it has at its other locations.

SHARED RISK

Instead of signing a traditional arms-length lease, Industrious normally serves as the manager of co-working space in buildings and shares revenue with landlords, thereby sharing in the risk that comes with operating shared office space whose users don’t have to make long-term commitments.

An Industrious spokeswoman declined to comment and a

COSTAR GROUP

Industrious is nearing a deal to manage about 50,000 square feet of space above Macy’s as the developer looks to fill the rest of the new office block

Brookfield bought the 650,000-square-foot block of office space from Macy’s in 2018. spokesman for Brookfield couldn’t be reached.

Industrious belied the broader co-working sector last year by expanding its global footprint while the pandemic crushed some of the industry’s smaller players. The company announced or opened more than 600,000 square feet of new space in 2020.

But Industrious has slightly scaled back its local location count.

After shuttering two local locations it picked up through its 2018 acquisition of Chicago-based competitor Assemble, Industrious now has five locations in Chicago—not

including the pending one at the Marshall Field building—and one in Evanston.

Brookfield has sought to lure tenants to 24 E. Washington with massive floor plates and a slew of tenant amenities it recently completed, including a large rooftop deck and lounge and a 10,000-square-foot fitness center.

Mark Cassata and Paul Reaumond of CBRE represent Industrious in its local office leasing negotiations. Jack O’Brien, Dan Heckman and Caroline Colnon of Chicago-based Telos Group oversee leasing for 24 E. Washington St.

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • August 9, 2021 21

Loop tower drops condos, goes all rentals

Apartments have been quick to lease up at Parkline on Randolph Street, but there have been no takers for its two dozen condos ger right now because “everybody is trying to figure out what their needs will be in the future, and because maybe that’s a little unclear, renting gives them flexibility.”

PRICES

Price is also a factor. The two dozen Parkline condos were offered at an average of about $711 a square foot. Sellers of Loop condos, emerging from a brutal 2020 market, have been accepting prices well below that. Loop condos that sold in the past year at $1.5 million and up went at an average of about $637 a foot, according to Crain’s research in Midwest Real Estate Data’s sales records.

The Loop sales were all resales in existing buildings, as opposed to Parkline, a new building with the latest amenities and finishes, but buyers in that price category may not have been willing to pony up for the higher pricing.

Typically, a condo sales program starts well ahead of delivery, while apartment leasing doesn’t begin until units are available for delivery. The Parkline sales effort began the same week in March 2020 that Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued the first stay-home order.

Leasing started in February 2021,

DENNIS RODKIN

making a long-term commitment and a short-term commitment.

A new residential tower in the “People are ready to try it out by Loop built as a combination of leasing an apartment,” he said, condos and apartments is switch- “but maybe they’re just not yet ing to all rentals after the for-sale comfortable with the downtown units got a cold shoulder from experience.”

Roszak said empty nesters buyers.

Since the February launch of and out-of-towners, key targets leasing for the 189 apartments for $1.5 million-plus condos, ofat Parkline, “we’re at 98 percent ten aren’t sure where they want rented,” said Tom Roszak, a part- to go when they first live downner at Moceri + Roszak, develop- town and rent for an introductory er of the 26-story building at 60 E. year or so.

The reluctance to commit may Randolph St. By contrast, although sales of be stronger in the current climate.

“Since the vaccine came out, we the 24 condos on Parkline’s top four floors started almost a year have really seen interest in renting (downtown) strengthen,” said Gail Lissner, “MAYBE (BUYERS ARE) JUST NOT managing director of Integra Realty Resources, YET COMFORTABLE WITH THE which tracks the downtown rental and condo DOWNTOWN EXPERIENCE.” markets.

Nevertheless, Tom Roszak, partner, Moceri + Roszak Lissner said, with uncertainty about the trajecahead of leasing, “we’ve had no tory of the recovery, particularly sales, zero,” Roszak said. The in light of the recent surge in the units originally had asking prices delta variant, “it’s much less of a starting at $1.5 million, later cut commitment to rent than to buy.”

Millie Rosenbloom, the Baird to about $1.42 million.

Roszak attributed the imbal- & Warner agent who was repreance in buyers’ and renters’ in- senting the Parkline condos, said terest to the difference between the appetite for renting is stron-

BY DENNIS RODKIN

The 26-story Parkline residential tower is at center. when downtown reopening was imminent.

The condos, about 2,100 to 3,550 square feet, were built for a higher-end market than the apartments, which are 500 to 1,330 square feet. They will now be offered as a separate, more luxurious rental tier called the penthouse collection, with its own entrance from the shared lobby and its own amenity floor, as well as access to the building’s

two other floors of amenities.

Rents top out at about $4,500 on the lower floors, Roszak said, and will start at $9,000 in the penthouse collection.

The developers are announcing the switch to all apartments less than two weeks after Crain’s reported that Moceri + Roszak is trying to sell the leased-up portion of the building. Roszak said the sale offering, now the entire 26 floors, “will be a simpler deal.”

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The Morton Arboretum thanks the partners who help us plant and protect trees for a greener, healthier, and more beautiful world.

Daniel P. Haerther Charitable Trust

Your company can be a tree champion, too.

The Alfred Bersted Foundation

Visit mortonarb.org/corporate-support.

William J. Clancy Foundation

Amsted Industries

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Fernando S. Ereneta Financial Legacy Wealth Advisors of Raymond James Fiducient Advisors Ice Miller LLP Robert R. McCormick Foundation Navistar Nicor Gas

OneDigital Patriot Pavement Maintenance J. Frank Schmidt Family Charitable Foundation Sevan Multi-Site Solutions Spraying Systems Co. Sterling

8/5/21 3:07 PM

Exploring solutions to the biggest challenges facing Chicago and Illinois Crain's Forum discussions bring together thought leaders to discuss the critical issues affecting the city and state, as well as the local economy.

FEATURED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Kip Kirkpatrick

Ngozi O. Ezike, M.D.

Kathlene Sebelius

Scott Serota

Martin Nesbitt

Helene D. Gayle

Michael J. Sacks

Shawn T. Wooden

Topics Healthcare’s New Moment - Thursday, Aug. 12, 1-2 p.m.

The pandemic exposed significant gaps in healthcare delivery both locally and nationally. Our terrific panel will explore how the last year could fuel a rethinking of the healthcare system. What are the models that are working and how can we redesign the system to be more equitable?

The Future of Capitalism - Thursday, Aug. 19, 1-2 p.m.

As a new generation of investors consider their investment “footprint,” how is capital power changing the world around us?

Our panel is at the forefront of this change and will explore how capitalism’s future will be reshaped by a new mindset.

Water Equity - Thursday, Aug. 26, 1-2 p.m.

Achieving water equity across the Great Lakes has been an auspicious goal. Water mismanagement together with climate change and political stasis have combined to make equity efforts even more challenging. Our panel looks at the latest ambitions to protect the vital resource while making sure all are treated fairly in those efforts.

New topics will be discussed every month.

Register at ChicagoBusiness.com/AugustForum $25 per topic includes one live webcast and the associated archived recording Additional speakers to be announced

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • August 9, 2021 23

1717, top, is a 175-unit building at 1717 Ridge Ave. The Reserve is at 1930 Ridge Ave.

Two big apartment buildings up for sale Evanston activity may point to a big year in the sector

BY ALBY GALLUN Apartment investors that missed out on buying one big building in Evanston have two more to check out in the north suburb, another sign that the local multifamily investment market is picking up.

415 Premier, a 221-unit property on the southern end of Evanston, is no longer available, after selling for $49.1 million last month. But two more are: 1717, a 175-unit building just west of downtown Evanston, and the Reserve, a 193-unit property just a couple of blocks north.

The local investment market for big apartment buildings slowed as the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the economy last year, leaving many investors uncertain about the future and wary of paying up for big deals. But the suburban apartment market has held up well, boosted this year by the rebounding economy.

Still, the North Shore has been a weak spot: The median net apartment rent fell 4.4 percent in the two years through the end of June, the only suburban submarket to sustain a decline, according to the Chicago office of Integra Realty Resources, a consulting and appraisal firm. It’s also hard to know how the surge in COVID-19 cases will affect the market more broadly.

But recent data shows that 1717, one of the most expensive apartment buildings in Evanston, is thriving. Its occupancy rate rose to 97.8 percent in the second quarter, up from 92 percent a year earlier, according to real estate information provider CoStar Group.

P023_CCB_20210809.indd 23

Rents at 1717 are rising, too.

Some apartments leased in June and July rented to new tenants for 25 percent more than what the departing tenants paid, according to a marketing brochure for the property from Jones Lang LaSalle, the brokerage hired to sell the property.

Rising rents and occupancies should translate into a healthy price for the property at 1717 Ridge Ave. The eight-story building last traded in 2013, soon after it opened, when Invesco, an Atlanta-based pension fund adviser, bought it for $70.1 million.

An Invesco representative did not return a call, and a JLL executive declined to comment on the property, citing a confidentiality agreement.

Just up the street from 1717, the Reserve is poised to sell for the first time since 2011, when Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors bought it for $55.6 million. Broker Berkadia Institutional Solutions is marketing the property at 1930 Ridge Ave., with bids due Aug. 5, according a Berkadia marketing brochure.

Cornerstone, a unit of Mass Mutual, now operates under the Barings name. A Barings representative was not immediately available, and a Berkadia executive declined to comment.

Berkadia is pitching the Reserve as a so-called value-add investment, an opportunity to boost the property’s value by fixing it up and hiking rents.

The Reserve’s occupancy rate fell to 94.9 percent in the second quarter, from 95.3 percent a year earlier, according to CoStar.

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7/28/21 1:35 PM

8/5/21 3:24 PM

24 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Midcentury architect’s model home up for sale J. Marion Gutnayer ‘integrated his own special ornamental bent into modernism,’ according to architectural historian rise apartment buildings on Lake Shore Drive and Sheridan Road A Lincolnwood home that a in the city and a large apartment prolific Chicago architect built in complex in Wheeling. One of his 1954 as his model home is on the most striking houses is his own, a rectilinear slab set atop pilotis, market.

The three-bedroom, almost or stilt-like columns, on Sheridan 2,500-square-foot house on Kar- Road in Wilmette.

In 1952, a Chicago Tribune lov Avenue featuring a hefty decorative roof overhang and an writer described Gutnayer as interior courtyard, came on the “one Chicago architect who has market July 26 at $550,000. The rebelled against the stark school home is represented by Mike by adhering to modern design yet providing interesting patterns of Stern of Coldwell Banker Realty.

When a Crain’s reporter tweet- contrast to relieve its severity.”

Gutnayer’s designs “integrated a photo of the house featuring its ship’s-prow roof last week, a ed his own special ornamental Twitter user’s research unearthed bent into modernism,” said Sua newspaper ad from 1954 that san Benjamin, an architectural showed the same house and ad- historian who co-wrote “Modern dress. The Twitter user asked not in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1925-75.” The book features Guyto be identified.

“Now showing,” the ad says, “a tnayer’s Wilmette house, built in completely new design in con- 1957.

Gutnayer died in 2004 at age 93. temporary split level homes!”

The ornamental bent is visible The ad is from Gutnayer & Associates, the architecture and con- right away at the Lincolnwood struction firm headed by J. Mari- house, where the seemingly oversize roof overhang sports a on Gutnayer. repeating series of triangles set into “I HOPE IT GOES TO SOMEBODY WHO one another and the main street-facing CAN REALLY APPRECIATE WHAT IT IS.” wall has a dashed Mike Stern, Coldwell Banker Realty pattern made by interspersing red Gutnayer, a Holocaust survivor brick into the sand-colored backwho left Poland as a “displaced ground.

While most of the interior is person” in 1945 and was the first updates” architecture faculty member at “second-generation the University of Illinois at Chica- that may bear no resemblance to go when the school was on Navy the original, Stern said, the interPier, designed numerous Chica- nal courtyard, with two walls of go-area houses, as well as high- glass, is intact, as is the emphati-

BY DENNIS RODKIN

This three-bedroom, almost 2,500-square-foot house on Karlov Avenue is for sale at $550,000.

cally horizontal Roman brick pattern of the basement family room wall.

Those features “separate the house from every other split level I’ve seen,” Stern said, and have enhanced his sellers’ enjoyment of the house since they bought it in 2017 for $410,000.

Neither Stern nor his sellers “were aware the house had a pedigree,” he said, until the newspaper ads surfaced on Twitter, but even without the connection to Gutnayer, “it’s a special house,” he said, “and I hope it goes to somebody who can really appreciate what it is.”

Outcry over South Shore condos ‘This isn’t being built for us,’ activists declare over the high-end development project

BY DENNIS RODKIN Housing activists say a developer’s plan to build high-end condos near a South Shore lakefront park could set off a chain reaction of increases in home prices that force longtime residents out.

“You’re building $800,000 condos in a neighborhood where the median household income is around $26,000,” said Romeo Dixon, an organizer with the coalition that is pushing for a Community Benefits Agreement with the Obama Presidential Center and with Not Me We, a South Shore housing-activist group. “I guarantee you, those are literally not meant for people who live over here.”

Dixon and others organized an outdoor meeting in Rainbow Beach Park on Aug. 1, next door to the long-vacant parcel where Elam Industries plans to build three structures containing a total of 10 condominiums. Crain’s reported in mid-July that nine of the condos will be priced from $649,000 the $799,000.

P024_CCB_20210809.indd 24

The 10th condo, reserved for Elam’s principal Anita Richardson, will be larger and worth more than the others, Richardson told Crain’s, but she did not disclose the precise value.

Dixon said about 100 people attended the event, and “the overwhelming response to those prices was, ‘this isn’t being built for us.’ ” In the past year, the highest a condo has sold for in South Shore is $250,000, according to Midwest Real Estate Data, and only three houses are on record as ever selling for $700,00 or more.

Richardson and her brother Anthony Jackson, an adviser on the project, countered the activists’ argument by noting that the site where they plan to build has been vacant for at least three decades and likely much longer. “There’s nobody there to displace,” Jackson said. “We’d be bringing new people into the neighborhood.”

Flyers distributed before the meeting referred to the condos’ prices and said, “We know these aren’t for us.” The event was in-

tended to “highlight the ongoing housing and displacement crisis in South Shore,” the flyers said.

Dixon said the groups are not asking Elam to change its proposal for the site. Instead, they’re holding it up as an example of “what is going to happen here if the system doesn’t think about how a (proposed) project will benefit the community who are already here.” They would like to see an ordinance that protects residents’ right to stay in the neighborhood, along the lines of the agreement activists won for the neighborhood of the Obama library, where rapid gentrification is widely anticipated to be on its way.

If the condos sell at or near their announced prices, Dixon said, “that will tell landlords they can raise their rents,” eventually to the point where present residents can no longer afford them.

Jackson said the equation is not that simple. “They should be telling landlords you can’t raise the rent without raising the quality,”

This rendering shows the proposed 10-unit condominium development on 78th Street. he said. “We’re building at a higher quality” that can command higher prices.

The firm plans three four-story buildings, designed with an angled facade that gives every unit a view of sandy Rainbow Beach, which is about 1,000 feet east across the park.

Elam has received the required city approvals for the plan and held a ceremonial groundbreaking. The planned Aug. 8 start of construction has been pushed back to around Aug. 20 because of the industrywide difficulty get-

ting construction materials, Richardson told Crain’s.

The developer, whose firm is named for Richardson’s great-grandfather, a Louisiana sharecropper, said she is not considering altering the condo plan because of activists’ concerns.

“I’ve been Black all my life, and building this is a dream come true for me,” she said. A South Side native, she founded and is now CEO of Dayspring Janitorial Services, a $7 million firm based in South Holland.

8/5/21 4:24 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • August 9, 2021 25

2021

LGBTQ EXECUTIVES These 50 Notable LGBTQ executives are accomplished in banking, finance, law, health care, retail, young ventures and nonprofits. The list includes the well-established organizations that serve the LGBTQ community, including Howard Brown Health, AIDS Foundation Chicago and Center on Halsted as well as newer entrants such as the Care Plan. The Notables already had track records of supporting LGBTQ causes. But the reckoning last year over inequality opened an opportunity for them to work on redoubled corporate initiatives in diversity and inclusion.

Many are involved in broadening recruiting and employee development to

grow more diverse workforces.

A number of them lead Pride resource groups at their companies and help organize participation in the Pride parade and other events. They don’t hesitate to raise awareness of issues of importance to the community such as all-gender restrooms and domestic partner benefits. They make a point of mentoring LGBTQ colleagues at their companies or through professional organizations. They also reach out to students—the next generation that will continue to push for change and equality in the workplace.

By Judith Crown and Lisa Bertagnoli

GETTY IMAGES

METHODOLOGY: The individuals and companies featured did not pay to be included. Their profiles were drawn from the nomination materials submitted. This list is not comprehensive. It includes only individuals for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after a review by editors. To qualify for the list, nominees must serve in a senior role, make significant contributions to advancing equality at their own workplace or beyond, and act as a role model or mentor.

KARA ALBERT

AMY ARMSTRONG

MARK W. BENNETT

JACQUELINE BOYD

WILLIAM BUTLER

Head of U.S. engagement, diversity and inclusion Kraft Heinz

Vice president, compliance advisory Discover Financial Services

Partner Laner Muchin

Founder and CEO The Care Plan

Senior vice president, retail Cresco Labs

In her diversity and inclusion role, Kara Albert has developed data-driven strategies to improve representation and culture through recruitment, development and retention.

In the past 18 months, Albert launched the Black Business Resource Group mentoring program and other programs to accelerate growth and development of Black employees. She developed an inclusivity curriculum focused on eliminating bias in hiring and employee evaluations. She leads six business resource groups, and she teamed with resource group leaders to grow membership by 60 percent and establish supportive forums for employees. Albert joined Kraft Heinz in 2019; she previously was self-employed as a consultant, facilitator and trainer. She has almost 20 years of experience working with companies, nonprofits and educational organizations in personal and professional development, engagement, manager and leader training, team building and culture.

A specialist in corporate risk management, Amy Armstrong is responsible for compliance advisory for deposits, home equity, personal loans and e-business.

Armstrong and her team translated 1,000 complex legal requirements to plain language compliance standards, which helped business units design controls to manage consumer risks. Armstrong, who has more than 15 years of compliance experience, began her career with the Federal Reserve System. She joined Riverwoods-based Discover in 2019 from Dutch-owned Rabobank in California, where she was senior vice president and director of compliance and fair lending. Armstrong recently was executive co-sponsor for a recent DEI event that assessed the impact of the George Floyd murder. She also co-sponsored an event for Pride month. She’s a member of the Center on Halsted Director’s Circle.

Attorney Mark W. Bennett represents employers in labor relations, employment litigation, employee benefits and business immigration matters. He oversees the work of 10 attorneys and staff. He negotiates collective bargaining agreements on behalf of employers and represents them in union election and representation cases and unfair labor practice cases before government labor boards. Since September Bennett successfully sought injunctions preventing public health care workers from striking in three labor disputes.

He’s a charter member of the firm’s DEI Committee and is active in the Lesbian & Gay Bar Association of Chicago. As a

Jacqueline Boyd is the founder of the young company that helps people navigate the challenges of health and aging, with a focus on the LGBTQ community. The organization offers help on same-sex relationship rights, HIV discrimination prevention and trans and gender concerns.

During the pandemic, Boyd retained all team members and provided a cost-of-living bonus.

Before starting her business, Boyd was director of operations at Home Instead Senior Care.

She’s consulted with LGBTQ nonprofits, including Howard Brown Health and the AIDS Foundation Chicago. Boyd has presented at conferences including the American Society on Aging National Conference and the Los Angeles County Older Adult Summit. Boyd is co-chair of the nonprofit One Roof Chicago. And she hosts South Side Swell, which connects South Side LGBTQ communities.

At Cresco Labs, William Butler steers retail operations of 32 stores in seven states, including 10 in Illinois. Managing the merchant organization includes inventory, vendor relationships and employee training. Cresco’s Sunnyside retail operations last year more than tripled, and average revenue per store increased to $3.9 million in the first quarter of this year. With a focus on diversity, the retail arm last year reached a milestone: 59 percent of hires were women or minorities. Butler joined Cresco last year from Carnival Cruise Line, where he was vice president, retail. One highlight was delivering a large, multideck retail space on the Carnival Horizon. Earlier, he was vice president and general manager at FAO Schwarz in New York. He is on the board of the nonprofit Soles4Souls.

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resident of Ravenswood, he is active in the Second Unitarian Church of Chicago and is a liaison between the church and the Lighthouse Foundation, an organization focused on Black LGBTQ issues.

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26 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

ELLIOTT CRIGGER

PAUL DESOUSA

COLLEEN D. EGAN

RYAN GARRISON

KEN J.A. GRIFFIN

C

Director of ethics policy American Medical Association

Vice president, talent management Ulta Beauty

President and CEO Illinois Science & Technology Coalition & Institute

Co-founder and principal Garrison Olson

Chief operating officer Howard Brown Health

C A

At Ulta Beauty, Paul DeSousa is responsible for building the talent pipeline, onboarding, leadership development, succession planning, performance management and store associate training. During the pandemic, DeSousa converted onboarding and leadership development offerings to virtual experiences and led new in-store health and safety training. He leads the Pride group within the retailer’s diversity and inclusion network.

Recently, he developed programs in support of key LGBTQ dates, including Transgender Day of Visibility, Transgender Day of Remembrance and National Coming Out Day. During the last three years, he facilitated diversity and inclusion curriculum for corporate and store associates. DeSousa was promoted to his current position earlier this year; previously he was vice president, enterprise training. He joined Bolingbrook-based Ulta in 2007 from Old Navy, where he was a district manager.

Last year, Colleen D. Egan became the first woman and LGBTQ person to lead the nonprofit organization that cultivates technology-based economic development in Illinois.

The institute focuses on STEM education and mentoring programs. Egan created the organization’s first equity framework and developed new programs. She’s been asked to serve on technology, innovation, equity and education, and planning groups for city and state organizations. Egan also is a founding member of the Women in Entrepreneurship Institute at DePaul University, which recently completed its fourth cohort and started a new program with the YWCA serving Black women entrepreneurs.

Egan mentors entrepreneurs through several programs, including the Chicago Innovation Women’s Mentoring Co-op. She recently joined the advisory board of the nonprofit Chicago:Blend, which aims for diversity and inclusion in venture capital.

Ryan Garrison is co-founder of the digital marketing agency specializing in SEO, content marketing, paid media, social media, digital PR and branding. Despite the challenges of the last 18 months, Garrison’s team posted 100 percent revenue growth and lost no clients. Clients include national firms Prudential and Catalina Marketing and local pizza chain Home Run Inn. Garrison co-founded Garrison Olson in 2019.

Previously he was senior client strategist at content marketing agency Imagination and also held positions at Digital Third Coast Internet Marketing and seoClarity. Garrison is chair of Chicago House, where he oversees the organization’s finances, the recent relocation of its corporate headquarters to Chicago’s Near South Side, its five-year strategic plan, funding for its new Englewood housing initiative, donor strategy and board recruitment.

As COO, Ken J.A. Griffin oversees more than 100 staff in practice operations, patient services, patient experience, facilities, safety, executive management and Broadway Youth Center.

Since joining Howard Brown in December, Griffin led the organizing and hosting of Chicago’s first COVID-19 mass vaccination event, enhanced COVID-19 testing by finding new community ambassador organizations and prepared the agency to continue offering primary care with the city’s reopening. Griffin previously was COO for the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, overseeing 18 departments including three clinic locations.

He was on the Coronavirus Emergency Management team, helping the county’s response.

Griffin was able to expand services to include telehealth for 38,000 uninsured adults, children and people in homeless shelters. Earlier, Griffin worked at Barnes Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

A G re ic

Elliott Crigger provides expertise on ethics in medicine for the AMA’s Council on Ethical & Judicial Affairs. In a series of essays for the AMA’s online COVID-19 Resource Center, Crigger applied the AMA Code of Medical Ethics to analyze dilemmas arising in the COVID-19 pandemic and provide guidance for physicians. Crigger is co-leading a team to implement policy on racism in medicine adopted by the AMA House of Delegates in 2020. Before joining the AMA in 2007, Crigger was chief of ethics communications for the National Center for Ethnics in Health Care at the Veterans Health Administration in Washington, D.C. In December, he participated with fellow out trans leaders in business at Brandeis University’s LGBTQ+ panel discussion. He is on the board of Howard Brown Health.

CHRIS HAEN

NEENA HEMMADY

DARRIOUS HILMON

DANIEL HOPPE

TIFFANY HUDSON

Executive director Lurie Children’s Health Partners Care Coordination

Vice president, support services Commonwealth Edison

Executive director Chicago State Foundation

Partner Kirkland & Ellis

Co-founder and head of accounts Nova Collective

Neena Hemmady oversees a team of 320 supporting environmental, safety and human performance programs, training, real estate and facilities, mapping, and fleet maintenance. Before starting the new position in February, Hemmady was vice president of enterprise risk management at Exelon. In that role, she spearheaded creation of a tool that manages top risks across the company and led the development of a model that identifies and implements best operating practices. Hemmady is the executive sponsor for the company’s Pride employee resource group, which raised awareness for all-gender restrooms and created domestic partner benefits. She is also involved in the company’s racial equity task force. Hemmady is on the board of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights and is on the steering committee for Equality Illinois.

In his two years leading the foundation at Chicago State University, Darrious Hilmon grew revenues to $3.5 million from $694,000 and the endowment to $9.7 million from $6.7 million. The endowment’s growth was fueled by a $1 million gift. In October, the foundation hosted an inaugural fundraising event in a virtual format. Hilmon also worked to build a diverse board and empaneled nine directors: Seven are women, and seven are people of color. Before joining Chicago State in 2019, Hilmon was chief of external affairs at Chicago International Charter School and earlier was a top executive at Chicago Urban League. He recently was selected as a reviewer for the Racial Equity 2030 project co-sponsored by the George D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Corporate partner Daniel Hoppe counsels leveraged buyout and private equity funds and their portfolio companies.

Hoppe has represented clients in more than 25 matters with an estimated value of $4 billion.

Key clients include AE Industrial Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners and Thoma Bravo. Hoppe’s pro bono service focuses on the rights of the LGBTQ community. He’s assisted Howard Brown Health Center and provided the youthled GenderCool Project with a review of its nonprofit incorporation documents. Hoppe also is coordinator for the firm’s LGBTQ+ affinity group in the Chicago office and helps organize Kirkland’s annual Pride retreat. He’s involved in the affinity group’s Pride mentorship program focused on the needs of LGBTQ attorneys. He also mentors LGBTQ students at local law schools through a Kirkland program.

Tiffany Hudson is a co-founder of Nova Collective, which provides consulting, training and learning programs with a DEI focus. She oversees Nova’s accounts team. Hudson started Nova in 2017 with three women partners.

Since its start, revenue has grown to $4 million and the workforce tripled in the past year to 30. Nova Collective worked with 75 organizations within the past year, including several Fortune 500 companies.

Before starting Nova Collective, Hudson was senior client relationship manager at Second City Works, the professional training arm of Second City comedy theater. The partners donate 4 percent of profits to organizations that share its goal of representation and inclusion. She is on the board of the nonprofit Race Conscious Dialogues and is a frequent speaker on diversity in the workplace.

Chris Haen runs a care coordination program operated

by Lurie Children’s Hospital.

Started in 2014, the team of clinical social workers and registered nurses coordinates services to families with medically complex children. In the first year of the program, Medicaid patients enrolled in the program had a 50 percent decrease in hospital days, a 22 percent reduction in emergency room visits and an overall 18 percent decrease in cost of care. Last year, Lurie Children’s won a $16 million award from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to implement a program, All Hands Health Network, to improve the health of children on the West Side. Haen joined Lurie Children’s Hospital in 1999 as a senior social worker and has been in his current position since 2014.

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • August 9, 2021 27

CHRIS JAMERSON

CRAIG JOHNSON

GEORGE JORDAN

DANIEL KEDISH

LOUIS KLAPP

Chief medical informatics officer Advocate Aurora Health

Group manager, minority affairs section American Medical Association

President Oxford Hotels & Resorts

Vice president and strategic assistant to the North America CEO Zurich North America

Partner Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila

At Advocate Aurora in Downers Grove, Dr. Chris Jamerson is responsible for enhancing clinical care through the thoughtful use of technology at 26 hospitals and 500 care sites.

Throughout the pandemic, he’s had responsibility for implementing rapidly emerging clinical guidance into the system’s electronic health record. In the past year, he completed the consolidation of 30 electronic medical record systems. He also created a standardized training curriculum that switched to a remote format. Jamerson teamed with community organizations and created algorithms to prioritize access to vaccinations. He also shepherded an overhaul of how sexual orientation and gender identity are reflected in patient records. Jamerson teaches an elective at Rosalind Franklin University Medical School on Sexual and Gender Minority Health. He began his medical career in pediatrics.

At the AMA, Craig Johnson manages the Minority Affairs Section that focuses on enhancing minority health policy and improving workforce diversity in medicine. For four of his six years at the AMA, he managed the Advisory Committee on LGBTQ Issues and its 500-member caucus. Johnson is also chair of the AIDS Foundation Chicago. This year he was appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to the Advisory Council on LGBTQ+ Issues, where he is a co-lead on public health priorities. At the AMA, Johnson contributed to policy briefs on transgender health care, affirmation surgeries and public accommodations for transgender persons. Johnson also directs the AMA’s Doctors Back to School program, in which volunteer physicians and medical students visit schools to encourage youth from underrepresented communities to consider careers in medicine.

George Jordan leads Chicago-based Oxford Hotels & Resorts and is general manager for the Chicago-area hotel cluster.

Oxford operates 22 hotels nationally, including six in Chicago.

During the pandemic, he secured 1,100 rooms for the city of Chicago’s use, which enabled the company to continue operations and keep employees on the payroll. Jordan was instrumental in securing PPE for team members. He joined Oxford in 2009 as executive vice president and was named president in 2019. One highlight was repositioning the Hotel Versey as a hip urban oasis with a large LGBTQ customer base. He’s worked in hotels for 30 years and spent 12 years with Hilton International, including a four-year assignment at the Drake Hotel.

He is on the DePaul University School of Hospitality board of advisors.

At the insurance giant in Schaumburg, Daniel Kedish coordinates stakeholders to ensure optimal operations and delivery. He coordinates executive team meetings and agendas and serves on projects such as the COVID Crisis Management Team. Kedish is a founding member of Zurich’s Executive Diversity & Inclusion Council, formed after George Floyd’s death. He championed a dashboard showing gender, race and ethnicity representation in the workforce. Before being named to his current position in 2019, Kedish was director of diversity and inclusion and worked with HR to develop a multiyear strategy supporting recruitment, retention and development of diverse talent. As past national chair of the PrideZ employee resource group, Kedish successfully made the business case to executive leadership for Zurich’s first participation in the Chicago Pride parade in 2019.

Litigation partner Louis Klapp represents clients in patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret disputes. For a well-known smartphone company accused of patent infringement, Klapp convinced the court to dismiss the case and bar an attempt to refile. Through his pro bono practice, he’s advanced the rights of the LGBTQ community. For example, he assisted or led teams challenging the constitutionality of a statute that barred transgender prisoners from accessing hormonal therapy treatment. Klapp is on the firm’s recruiting and development committee, responsible for hiring and training associate attorneys. He also co-developed and manages the firm’s internship program, which aims to hire students from diverse backgrounds and expand the talent pipeline. Klapp joined Riley Safer Homes & Cancila in 2019 from Quarles & Brady, where he was a partner.

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We know our best asset is our people. And, we wouldn’t be the company we are today without them. We’d like to thank Janet for her expertise in the industry, dedication to serving our communities, and leadership set by example. We’re proud to call you part of the Wintrust family.

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Congratulations to our 2021 Crain’s Notable LGBTQ Executive!

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JANET KORANDA Senior Vice President and Senior Credit Officer Wintrust Commercial Real Estate

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Banking products provided by Wintrust Financial Corp. banks.

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28 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

JANET KORANDA

FRANCO LA MARCA

JORGE LEON

TOM MENARD

Senior vice president, senior credit officer Wintrust Bank

Vice president, wealth advisor Bernstein Private Wealth Management

Partner Michael Best & Friedrich

Vice president of operations AIDS Foundation Chicago

At Wintrust Bank, Janet Koranda oversees credit administration, underwriting, risk management and portfolio monitoring for Wintrust Bank’s commercial real estate business. She also leads and develops a team of portfolio managers and rotational credit analysts. Koranda’s leadership and oversight contributed to commercial real estate growth, including $240 million in increased loans last year. Recently, Koranda completed the Winning at Wintrust program at the Lake Forest Center for Leadership, a yearlong leadership develop-

Wealth advisor Franco La Marca manages assets of $200 million for high-net worth entrepreneurs and nonprofits. La Marca serves as a faculty member in Bernstein’s training program for new advisors.

He is also Bernstein’s Midwest Region LGBTQ Community Ambassador, engaging LGBTQ business leaders and nonprofits for new business opportunities. La Marca is board vice president of the Center on Halsted, and chairs the development committee.

He’s hosted Bernstein Chicago’s LGBTQ Pride Event for the past four years. And he is a national mentor to Bernstein’s LGBTQ employees. He joined Bernstein in 2018 from Charles Schwab, where he was vice president and financial consultant. Earlier, he was a senior financial adviser at Merrill Lynch. La Marca recently joined the Chicago-Milan Sister City Committee.

As co-group leader of the benefits practice, Jorge Leon oversees a group of 13 attorneys and paralegals. Recently, he was part of the defense team in a high-profile ERISA cybersecurity litigation. He also is co-chair of the firm’s DEI Committee.

Leon developed a transgender policy that prohibits philanthropic aid to groups that discriminate against individuals protected under the firm’s nondiscrimination policy.

Recently, he was responsible for Michael Best joining the Human Rights Campaign’s initiative promoting workplace support and equality for the

Tom Menard leads operations at the foundation, which brings together service providers and funders to serve those living with HIV/ AIDS. The organization manages more than $17 million in local, state and federal funds for AIDS-related services.

During the pandemic, Menard transitioned more than 130 staff to fully remote work, including those who’d never worked from home before, then later coordinated a safe return to the office.

He created and implemented equitable HR policies, including equitable parental leave, workplace transition policies for transgender individuals and removing gender-specific language from policies and documents. In addition, Menard led the foundation’s office design, buildout and relocation to a 35,000-square-foot space that includes a wall of plants to boost relaxation and creativity as well as open areas for team collaboration.

ment program. Koranda has participated as a mentor for the commercial banking mentorship program. Earlier, she developed new hire training for Wintrust Credit Academy and participated as a training facilitator. Koranda has been a Federal Club Member and volunteer for Human Rights Campaign, as well as a volunteer for American Cancer Society and PAWS Chicago.

HIV-positive. Leon mentors Hispanic and LGBTQ lawyers through the Hispanic National Bar Association and the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois. He is on the board of the Field Museum and the subcommittee that resolves claims for returning artifacts to native populations.

DAVID ERNESTO MUNAR President and CEO Howard Brown Health

David Ernesto Munar leads the nonprofit that delivers health care and social services to more than 40,000 LGBTQ adults and youth. Last year Howard Brown was a leader in COVID-19 response, diagnosing 3 percent of all cases in Chicago and hosting the city’s first mass vaccination event. Late last year, the organization launched a five-year capital campaign to add three new clinics. Since joining Howard Brown in 2014, Munar has expanded services from three clinics to 12. He also diversified the executive leadership team and board of directors. This includes electing the first Black woman as board chair, Chef Fresh Roberson, and her predecessor Mario Treto Jr., the first Latino board chair.

Before joining Howard Brown, Munar was president and CEO of the AIDS Foundation Chicago.

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‘The challenges before us require investments in equity’ David Ernesto Munar has devoted his career to advancing LGBTQ issues and helping vulnerable populations. Since 2014, he’s led Howard Brown Health, the nonprofit that delivers health care and social services to the LGBTQ community. Earlier, he was CEO of the AIDS Foundation Chicago. As a bilingual Colombian American and gay man living with HIV, Munar serves as a role model for what is possible.

He engages with new employees and patient groups and can often be seen around Howard Brown clinics connecting with staff.

CRAIN’S: There’s been a rash of anti-LGBTQ measures in state legislatures. Do you see this sentiment creeping into Illinois?

MUNAR: According to the Human Rights Campaign, more than 250 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures, and at least 17 of those bills have been enacted into law. This makes 2021 the worst year in recent memory in terms of anti-LGBTQ legislation. Luckily for us, we have not seen anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in Illinois. In the spring legislative session, we saw many bills advancing LGBTQ health equity get passed.

That being said, we did see some ho-

mophobic and transphobic arguments against these pro-LGBTQ measures.

Equal access for transgender people has become fraught—why is this?

We started seeing fewer of those (anti-trans) bills especially after the huge backlash North Carolina received after passing its infamous bathroom bill. Now just a few years later, we’re seeing another surge of anti-trans legislation. This time, it’s largely targeted at trans youth, either through school sports participation or access to gender-affirming care.

In the past, the “issue” was that allowing trans people to use public restrooms will increase sexual assault, and now the issue is that allowing trans girls to compete in sports will result in unfair competition and lack of opportunities for cisgender athletes. There’s no data to support that either of these issues is occurring.

Do you see mistrust of the vaccine in your communities, and how do you counter that?

Mistrust and/or hesitancy to accept the vaccine is unfortunately something that our patients experience and express.

This mistrust is rooted in historical events where the medical industry has not acted in good faith with Black and

Brown communities’ health. As clinical providers, we need to acknowledge and listen to patients’ concerns, offer compassion and share what we know without undervaluing the human instinct to be precautious. Howard Brown developed a series of videos addressing common patient concerns.

With more awareness of inequality, corporations are pouring funds into initiatives, especially to open opportunities for Black and Latino people.

Is this corporate interest benefiting Howard Brown. If so, in what way?

power, or will funders lose interest?

The challenges before us as a society will present compelling arguments for continued investments in equity. The issues of climate change, viral pandemics and community safety demand equity approaches. They disproportionally affect communities of color and others facing stigma and discrimination. Equity investments are the path to making the world better for everyone.

What are Howard Brown’s top priorities coming out of the pandemic?

We remain deeply concerned by the relatively low percentage of Cook We have fielded a high number of corpoCounty residents who have been fully rate requests for training and education vaccinated. We will also continue to on LGBTQ+ and clinical topics, including efforts to practice public health from MISTRUST AND/OR HESITANCY TO ACCEPT THE an equity lens. Last year’s confluence VACCINE IS UNFORTUNATELY SOMETHING THAT of the pandemic, disproportionately OUR PATIENTS EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESS. affecting Black and Brown communifocus attention on the geographic areas ties, and protests against police brutality on the South and West sides of the city opened hearts and minds. It also preswhere the needs are greatest. Other sured corporations to consider how their priorities include addressing the needs priorities and practices might contribute of LGBTQ+ young people, especially to structural inequality. those experiencing homelessness.

Does this movement have staying

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BRAD PETERSON

NICOLE PRESPERIN

JERED PRUITT

Executive vice president Guaranteed Rate

Vice president of strategic initiatives–New Ventures Group Aon

Chief operating officer Chinese American Service League

Brad Peterson manages a team of 60 analytics professionals responsible for compensation, branch performance, P&L reporting, enterprise-vendor management, internal audits and corporate-insurance risk management.

To help sustain growth after a record-breaking 2020, he designed systems to monitor key performance metrics that helped, for example, integrate compensation for 1,500 new employees as part of several major acquisitions. A 12-year company veteran, he’s executive sponsor of PROUD, an employee resource group and support network that promotes LGBTQ inclusion and advancement inside Guaranteed Rate and throughout the mortgage industry. He oversees research to boost LGBTQ homeownership, conducts training to educate employees on differences between sexual identities and genders, and acts as a marketing resource to strengthen outreach in LGBTQ markets.

Nicole Presperin leads a team of project managers and financial analysts, oversees the New Venture Group portfolio’s commercial governance and chairs its Diverse & Inclusive Leadership Council, focusing on internal inclusion and diversity initiatives and client solutions.

Among firmwide global initiatives she’s sponsored: requiring unconscious bias training for all colleagues; piloting Aon’s inclusive recruiting strategy, resulting in 50 percent-plus diverse hires; launching a diverse sponsorship program, pairing 38 diverse colleagues with senior leaders; and partnering with UIC’s Break Through Tech Chicago to host five “sprinterns.” She also serves on the Ronald McDonald House board, co-chairing the I&D Taskforce. Her career began at PwC in audit and accounting management at Citadel LLC. She joined Aon in 2011.

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Jered Pruitt focuses on operations and administration, programming and development functions at the Chinese American Service League, the largest Asian American and Pacific Islander social service agency in the Midwest.

He oversees more than 100 full-time and 414 part-time staff as well as 200 volunteers serving thousands of individuals. He led CASL’s COVID-19 response, establishing PPE reserves and pivoting the case management system to remote work while managing an 8 percent increase in client services. When the senior meal programs had to close doors, he helped CASL adjust to delivering culturally appropriate meals to low-income seniors, implemented data-informed practices using Salesforce and created a Center for Social Impact to address social determinants of health barriers. Pruitt was instrumental in building CASL’s Community Equity Research Center and including a diversity, equity, inclusion and access officer.

KRISHNA RAMACHANDRAN Vice president, provider performance Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois

Krishna Ramachandran and his team collaborate with doctors and hospitals in the adoption of enhanced reporting, analytics and data-exchange capabilities that improve health outcomes and reduce costs for BCBSIL’s 8 million members. The planning and execution of the Epic Payer Platform (which offers a more efficient exchange of health information between payers and providers at the point of care) was completed in less than 60 days.

This resulted in near-real-time ac-

cess to content to support clinical use cases, which proved critical during the pandemic. He chairs BCBSIL’s “Eliminate Health Care Disparities” subcommittee.

VICTOR RAVAGO CEO and principal Bravo Hospitality Group

Victor Ravago is co-founder of Bravo Hospitality Group, a hotel company built, in part, to be a platform for economic growth opportunities for individuals of diverse backgrounds.

In addition to the day-to-day management of Bravo’s portfolio, projects and development, Ravago serves as treasurer and finance chair for the Center on Halsted, Chicago’s largest LGBTQ community center. He also is on the board of United We Dream, the largest youth-led immigrant rights organization in the United States. In 2010, he was a founding member of the San Diego Dream Team, a youth-led advocacy group for immigrant communities. In recent years he also served on the board of directors at the San Diego LGBT Community Center and the board of governors of the Human Rights Campaign.

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30 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

TRISH REED

BRYAN REYNOLDS

BRIAN RICHARDSON

VINCENT RIZZO

FRESH ROBERSON

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Vice president and general manager, IC Bus Navistar

Senior director, sales operations TBI

Midwest regional director Lambda Legal

Partner Hinshaw & Culbertson

Chef Fresher Together

Vi A

Bryan Reynolds oversees a back-office customer-support organization for TBI, an enterprise technology company, with services ranging from quoting and solution design to implementation advocacy and project management. He is the co-founder and primary developer of the Leadership Development Program for aspiring employees to hone managerial skills. He also co-founded Resonate, TBI’s inclusion, equity and diversity employee resource group, with more than 10 percent of the company participating regularly. Reynolds serves as vice president for the associate board of Meals on Wheels Chicago and organized a team for the 5K March for Meals.

He is on the editorial advisory board of Channel Futures, an organization in the technology space, and speaks regularly at their events and contributes to their content as a subject matter expert on customer evolution and experience.

Brian Richardson oversees programming and outreach efforts in Midwestern states for Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal organization focused on the civil rights of LGBTQ people and everyone living with HIV. He presents educational programs and op-eds about legal issues affecting the LGBTQ community. He has served as a mentor through the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, is on the senior leadership team of the Center on Halsted and is on the board of directors of the ACLU of Illinois. Before joining Lambda Legal he served as deputy commissioner and director of public affairs of the Chicago Department of Health, was a communications manager at Google and was press secretary for former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

Vincent Rizzo, a partner in the firm’s litigation and civil rights practice, represents clients at both the federal and state level, focusing on employment disputes, tort defense, constitutional violations and government-related matters. He regularly presents workshops to highlight issues impacting employers, with a focus on LGBTQ rights, including the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock and Masterpiece Cakeshop. Rizzo also leads the firm’s LGBTQ+ Corporate Equality & Harassment Prevention Training Program.

Rizzo also organizes an annual World AIDS Day event and an annual vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance. He also presents annually at Lavender Law and is secretary of LAGBAC, Chicago’s LGBTQ+ bar association. He is on the board of directors for Changing Worlds, which provides programming to Chicago schools that foster inclusivity and enhance cross-cultural understanding.

Fresh Roberson is the founder of Fresher Together, a collaborative food and urban agriculture project for economic development, training and retreat. As a sex-positive fat activist, chef and chief farmer at Fresher Together, Roberson teaches others how food can support health equity and serve as a supplement to western medicine. Roberson is a longtime executive board member at Howard Brown Health and was recently nominated as the incoming chair of the agency’s board of directors.

Roberson helped push Howard Brown to launch prenatal care as a new service line in September 2020. Roberson works with students from UIC in summer programs and with Advocates for Urban Agriculture. Roberson chairs Rad Remedy’s board, is treasurer of Cooperation Operation and is a financial steward with the Transformative Justice Law Project.

Ju p m at

Trish Reed manages the Navistar bus business unit’s strategy and execution along with its daily business operations, including market share and margin.

In recent years, Reed and her team repositioned IC Bus as the school bus market leader in the United States and Canada, leading one business unit through the development and execution of an organizational restructuring and turning around another that resulted in 14 percent revenue growth and 49 percent profit improvement. She is a mentor in KPMG Future Leaders Mentoring Program and Navistar Young Professionals and served as executive adviser to Navistar’s Financial Diversity Council.

She captained D’s Dream Team MS Walk team that started in 2003 and has raised more than $50,000 during its tenure. She also serves on the board of the National Association of Pupil Transportation Foundation.

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JULIE RODRIGUEZ

RAYMOND RODRIGUEZ

DAVID SINSKI

BERNADETTE SMITH

TOBIAS SPEARS

Vice president Association House of Chicago

Abbott Academy director of the Joffrey Academy of Dance The Joffrey Ballet

Executive director Heartland Human Care Services

CEO Equality Institute

David Sinski manages Heartland Human Care Services programs serving more than 500,000 people each year nationwide through contextualized literacy and vocational literacy/English as a Second Language, as well as a continuum of housing services ranging from homeless prevention to refugee and immigrant services. Sinski joined Heartland in 2012 after serving 11 years with After School Matters as well as Alternatives Inc. and Mujeres Latinas en Acción. He is a member of the Partner Agency Council of the United States Committee on Refugees & Immigrants, a board member of Illinois Partners for Human Services and Travelers Aid International, and a Chicago Community Trust fellow. He also has served for six years as board chair of the Adler University board of trustees and now chairs the campaign committee.

Bernadette Smith manages a team of consultants, coaches and facilitators serving organizations that are on a DEI journey. A social entrepreneur for 17 years, her career began in 2004 as a specialized LGBTQ wedding planner and has since evolved beyond LGBTQ inclusion into DEI more broadly. Beginning in 2020, she doubled the size of her company to create job opportunities for people from underrepresented groups, and in June 2021, worked with more than 25 companies on Pride programming. She serves as a 1:1 mentor to businesses through StartOut as well as to companies that participate in the LGBT Chamber of Commerce’s LGBTQ+ Business Bootcamp. Her new book, “Inclusive 360: Proven Solutions for an Equitable Organization,” will be released this fall.

Assistant dean and senior director for diversity and inclusion University of Chicago–Biological Sciences Division

Julie Rodriguez oversees all program operations in the four major program areas for Association House: behavioral health, workforce development, child welfare and the Association House High School. She oversees the negotiation, execution and evaluation of myriad contracts that serve particularly sensitive populations, including the intellectually or developmentally disabled, the formerly incarcerated seeking substance-use treatment and families seeking mental health counseling. A licensed therapist and operations expert, she administers complex safety-net programs, including Medicaid and foster care management. She co-chairs the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association’s subcommittee on race, equity and social justice and participates in an anti-racism committee for the Association House High School.

She also serves on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Adult Use Cannabis Health Advisory Committee.

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Raymond Rodriguez works in partnership with Ashley Wheater, the Mary B. Galvin artistic director, directing the strategic planning for the academy while overseeing school, youth, adult and family programming as well as teacher and ballet training. He was instrumental in the creation of a virtual learning curriculum as well as the “Joffrey for All” strategic plan, which includes expansion to the South Loop neighborhood and the acquisition of a new studio space at 1920 S. Wabash Ave. He helped establish an open door policy that encourages feedback, no matter the issue, which led, for example, to the establishment of the BIPOC Academy Committee and the installation of gender-neutral bathrooms.

He was a principal dancer with the Cleveland Ballet.

Tobias Spears develops and supervises policies and practices directed at increasing the hiring and retention of diverse employees. He led an initiative to have every unit in the organization establish local-level DEI plans and launched two organizationwide virtual mini-institutes to provide a forum for knowledge and skill building in anti-racism work.

Spears was instrumental in establishing employee resource groups as well as the Inclusion Menu, where he facilitates sessions with individual units to help them tackle the challenges of equity. In a previous position he deployed the universitywide Safe Space curriculum. Since 2017, he’s been a consultant and mentor for the Chicago Center for HIV Elimination, and from 2018 to 2020 was chair of the Howard Brown Health Community Advisory Board. He’s also a member of the AMA Colleges Group on Diversity & Inclusion.

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32 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

DAVID SPENCER

SCOTT STUART

CHUCK SWIRSKY

PHILIP TORTORICH

MODESTO VALLE

System vice president, health care technology management Advocate Aurora Health

CEO Turnaround Management Association

Deputy chief of public policy Chicago Public Schools

Founding member Actuate Law

CEO Center on Halsted

David Spencer leads clinical engineering, health care technology acquisition, business intelligence and the development of strategy and innovations for nonclinical operations— including environmental services, food and nutrition services, facilities, construction, supply chain and security—at Advocate Aurora Health. He oversees more than 200 employees, a $90 million operating budget and an $80 million capital budget. He’s an executive member of the LGBT Health Equity committee that works, for example, to implement gender-neutral restrooms across Illinois and Wisconsin to better serve trans patients and team members. During the COVID-19 response, the health system implemented drive-thru and mobile testing, new PPE standards, universal masking and temperature screens, new cleaning protocols and the delivery of food and water to direct-care team members.

Spencer is a member of the Project Management Institute.

Scott Stuart oversees all of the Turnaround Management Association’s programming, conferences, education, technology and finances. His staff of 20—more than 50 percent women, several in senior roles— serves about 10,000 members worldwide. During the last 18 months, Stuart, who sits on TMA’s global and European boards, has been involved with a global DEI initiative designed to improve diversity within both the organization and the corporate-turnaround profession. Part of that effort involves support for TMA’s Network of Women and NextGen affinity groups as well as outreach to students at the junior- through postgrad-college levels. He’s held positions with the American Bar Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute and the New York Institute of Credit, and he previously served on the board of Futures & Options.

Chuck Swirsky runs a team of more than 50 people overseeing departments such as intergovernmental affairs, family and community engagement, local school councils, faithbased, parent universities and community action councils. Over the past 18 months, Swirsky led the federal engagement strategy, helping form education stimulus-funding legislation as a member of the Council of Great City Schools legislative working group. He also lobbied for regulatory relief to enable students to receive school meals while not in the physical classroom and assisted in engagement for Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer outreach. At CPS, he revitalized the grant-writing process, leading to more than $100 million in grants. He’s engaged in I Am ALS and has been involved with Big Green, formerly the Kitchen Community.

Philip Tortorich’s practice area includes private client services, providing legal advice and consulting to owners of privately held businesses and to highnet-worth families. His work includes income and estate mitigation strategies, along with philanthropic structuring to meet client objectives. He is one of only a few attorneys handling the income, estate and gift-tax aspects of captive insurance programs for closely held middle-market businesses. He is board president of the Legal Council for Health Justice, formerly the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, helping clients who need but cannot afford estate-planning services. He is also secretary of Baskets of Courage. Tortorich was an associate and then partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman from 2000 to 2018, joining that firm’s LGBTQ affinity group.

Modesto Valle provides strategic vision for the Center on Halsted, helping to refocus the organization on racial equity and inclusion.

This effort included hiring consultants, creating a senior leadership position to focus on REI, developing equity-leadership groups for staff and the board alike and issuing its first racial-equity statement and equity tool. He’s been instrumental in bringing professional development opportunities to senior leadership and staff. Before joining the center, Valle helped bring the largest display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to Washington, D.C. He serves on the CenterLink Board of directors and is actively involved in the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Arts Club of Chicago, Illinois Partners Human Services, One Northside Chicago, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and All Chicago.

ROB VOLK

LEWIS WARRICK

JULIE WEBB

ERIC WELT

GABRIEL WYNER

Founder and CEO Foxbox Digital

Chief financial officer Goodman Theatre

Partner Locke Lord

Managing director Mesirow

CEO Fluent Forever

Rob Volk is responsible for defining the strategy of Foxbox, a digital product agency. During the pandemic, his company helped an enterprise health care organization launch a mobile telehealth product. Volk leads monthly town halls to encourage team member input and ensure that policy verbiage remains free of exclusive language or problematic nomenclature.

His establishment of a flexible PTO policy enables global employees to celebrate their uniquely personal traditions.

Prior to starting Foxbox Digital, Volk was co-founder and chief technology officer of Detective, a venture-backed intelligence platform with 200,000 users.

Volk also co-founded Chicago Tech Leaders, a 100-member professional organization for tech leaders. He is also a member of the Queer Tech Club and StartOut. Foxbox Digital is a certified LGBT business with the National and Illinois LGBT chambers of commerce.

At the Goodman, Lewis Warrick oversees the budget’s annual development and daily management, supervises HR, works with bank partners and investment portfolio managers, and collaborates with the senior leadership team. During the pandemic, the Goodman board has resisted massive furloughs or layoffs, making financial management a critical priority.

Warrick maintained cash flow through reserves; worked with PNC Bank partners on PPP loans to continue operations; secured a line of credit that was a financial backstop; and pursued the Shuttered Venues grant, which could result in eliminating a financial deficit for fiscal 2021. Warrick also helped in the creation of the Goodman’s Community Agreement to ensure a safe theater space for all who enter the Goodman’s doors, as well as the theater’s Action Plan for IDEAA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racism and Access).

Julie Webb is an antitrust and litigation partner at Locke Lord, representing clients in class actions and complex litigation as well as providing pro bono representation to asylum seekers, U-Visa applicants and prisoners.

She co-chairs the diversity and inclusion committee in Locke Lord’s Chicago office and also serves on the firmwide D&I committee, overseeing recruitment, retention and initiatives supporting equal justice and civil rights organizations. Webb was also chosen as Locke Lord’s 2020 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity fellow. She spearheaded the firm’s involvement in the National LGBT Bar Association’s Lavender Law Career Fair, helping it achieve a 100 percent rating on the Corporate Equality Index and being named an employer of choice for LGBTQ employees. She’s an appointed member of the ABA’s Commission on Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity.

Eric Welt oversees business development in the investment consultant channel and is responsible for the growth of Mesirow’s equity, fixed-income and currency businesses.

A 28-year veteran of the financial services industry, he’s also a member of Mesirow’s LGBTQ group, PrideConnect, and recently proposed and moderated Out in Finance, a Mesirow-sponsored panel discussion for LGBTQ professionals. In 2014, Welt initiated the firm’s participation in the Big Shoulders Fund’s Stock Market Program, educating young students on financial literacy. He is a CFA charterholder, a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Chicago, and a former trustee for Second Sense, a Chicago not-for-profit that provides support and training for individuals with vision loss. He’s also a former trustee for the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ Community Trust.

Gabriel Wyner directs the company strategy, fundraising and R&D for Fluent Forever, an app that helps users learn foreign languages quickly. In 2014 he wrote “Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It.” In September 2017, he launched a Kickstarter campaign that reportedly became the most-funded app in crowdfunding history; he also won StartOut NYC’s 2019 pitch competition for LGBTQ founders. Wyner frequently writes articles on diversity and inclusion topics for Pride month, BLM and National Coming Out Day, and he increased LGBTQ presence in Fluent Forever’s team from around 6.5 percent to more than 20 percent. A former opera singer born and raised in Los Angeles, Wyner graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California with dual degrees in mechanical engineering and vocal arts performance.

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Illinois community colleges able to build student housing under new law to add student housing for the first time. Signed into law July 9

by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the measure allows for residential projects to begin on or near campuses throughout the state starting in January.

The law is an empty vessel at the moment, expressing the ambition to do something new to address housing insecurity for people aiming to lift themselves out of poverty via a community college education. Nontrivial matters—most crucially, how the idea will be paid for—aren’t addressed in a piece of legislation that is only a few paragraphs long.

Nevertheless, if the vision plays out as its backers hope, it could represent a significant rethinking of the community college experience, from one where most students exit the campus each evening—sometimes facing lengthy commutes, sometimes returning home to settings that, to put it mildly, aren’t ideal for learning— to an experience somewhat like the immersive, live-in world of a four-year college.

The new law also presents an opportunity for real estate investors and builders to capitalize on creating entirely new residential communities on or near community college campuses throughout the state—though the law in its current form does little to address financing or even such matters as who would own the structures built under the program. Indeed, student housing has become big business, with major institutional investors getting into the space. In 2020 alone, about $4.5 billion was invested in the U.S. student housing market, according to commercial real estate giant CBRE. Community colleges were barred from owning and operating housing prior to this bill, noted Matt Berry, chief of staff to the Illinois Community College Board, which oversees schools

ALAMY

COLLEGES from Page 1

Malcolm X College in the Near West Side is the only City Colleges campus with a nursing program, requiring some students to make long commutes.

said Thomas Saban, interim president of Prairie State College, a community college in south suburban Chicago Heights. Saban isn’t planning to become a developer of dorms: The law requires community colleges to partner with their local affordable housing agency to build student housing.

“We know that students who are immersed in the academic setting perform better and are more likely to complete the degree,” said Smith, who spent five post-college years as a recruiter for Chicago State University, often advising community college students on their route into the four-year school.

Community college students who live with their parents or family are often pressured to work more to bring in money and let “THE UNIVERSE OF COMMUNITY the academics go, said. They COLLEGE STUDENTS IS BIGGER NOW.” Smith may also get fed up with the commute State Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago time, Saban said. throughout the state. Some Others are parents, trying to jugcommunity colleges had gotten gle their academic progress with around that stricture by having child care.

Paige Ponder, CEO of nonproftheir foundations develop housing nearby, but the vast majority it One Million Degrees, which of schools don’t offer living ar- helps Illinois community college rangements. “This is supposed to students graduate, said about 75 make it easier for partnerships to percent of community college students take classes part time, happen,” Berry said of the law.

Though the measure is short even though research shows fullon specifics, what is somewhat time students are more likely to clearer is the need. For exam- complete their degrees. In addiple, at City Colleges of Chicago, tion to the housing itself, buildwhere the majority of students ing plans must include support are Black or Latino and come services to help students stay on from low-income backgrounds, track, Ponder noted. Child care, more than half reported experi- access to computer labs and encing housing insecurity in re- mental health services should be cent years. That insecurity threat- offered on-site, she said, as they are in other states that have emens their ability to stay enrolled.

“Retention, retention, reten- braced a multipronged residention” is the goal of the new law, tial student model made possi-

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ble in the new Illinois law.

“The potential educational benefits of having space that’s conducive to the life of a student but isn’t in another state or city— that is still close to your family, close to your job and other responsibilities—could be a great thing,” Ponder said.

STABILITY

At City Colleges, a network of seven campuses in Chicago, more than half of all students said they lacked stable housing in the last 12 months, according to a survey conducted in 2018 by the Hope Center for College, Community & Justice at Temple University. About 15 percent of students said they experienced homelessness in the same period. Black students, students identifying as LGBTQ and those who were independent of their parents or guardians in financial aid packages were more likely to experience needs insecurity, the report found. “Housing insecurity and homelessness have a particularly strong, statistically significant relationship with college completion rates, persistence, and credit attainment,” the report said.

City Colleges Chancellor Juan Salgado issued a statement to Crain’s saying the schools are committed to addressing students’ “comprehensive needs,” including housing and food insecurity, so attendees can focus on their schoolwork. The network looks forward to “exploring partnerships that would create affordable housing for our students, in particular the many City Colleges students experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity,” the statement said.

For students who are homeless and not connected to their par-

ents, there’s a specific way their academic program is harmed, said Niya Kelly, director of state legislation at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. Because of “the presumption in this country that your parents help you until you’re 23 or 25 years old,” Kelly said, colleges generally require a parent’s Social Security and other tax information.

Students who don’t have that “get dinged and have to go through an appeal process,” Kelly said, which results in “getting their packets later, which means registering for classes after other people and dealing with that uncertainty of not knowing whether they’re going to get to go back to school or not.”

Removing any of these obstacles, Smith said, “is adding to our students’ chances of succeeding” and using that college degree to improve their circumstances.

The challenges, however, multiplied during the pandemic.

Across all sectors of higher education, community colleges endured the steepest enrollment declines last year, a 9.5 percent drop from spring 2020 to spring 2021, according to the National Student Clearinghouse. In Illinois, enrollment at the state’s 48 community colleges plunged by 14.2 percent, or 39,715 students, this spring, data from the Illinois Board of Community Colleges shows.

STUDENT BODY

The classic model of a community college student is someone still living with parents and attending a nearby two-year school. That has changed. “The universe of community college students is bigger now,” said state Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, who shepherded Smith’s bill through

the Senate. “You have single parents, you have people who’ve been on their own for several years.”

The average age of Prairie State students is about 27, according to Crystal Alston-Nobles, the school’s communications manager, and about one-quarter of students commute by bus 30 minutes or more.

Another difference is in the schools themselves. Most are no longer generalists reaching out to their local area for students, but specialists aiming to draw students from the larger metro area. At colleges in the city, consolidation, a process that affected some programs beginning in 2014, designates specific schools within the network as topic area hubs. Malcolm X College on the Near West Side, for instance, focuses on health care and is the only campus to offer a nursing program, requiring students who live farther away to spend significant time commuting.

Before consolidation, nursing was offered at six locations, and enrollment in the program has dropped significantly since the change, said Tony Johnston, a former City Colleges instructor and president of the Cook County College Teachers Union. Under consolidation, some starter courses can be offered at multiple campuses, but more advanced classes in business and manufacturing are available only at specific sites, according to the union.

Nevertheless, Johnston praised the new housing law, calling it “a good first step and good foundation” to help students in need of support. But “the devil is going to be in the details as far as how this is actually implemented, how the Chicago Housing Authority, in Chicago at least, is going to work with developers on this,” Johnston said.

No colleges have announced plans yet, but visions of what could happen are percolating. Smith said he imagines Olive-Harvey College partnering with an agency to develop housing on some of the unbuilt northeastern portion of its 67acre campus. Located on the Far South Side near the Pullman neighborhood, Olive-Harvey is particularly difficult to access by public transportation for many students. At Prairie State, Saban said there’s little excess land on campus but that he would be pleased to see sites nearby developed with a mix of student housing, some dorm-style units for individual students and some more like small apartments for single parents with children.

Down the line, Saban sees an added benefit for the communities these colleges are in. If more students are living on or near campus, he said, they might bolster the sports program, whether as team members or as fans in the stands. That, Saban said, would “help us attract the community to our intercollegiate sports.”

8/6/21 4:10 PM

34 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

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æ`ÛiÀÌ Ã } -iVÌ

.

To place your listing, contact Claudia Hippel at 312-659-0076 or email claudia.hippel@crain.com www.chicagobusiness.com/classifieds

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BUSINESS FOR SALE Successful Full Service Restaurant Established in 1995 In Michigan City, IN CALL 219-873-7101

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PORTILLO’S VS. EVERYONE ELSE Portillo’s sales growth has outpaced the rest of the U.S. restaurant industry since at least 2016. Even during COVID, the hot dog chain’s sales slumped less.

PORTILLO’S SALES Year

U.S. sales (millions)

Average sales per location (millions)

2016

$342.0

$7.9

2017

$389.6

$8.0

2018

$439.3

$8.1

2019

$491.0

$8.2

2020

$455.0

$7.5

Industrywide one-year change

11.0%

3.5%

13.9%

3.3%

12.8%

3.6%

11.8% -7.3%

3.9% -21.9%

advertising opportunities available Note: Industrywide is for all U.S. restaurants

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produce the steady, profitable growth Wall Street craves.

“They are going to be subject to some pretty heady expectations for growth,” says analyst Sean Dunlop of Morningstar. “Investors are going to expect them to continue to jump regional markets and become a national chain. And the market is still going to look for (a return on investment) on that.”

Assessing Portillo’s financial outlook is difficult at this point.

The company declines to discuss its finances, and the initial public offering documents filed July 16 remain confidential until 15 days prior to the company’s investor roadshow or listing on a national securities exchange.

For now, investors can’t see important data such as profit margins and sales growth at outlets open at least a year, a key financial metric for restaurant chains.

However, limited information available from other sources suggests Portillo’s has an enticing financial recipe. Overall revenue growth and productivity have consistently outperformed restaurant industry averages.

Annual sales growth at Portillo’s ranged from 11 percent to 13.9 percent between 2016 and 2019, according to market research firm Technomic, which gets its sales data from the companies it tracks. Industrywide sales rose 3.3 to 3.9 percent during the same period. Portillo’s sales dipped 7.3 percent to $455 million when pandemic lockdowns hammered restaurants last year, only onethird of the industry’s 21.9 percent plunge.

Like McDonald’s, Portillo’s benefited from having drive-thru service at most of its outlets. Restaurants with drive-thrus suffered less when local governments ordered dining rooms to close.

PERFORMANCE

Connect with Claudia Hippel at claudia.hippel@crain.com for more information.

Source: Technomic

Portillo’s IPO puts the chain under scrutiny PORTILLO’S from Page 1

P034_CCB_20210809.indd 34

Portillo’s one-year change

Even more impressive are sales volumes at Portillo’s outlets. Its locations averaged $7.5 million in annual sales last year, according to Technomic. That staggering figure surpasses even McDonald’s $2.9 million average, says Mark Brandau, analyst at food industry consultancy Datassential.

“That’s the kind of performance tative declined to comment.

“It’s a common case of overexthat’s going to travel really well no matter where they go, as long tension, where just because you as they pick the right real estate,” could sell more franchise units Brandau says. “They are one of doesn’t mean that you should,” those brands that just knows how Allen says.

Portillo’s owns and operates to do incredible volume.”

Portillo’s also knows how to all its restaurants directly, poscreate consumer buzz, which sibly limiting the risk of overexhelps drive sales volumes. An pansion. The company also has almost “mythical aura” around taken a strategic approach to Portillo’s also may attract inves- expansion, targeting a few key tors to the stock, says Aaron Al- markets with multiple locations, len, founder of global restaurant rather than scattering outlets consultant Aaron Allen & Associ- randomly across the country.

Today, the company operates in ates.

“That’s a lot of what the retail just nine states. investor is putting their money into increasingly,” he says, OPERATIONS noting that individual invesInvestors will almost certaintors gravitate toward consumer ly expect geographic expansion. brands where they already spend They’ll also scrutinize Portillo’s money. “They’ll really nail it with digital operations, says RJ Hottheir IPO, I think.” tovy, head of analytical research Portillo’s joins a growing swell of at location analytics company chains that have announced IPOs Placer.ai. During the pandemic, this summer. Doughnut-maker the chain has boosted customer Krispy Kreme and salad chain traffic with digital ordering, delivSweetgreen are among those look- ery and drive-thru. For example, ing to capitalize on a receptive Portillo’s year-over-year foot trafmarket for stocks. fic was up 34.5 percent, compared Yet a successful market debut to 26 percent for the industry. doesn’t necessarily presage strong Portillo’s recently opened a picklong-term performance. Potbelly, up-only outlet in Joliet to accomfor example, leapt to $31 a share modate the rise in digital ordering. from $14 on its first day of trading in 2013.

It’s been downhill ever “(PORTILLO’S IS) ONE OF THOSE since; Potbelly shares BRANDS THAT JUST KNOWS HOW were at $7.31 late last week, down 76 per- TO DO INCREDIBLE VOLUME.” cent from their peak.

Cosi’s IPO investors Mark Brandau, analyst, Datassential did even worse. The chain tumbled into bankruptcy Kevin Schimpf, senior manager of in 2016 and was delisted, 14 years industry research at Technomic, after going public at $7 per predicts more such innovations. share. Now privately held and “Going public will likely result based in Boston, Cosi currently in Portillo’s needing to be more has 25 stores. A spokesperson de- inventive with their store designs clines to comment. to help maintain profitability,” Potbelly succumbed to a com- Schimpf says. mon affliction of publicly tradPortillo’s has come a long way ed restaurant chains. Flush with from the hot dog stand founder cash and eager to meet Wall Dick Portillo opened in Villa Park Street expectations, chains often 58 years ago. By the time he sold open too many stores too fast. In the chain to private-equity firm the process, they can lose control Berkshire Partners for $1 billion in of quality and expenses while 2014, Portillo was a billionaire, he sometimes cannibalizing sales at wrote in a 2018 book. existing outlets.

Portillo’s book also included a Like many newly public chains, warning that the company may Potbelly also goosed growth want to consider as it contemthrough franchising, contracting plates a future in public markets: with third-party owners to oper- “Ideas are easy,” he wrote. “Execuate stores. A company represen- tion is not.”

8/6/21 4:09 PM

SPONSORED CONTENT

GROWTH OF IMPACT INVESTING

CREATING CHANGE WITH VALUES-BASED STRATEGIES The world of impact investing—which deploys investors’ money to address social and/or environmental issues—is growing rapidly within the socially responsible investing landscape. The goal is to generate a measurable impact in an area of need, and the value goes beyond dollars and cents. Three Chicago-area executives shared their impact investing insights with Crain’s Content Studio.

How is your organization involved with impact investing?

Michael Miranda: In the last quarter alone, BMO issued a $750 million Women in Business Bond to support women-owned businesses.

We also launched our BMO Climate Institute, which harnesses science and analytics powered by innovative technology and industry-leading expertise, and donated $10 million to Rush University System for Health to create the new Rush BMO Institute for Health Equity in Chicago. I’m proud to say that we continue to allocate both our purpose and our capital to these important areas.

Impact investing is key to who we are.

Jill O’Donovan: YWCA Metropolitan Chicago is the impact partner for the Impact Shares Women’s Empowerment ExchangeTraded Fund (NYSE: WOMN), which provides investors with a socially conscious option to invest in companies that empower women.

We consult on the criteria used to evaluate companies for inclusion in the fund, then engage companies in discussions around how they can improve policies and practices to support gender equality. We also work to educate the public on ways they can use their investment dollars to create positive social impact.

Chicago and internationally, as well as environmental, social and governance investment offerings. We’re currently expanding the program to reach a greater number of donors and look forward to adding additional investment options aligned with our goal of a thriving, equitable and connected Chicago region.

What’s driving the increasing interest in impact investing?

Kernaghan: Investors are seeing that their assets can generate social benefits alongside financial returns and are increasingly seeking opportunities to support a specific vision for change through their investments. This is happening as more options are becoming available with enhanced corporate transparency, information and insight into how companies are making a difference.

O’Donovan: Investors are looking for ways to move beyond traditional philanthropy in their quest to “do good” and a desire to take “conscious consumerism” to the next level.

Additionally, the number of women investors—who are more likely to prioritize ESG factors—continues to increase. All of this is happening concurrently with a growing body of evidence that companies with more diversity and stronger ESG

“INVESTORS ARE LOOKING FOR WAYS TO MOVE BEYOND TRADITIONAL PHILANTHROPY IN THEIR QUEST TO ‘DO GOOD’ AND A DESIRE TO TAKE ‘CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM’ TO THE NEXT LEVEL.” — JILL O’DONOVAN, YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO

LAURA KERNAGHAN

Senior Director of Investments The Chicago Community Trust lkernaghan@cct.org 312-565-2933

are now able to specifically tailor their portfolios in areas such as ESG, innovation, diversity, engagement/ advocacy and more, so that they can achieve both a market return and have an impact.

What changes and trends are you seeing regarding the services and solutions offered to achieve impact?

MICHAEL MIRANDA National Head of Investments BMO Wealth Management – US michael.miranda@bmo.com 312-461-6742

Kernaghan: Consumers have become much more engaged and sophisticated in their understanding of how to achieve impact goals through their investments. Investment providers have responded in multiple ways, such as expanding ESG investment approaches. We’re seeing a similar expansion of impact investment opportunities with more direct and intentional impact, across a

JILL O’DONOVAN Chief Innovation Officer YWCA Metropolitan Chicago jill.odonovan@ywcachicago.org 312-762-2754

range of asset classes, and many of our donors are interested in this approach for the philanthropic funds they have at the Trust.

Miranda: The term “impact” is relatively new when considering how long investors have aspired to have market returns alongside environmental and social advancement. Historically, investors

YOUR GENEROSITY. A GREATER CHICAGO REGION. WE EXIST TO HELP YOU EFFECT LASTING CHANGE

Laura Kernaghan: Since the early 2000s, The Chicago Community Trust has intentionally sought manager diversity, specifically women or minority-owned or managed firms. Prioritizing diversity in our investment portfolio is not only a way of aligning our assets with our mission, but it also supports strong investment returns; diversity can lead to better investment decision-making and improve the functioning of teams. In 2020, we piloted a platform that enables donor-advised funds held at the Trust to be invested for impact across a curated menu of options expected to achieve impact in

P035_037_CCB_20210809.indd 35

practices often have stronger financial performance. We also observed more interest in impact investing following recent events such as COVID-19, the murder of George Floyd and increased instances of severe weather—presumably leading folks to consider more purposefully how to invest in solutions focused on addressing root causes of these complex issues.

Miranda: In years past, investors would often focus on generating market returns and then later make an impact through their philanthropic efforts and initiatives. As investing becomes more sophisticated, investors

IN OUR COMMUNITY AND BEYOND. LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Contact Kristin Carlson Vogen at kvogen@cct.org

8/3/21 9:53 AM

GROWTH OF IMPACT INVESTING

CREATING CHANGE WITH VALUES-BASED STRATEGIES may have looked at exclusionary screens as a primary way of executing such a strategy. Now, with greater amounts of information and better data available, there are additional, more nuanced strategies being employed. For example, more investors are able to look at broader ESG scoring and metrics for their portfolio. Others might craft mandates that look to engage with companies across areas such as activism, corporate governance or proxy voting. Diversity, equity and inclusion continues to grow in its importance for client portfolios.

As the spectrum of impact has broadened, the tools and services being used have expanded to align with investor interest.

O’Donovan: There’s an uptick in services and solutions in the marketplace focused on creating social impact through DEI and creating more racial and gender equity in the marketplace as a whole. In addition to our role with the ETF, we’ve strengthened our marketplace impact solutions through our “Inclusion Chicago” consulting practice where we partner with organizations looking to advance DEI, and our Racial Justice League, a membership-based solution using

to invest. While this is often true, not all impact investments require a long-term investment horizon.

Overall, it’s helpful to consider the portfolio goals—from both a financial return and an impact perspective—

realistic influence of that strategy on the cause and timeframe for expected impact. While certain investors might be better suited for certain opportunities—for example, a foundation can be better positioned

What types of assets or investors are best suited to this approach?

“ . . . WE’VE FOUND THAT DONOR-ADVISED FUNDS, WHICH ALREADY ARE DESIGNATED AS PHILANTHROPIC CAPITAL, ARE WELLPOSITIONED TO BE INVESTED FOR IMPACT.”

Miranda: We believe there can be an implementation strategy for practically any family that has the intention to integrate impact into their portfolio. As for the types of assets best suited for impact investing, the effect and measurability of the impact sought seems to be most noteworthy in the public markets.

For many investors, this will be the largest allocation of their portfolio, so it aligns well with the magnitude of impact as well. The private markets space also provides tremendous opportunity, though the outcomes tend to be described in more idiosyncratic manners.

O’Donovan: The most suitable investors are those willing to do the research into the causes and potential revenue from a particular financial strategy, and also the

Kernaghan: At the Trust, we identify impact metrics and outputs related to the goals of our donor-

— LAURA KERNAGHAN, THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST to make a program-related investment with lower expected rate of return or longer horizon for payback—every investor can have a role in aligning investment dollars to desired social impact. They should also appreciate that all investments have impact; the question is whether that impact is positive or negative.

Kernaghan: Any investor who wants to drive positive change through their portfolio can pursue impact investing, although not all impact investments will be a good fit for all investors. For instance, many say impact investors must have socalled patient, or long-term, capital

and the investment time horizon.

Additionally, we’ve found that donoradvised funds, which already are designated as philanthropic capital, are well-positioned to be invested for impact. Doing so can maximize the transformative power of the assets before the funds are later granted out to the community. We also view this as a meaningful way to compound the social benefits of our donors’ generosity, creating a “double bottom line” for these investments.

What limitations/challenges can investors expect when implementing an impact investing strategy?

O’Donovan: A lack of standard definitions and disclosure metrics leads to confusion and oftenunnecessary disappointment as well as “greenwashing” and/or overpromising the realistic impact of the investment.

Adding to these challenges is the reality that it may take several years before positive social change from an investment is measurable and patience truly becomes a virtue.

We have a saying at the YWCA that “change isn’t fast, cheap or easy!” and change through impact investing is no different.

Miranda: Measuring impact, which relies on transparency and robust data, can often prove to be a challenge, especially when trying to attain consistency amongst measurements.

At times, it can be tough to accurately assess impact where public disclosure hasn’t yet caught up to the wishes and desires of investors striving for change. Fortunately, efforts are underway to improve the integrity of data moving forward.

Kernaghan: Impact-first investors may be challenged to find investments that match their exact goals. Not all impact investment funds check all the boxes from a traditional due diligence perspective. For instance, many are newer funds with short track records.

When evaluating an investment, investors should strike a balance that provides confidence without being overly restrictive.

P035_037_CCB_20210809.indd 36

How is the success of impact investing measured?

cross-sector collaboration in pursuit of the advancement of racial justice.

These and similar solutions not only provide an opportunity for investment in our organization, but also create impact by supporting our strategy to create a more inclusive marketplace.

advised fund holders. We also use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which were established in 2015 as a global development framework and can be applied when describing and measuring the impact of investments.

As more investors utilize the SDGs, we think they have the potential to become a shared language for impact investing.

Miranda: Starting with clarity of purpose and policy definitions for success assures that the portfolio is being managed and refined where necessary. Oftentimes investors will focus on the more tangible outputs that can be measured and readily assessed. This is an important first step that should be used in conjunction with less tangible outcomes both at the asset level and portfolio view. While many clients employ a purely quantitative view, assessing impact through a qualitative impact lens can better align the impact with their values and vision.

O’Donovan: Overall success can generally be measured through positive changes in the populations or environments that the capital is designed to impact as well as positive changes in attitudes, behaviors and/ or policies creating the challenges in the first instance. For instance, while successful impact for the WOMN ETF includes a donation of the net advisory fees from its manager Impact Shares to further support our work, the ETF also provides a platform for us to engage different audiences about the importance of the fund’s empowerment criteria and resulting changes—no matter how small or how slow—from that education.

What are some suggested “first steps” for investors looking to embark on an impact journey?

O’Donovan: New impact investors, especially, should identify what type of impact they’re seeking to make and why they’re looking to make that impact. This initial introspection will help to create more realistic

8/3/21 9:53 AM

SPONSORED CONTENT

ABOUT THE PANELISTS expectations, especially as they relate to the perceived success of the investment beyond monetary returns. Investors who already have an investment portfolio also should examine their current investments and whether they’re aligned with their values and, if not, why. Once investors have a better sense of their investing history, impact goals and motivations, they can focus on the more mechanical financial questions—such as such what asset classes, return expectations and time horizons fit best into their overall investment strategy—and work with an advisor to answer them.

Kernaghan: Individuals should first identify then articulate what change they wish to make through their investments and seek out an organization that shares those values and areas of interest. For example, a financial advisor with a shared interest in impact investing could be a great partner, and for those that would like to invest their philanthropic capital for impact, the Trust can assist with beginning the journey. We also encourage investors to connect with other like-minded investors; since the field of impact investing is evolving so quickly, it’s a welcoming community with shared objectives and opportunities for continual learning.

Miranda: A critical first step for families is to be purposeful about their impact intentions since that information will be used to craft customized portfolios. Subsequent to implementation, it’s also important for clients to understand not just the returns of their portfolio, but the tangible impact they’re having with their investments, which allows for future refinements and enhancements.

Kernaghan: We expect to see a proliferation of investment options and more sophisticated measurement of social impact. The next generation of investors will be the catalysts for these shifts, similar to the shift occurring within the workplace now. Younger employees choose employers based on values alignment. Similarly, investments will increasingly be selected based on values alignment.

Miranda: The concept of asset owners with respect to impact investing is being radically transformed from a large (by AUM) but narrow focus on institutional, to the high-net-worth and individual investor space. Thought leaders such as the CFA Institute, a global association of investment professionals, will be transformational via the process of setting standards on ESG investment products. Efforts such as this will further refine investor education, thus improving the impact investing arena.

What resources do you recommend to those wanting to learn more?

Miranda: While there are a multitude of primers and educational pieces available, we’ve found that engaging directly with families has been a beneficial way of learning about how impact investing is evolving, both from a supply and demand perspective. For broad resources about the development of the impact space, the Global Impact Investing Network provides any array of useful literature.

LAURA KERNAGHAN is senior director of investments for The Chicago Community Trust, a foundation that for more than 100 years has connected donors with community needs. A CFA charterholder, she oversees the Trust’s investment portfolio. Previously, she served as a managing director at QBI Financial, leading the research effort for six investment strategies. Prior to that, she was an investments manager at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

MICHAEL MIRANDA is national head of investments for BMO Wealth Management - US, which provides individuals and families with a full suite of wealth management solutions. A CFA charterholder with more than 20 years of experience, he oversees all aspects of investment management including business and strategic planning, legal review and assessment, risk management, and leadership and development. Previously, he held senior management roles at Mesirow Financial, Calamos Investments and Northern Trust. He is a member of CFA Society Chicago and CFA Institute.

JILL O’DONOVAN is chief innovation officer for YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, which impacts thousands of women and families annually through comprehensive human services across the region. She joined the organization in 2016 after a 21-year legal career. In her current role, she applies her expertise and legal skills to maximize impact and generate revenue to support new strategies and programs. She also oversees YWCA’s Empowerment Collaborative, which provides impact, innovation and infrastructure support to mission-aligned organizations.

O’Donovan: The Case Foundation’s “Short Guide to Impact Investing” is a good starting point for those new to impact investing.

As You Sow, a nonprofit organization promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility, also has a

number of reports and free online tools that show what companies are embedded in various publicly traded funds and which funds are aligned with values related to fossil fuels, gender equality, guns, tobacco and other areas of concern.

I also recommend exploring US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, an organization advancing sustainable investing across all asset classes with a mission to shift investment practices toward sustainability.

Kernaghan: There’s a wealth of online resources and helpful tools that investors can access, including

“WHILE MANY CLIENTS EMPLOY A PURELY QUANTITATIVE VIEW, ASSESSING IMPACT THROUGH A QUALITATIVE IMPACT LENS CAN BETTER ALIGN THE IMPACT WITH THEIR VALUES AND VISION.” — MICHAEL MIRANDA, BMO WEALTH MANAGEMENT - US Where do you see the future of impact investing heading, and how do see the next generation of investors responding?

O’Donovan: We hope to see continued interest in impact investing as well as more creative products in the market. We also expect to see more demand and scrutiny from investors on the promised versus proven impact as competition for their investor dollars increases.

In this respect, we’d like to see the individuals, communities and organizations that are experts in the issues that the investments intend to positively impact being brought into the conversation as well.

P035_037_CCB_20210809.indd 37

websites of Omidyar Network and Principles for Responsible Investment, a United Nationssupported international network of investors working together to implement its six aspirational principles. Investors ready to take the next step might consider joining a group focused on impact investing. For instance, the ImPact is a membership community for families, while Mission Investors Exchange connects foundations interested in investing for impact.

For those who have philanthropic dollars within a donor-advised fund, our platform may provide access to, and support of, impact investments aligned to a donor’s interest areas.

8/3/21 9:53 AM

38 August 9, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

New law imposes moratorium on CPS closures even amid falling enrollment CPS from Page 3 Mayor Lori Lightfoot has opposed several provisions within the elected school board bill, but her office didn’t respond to questions about her stance on the closure moratorium. As currently written, the moratorium doesn’t take effect until June 2022. But the bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Delia Ramirez, has said she would push a trailer bill to make the moratorium effective immediately.

Opponents of school closings say they deprive communities of important resources, while sometimes sending siblings to different schools and forcing children to cross gang boundaries on the way to school. School finance experts say consolidating two or more underutilized schools is more efficient—reducing administrative and maintenance costs and

a school building where students fill up only 20 percent of it, for example, would lead to a roughly 60 percent inefficiency. “Nobody can afford that.”

FALLING NUMBERS

CPS operates 638 schools, down 5 percent from 675 in 2010. Overall, district enrollment has fallen 15 percent in the last decade— from roughly 403,000 in the 201011 school year to nearly 341,000 last year. Of the CPS schools analyzed, 265—or 53 percent—were considered “underutilized” by the district in the 2020-21 school year, with enrollment standing below 70 percent of ideal capacity. Some 145 schools are below 50 percent of capacity, and 24 are below 25 percent. That analysis does not include charter or alternative schools.

In 2013, falling enrollment and a $1 billion CPS budget deficit led former Mayor Rahm “I THINK (THE MORATORIUM IS) Emanuel to launch the biggest school reREALLY ESSENTIAL TO STANCH THE nation’s structuring. He oversaw the BLEEDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION.” closing of 50 schools where enrollment had dropped Pauline Lipman, professor, University significantly, predicting the of Illinois at Chicago College of Education shutdowns would save $440 million over 10 years.

Still, CPS has more buildimproving staff-to-student ratios.

Building maintenance and op- ings than it needs, says Blake Yoerations typically take up 20 per- com, director and lead analyst cent of a district budget, says Mi- for credit rating agency Standard chael Jacoby, executive director & Poor’s in Chicago. Enrollment and CEO of the Illinois Association and the district’s capital footprint of School Business Officials. And have been “so mismatched for so maintaining empty space with long that it’s an obvious expendiheat and light is costly. Upkeep on ture control they could implement

given their declining enrollment,” Yocom says, adding that CPS is an outlier for “such drastic differences in enrollment with their capital footprint.”

Although CPS pledged to stick to a self-imposed five-year closure moratorium after 2013, the district quietly mothballed more than a dozen schools—mostly charters— in that span, according to a WBEZ analysis. At the same time, 39 new schools opened.

CTU argues Emanuel’s closures never delivered the expected savings, while imposing hardships on communities that lost important resources and children forced to leave familiar surroundings for school.

GAUGING IMPACT

Outside studies later measured the negative impact on students.

In 2018, the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research examined data from 2008 through 2017 and found students from shuttered schools had lower-than-expected test scores the year of the closure announcement. In the spring of that year, students’ scores were roughly one and a half months behind in reading and two months behind in math. Reading scores recovered after one year, but the negative effect on math scores persisted for four years. Beyond that, empty school buildings have been difficult to offload and redevelop.

The moratorium is “more than a good idea; I think it’s really essential to stanch the bleeding of

UNDERUTILIZED SCHOOLS As enrollment has dropped, the number of schools that CPS considers “underutilized”— meaning they use less than 70 percent of their ideal enrollment capacity—has grown.

These figures include only district-run schools, not charters or alternative schools.

UNDERUTILIZED CPS SCHOOLS PERCENTAGE 2017-18

46.5%

2018-19

49.3% 51.2%

2019-20

53.6%

2020-21

Underutilized

Efficient

Overcrowded

230

234

31

243

216

34

253

206

35

265

196

33

Sources: Chicago Public Schools, Crain’s reporting

public education,” says Pauline Lipman, a professor in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Education who studies the relationship of urban education policy to urban development and race.

Lipman says investment will stop the cycle of decline at many public schools. “Schools get money based on enrollment. If you lose enrollment, you lose money, you lose programs, you lose special activities in the school, then people don’t want to send their children to that school because it’s stripped down. Then they lose more children, more money, and you can see how that goes.”

CPS hasn’t disclosed any plans for further school closures. It’s unclear how the moratorium would affect the most high-profile consolidation under discussion: a proposal initiated by North Lawndale community groups to merge three low-enrollment schools in the neighborhood into a new school focused on science, technology,

engineering, arts and mathematics.

In June, Lightfoot told reporters it would be a mistake to “foreclose parents’ ability to come together with a plan and offer up consolidation or some other reshaping of schools.”

Plans were put on hold in December 2020 over some community and CTU pushback, but local Ald. Michael Scott, 24th, says discussions are continuing. He told Crain’s he’s personally “torn between creating a new school that will create a value within my community or actually take more population from schools that are already underpopulated.”

A new school might attract new students, nearby investment and homeownership around the school, Scott says, adding “at the end of the day, I think most parents that I’ve talked to are more interested in making sure that their children have the resources they need as opposed to a moratorium on closings.”

ENERGY from Page 3 There’s no timetable yet for release of that plan.

“We’re assessing the situation but recognize that legislative intervention is necessary now that the parties have reached an impasse,” Harmon spokesman John Patterson says in an email.

In an Aug. 2 statement, Harmon said, “Our goal is to protect jobs and promote a clean-energy future, because we can and should do both.”

At the start of this process last spring, when Pritzker called on lawmakers to pass an ambitious climate-change bill aimed at the power sector, the foreseeable roadblocks centered around Exelon’s demand for another round

which the utility had to be seen as “being punished” for its wrongdoing while simultaneously being called upon to enable more green power.

SOLUTION

Surprisingly, Exelon and ComEd’s issues proved relatively easy to solve. Last spring, few would have predicted that fossil fuel interests, whose clout in Illinois had dissipated over the years, would display the muscle to scuttle the initiative. But, with the help of unions representing workers at those plants and contractors serving them, that’s what’s happened.

Complicating matters is dissension within the organized-labor camp. Well over 1,000 unionized nuke workers’ jobs are now imperiled because of the demands of unions rep“THIS IS A DECISION THAT GETS resenting other interests MADEBY THE LEGISLATURE AND THE that Exelon has fought for years.

GOVERNOR. AND HERE WE ARE.” “I am still hopeful that the working groups Gov. J.B. Pritzker and legislators can work something out to save of ratepayer bailouts for its finan- the plants real soon,” said Terry cially pressured nukes, as well as McGoldrick, president of Local how to handle future rate-setting 15 of the International Brotherfor Exelon-owned Common- hood of Electrical Workers, which wealth Edison. ComEd’s admis- represents Exelon’s nuke workers, sions in federal court to a decade- as well as ComEd’s people in the long bribery scheme to win past field. “As we stand today the plants legislative victories in Springfield will close without legislation. A lot created a delicate environment in of great jobs will be lost and the

P038_CCB_20210809.indd 38

communities around these plants will suffer because of these closings.”

Another IBEW local, which has been advocating for the Prairie State coal-fired plant in southern Illinois, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The future of Prairie State, one of the top 10 emitters of carbon among coal plants in the U.S., remains a sticking point in moving the bill. Pritzker negotiated a deal with the plant allowing it to stay open until 2045 if it installed technology to capture and store 90 percent of its carbon emissions.

Otherwise, it would have to close by 2035.

Ironically, given fierce union advocacy for Prairie State, the 600-plus workers at the plant itself aren’t even unionized. Another 1,000 contract workers, who sporadically provide services to the facility, are union members, a Prairie State spokeswoman says.

Advocates want Prairie State to stay open past 2045 if it’s able reduce carbon emissions by 90 percent. Pritzker, backed by environmental advocates, wants to be able to say the bill will eliminate carbon emissions from Illinois’ power industry by a certain date.

Enough Democratic senators are backing Prairie State that moving a bill over the coal plant’s backers’ opposition risks defeat.

Also still a sticking point is green

WTTW NEWS

Organized labor, environmentalists remain bitterly opposed on energy bill issues

Senate President Don Harmon: “Our goal is to protect jobs and promote a clean-energy future, because we can and should do both.” groups’ insistence on gradual reductions in carbon emissions from gas-fired plants in the leadup to Pritzker’s “decarbonization” date of 2045.

TRAFFIC COP

In past large-scale energy debates in Springfield, former House Speaker Michael Madigan played traffic cop, quietly letting allies and friends know how much of their requests would be granted and demanding support—or at least neutrality—for an overall package.

No one is playing that role now—except perhaps Exelon.

CEO Chris Crane, speaking to analysts on Aug. 4, was asked whether it was feasible for Exelon to wait a month or two to close its Byron nuclear plant, now slated to shutter next month.

The answer? Yes, but the logistics would be “challenging.” Exelon doesn’t seem to think giving Springfield more time will change the ultimate outcome.

“We don’t want to close these plants, but we cannot make decisions based off of hope of legislation being passed in the future,” he said. “We’ve been doing that since 2016 while significant losses have been incurred.”

8/6/21 4:28 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • AUGUST 9, 2021 39

SLOW RECOVERY Downtown Chicago hotels have performed better in recent months but remain way behind pre-pandemic levels of business.

DOWNTOWN CHICAGO AVERAGE REVPAR $160

$45.04

120 80 40 0

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Note: June 2021 data is year-to-date.

PHOTOS BY JOHN R. BOEHM

PERCENTAGE CHANGE IN REVPAR, 2021 VS. 2019 -2.1% Chicago is among the major -10.0% metropolitan areas whose hotels -11.4% are recovering at a slower pace -31.7% than those in markets that rely more heavily on leisure visitors.

-32.0%

John Murphy, owner of the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza, thinks there are still enough positives to outweigh the negatives in the industry.

Investors bet big on Chicago hotel rebound HOTELS from Page 1 pandemic wanes.

It’s not that Murphy is ignoring the many reasons not to buy a downtown Chicago hotel in 2021.

He just found enough positives to convince him to do it anyway.

“There’s our taxes, social justice issues, crime, shootings—all that crap that people complain about,” he says. “But the reality is that we continue, as a business economy in Chicago, to grow.”

Murphy’s optimism stands out from the crowd almost 17 months into the pandemic, but he’s not the only one with that sentiment.

A half-dozen real estate investors have purchased hotels including the Thompson Chicago, St. Clair Hotel, the Inn of Chicago and the Holiday Inn & Suites next to the redeveloped Old Post Office with theses similar to Murphy’s, hoping they can buy low, wait for the market to stabilize and eventually cash out with a tidy profit.

They’re gambling on a market that so far has staged a slow-moving comeback from a historic drop in demand, has several major hotels facing foreclosure lawsuits and still faces predictions that the corporate and group business that typically accounts for half of the central business district’s hotel stays will never return to pre-COVID levels. A more recent addition to the challenge: COVID-19 cases are rising again from the rapidly spreading delta variant.

But some investors are finding ways to make sense of certain hotel deals that they think will prove to be post-pandemic winners even if other hotels falter.

Murphy says his best justification for rolling the dice on the Holiday Inn is the price at just more than $43,000 per room, a

relative pittance for a large hotel located in the heart of the city.

The other booster: The 60-story Salesforce Tower is due to open next door in 2023, meaning the hotel could eventually be flush with corporate demand tied to Salesforce and potentially law firm Kirkland & Ellis, which is nearing a deal to lease 600,000 square feet in the building.

“To be adjacent to that with a new brand for hospitality was a no-brainer,” says Murphy, who is splitting the hotel into two brands: Almost half the rooms will remain under the Holiday Inn label, while the majority will be recast as Voco, a relatively nascent upscale brand from hotel giant InterContinental Hotels Group.

The hotel will keep its nearly 50,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space, but Murphy says his investment plan depends a lot more on leisure travelers and less on corporate and group business than it would have pre-COVID. “That was a dramatic shift in analytics for us. . . .I just think it’s going to be a very long recovery on the convention side—that’s the reality,” he says.

REVENUE

Chicago’s heavy reliance on conventions and group business to support the local hospitality market has made buying hotels even harder to justify, watering down the early returns for hoteliers since Illinois removed COVID-related restrictions in June.

Revenue per available room, a key performance metric that accounts for both occupancy and room rate, averaged less than $41 among Chicago-area hotels that were open this year through the end of June, according to hospitality data and analytics company

HOW TO CONTACT CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS EDITORIAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312-649-5200 CUSTOMER SERVICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877-812-1590 ADVERTISING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312-649-5492

P039_CCB_20210809.indd 39

CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312-659-0076 REPRINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212-210-0707 editor@chicagobusiness.com

STR. That’s down 56 percent from the June year-to-date RevPAR average in 2019. Only six of the 25 largest U.S. metropolitan areas have seen a slower recovery from 2019 numbers, STR data shows.

The gradual comeback has also been uneven. Properties that cater to leisure travelers have done better so far than the full-service, so-called big-box hotels like the JW Marriott Chicago and Palmer House Hilton—both of which are facing foreclosure lawsuits—that rely on more business travel and groups.

Average weekend downtown hotel occupancy in June was 62 percent, while the corporate travel-dependent weekday occupancy average was just 35 percent, according to STR. Weekends in June 2019 averaged 92 percent occupancy, just slightly higher than the weekday average.

“Chicago always does rebound (from downturns) very quickly and very effectively for the most part, but this is a much slower ramp-up than we’ve ever seen before,” says Brian Tkac, who spent 24 years as an executive at Schaumburg-based hotel manager Hostmark Hospitality Group and recently joined real estate information company CoStar Group as director of hospitality analytics in the Midwest.

Chicago-based Level X Group, which paid $17 million in January for the distressed 145-room Holiday Inn & Suites at 506 W. Harrison St., is counting on business travel returning in a big way to feed off of the redeveloped Old Post Office next door. But it’s also planning to engineer value to justify its purchase through a full renovation to the hotel, implementing new technology for guests to check in and communicate with hotel staff and elim-

-33.1% -36.0% -36.4% -38.0% -40.0% -42.6% -44.6% -44.8% -46.1% -46.9% -48.2% -52.9% -55.8% -56.5% -57.9% -59.0% -60.2% -60.9% -66.0% -74.4%

1. Norfolk, Va. 2. Miami 3. Tampa, Fla. 4. Phoenix 5. St. Louis 6. Houston 7. Dallas 8. Detroit 9. Atlanta 10. San Diego 11. Los Angeles 12. Orlando, Fla. 13. Philadelphia 14. Denver 15. Nashville, Tenn.

16. Orange County, Calif.

17. Oahu, Hawaii 18. Minneapolis 19. Chicago 20. New Orleans 21. Seattle 22. New York 23. Washington, D.C. 24. Boston 25. San Francisco

Note: Year-to-date June 2021 vs. year-to-date June 2019. Numbers reflect metropolitan areas. RevPAR, or revenue per available room, accounts for both occupancy and room rate.

Source: STR

The Holiday Inn overlooking Wolf Point is undergoing a $40 million renovation project. inating automatic daily room housekeeping, a common practice among hotels during the pandemic.

“You have to have the vision,” says Roger Young, executive vice president of LXG’s Level Hospitality. “Obviously there’s some risk involved, like anything.”

Chicago hotel veteran John Rutledge, whose Oxford Capital Group owns the LondonHouse and Le Méridien Essex Chicago on Michigan Avenue among other properties, would have good reason to avoid buying more downtown hotels as the compa-

ny faces a $47 million foreclosure lawsuit at its Hotel Felix in River North.

But that didn’t dissuade Oxford from paying more than $70 million this month for the Thompson Chicago, one of the largest hotel sales in the city since the start of the pandemic.

“Fundamentally, our belief is that we’re buying at a good vintage,” Rutledge says. “We believe this timing will prove auspicious and that over the next several years there will be a dramatic recovery in the overall demand for lodging.”

Vol. 44, No. 32 – Crain’s Chicago Business (ISSN 0149-6956) is published weekly, except for the last week in December, at 150 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601-3806. $3.50 a copy, $169 a year. Outside the United States, add $50 a year for surface mail. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, Ill. Postmaster: Send address changes to Crain’s Chicago Business, PO Box 433282, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9688. Four weeks’ notice required for change of address. © Entire contents copyright 2021 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

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