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Rush MedicalUniversityCenter

I PAGE 15 MAROTTIALLY See JOHNSON on Page 23 See McPLANT on Page 22

YOUR VIEW Labor looks to tighten its already strong control over Illinois.

YOU KNOW HIS BUILDINGS.

n an architecture-besotted city where it seems everyone can point out buildings by Jeanne Gang, Helmut Jahn and Stanley Tigerman, few could identify a Ralph Johnson building. Yet the 73-year-old South Side native, who at the dawn of his career helped design cold-storage facilities for the Union Stockyards, has had as much in uence on the look and feel of Chicago as his better-known peers.

CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 | $3.50 RESTAURANTS: Changes mean a new era is coming to the Viagra Triangle. PAGE3 GREG HINZ: Contests to watch in the sprint to November PAGE 2

In ation and complexity sank McDonald’s test run of a meatless burger

e McPlant was McDonald’s bid to tap into a nascent market for plant-based proteins, where rivals such as Burger King have had some success with meatless items like the Impossible Whopper. But the world’s largest hamburger chain ended a U.S. test run in late July, with no indication it will roll out the McPlant nationally. It seems the McPlant came along at the wrong time for con-

The low-pro le architect behind attention-grabbing designs like the Skybridge condo tower and Rush University Medical Center is a homegrown talent who started out in the Union Stockyards I

We’re surrounded by his distinctive works, including the Boeing Building, the clover-shaped high-rise at Rush University Medical

DO YOU KNOW RALPH JOHNSON?

BY ALLY MAROTTI

Check out our annual ranking of the city’s biggest law firms.

CRAIN’S LIST

PAGE 10

BY DENNIS RODKIN

Bad timing killed McDonald’s veggie burger.

The forwasn’tnationreadyMcPlant

BOEHMR.JOHN EDUCATION For

sumers and McDonald’s franchisees. McPlant’s premium price tag wasn’t what consumers were looking for as they traded down to cheaper o erings amid surging in ation. And franchisees battling soaring labor costs and supply chain snags weren’t eager CPS students who were already struggling before the pandemic upended their learning, the district is rolling out new programs

Federal COVID-relief funds that played a key role in balancing the budget soon will be gone. A series of management blunders, from deaths at a veterans home to continuing woes at the state’s child welfare agency, leave him open to attack. Job growth lags that of other states. Worst of all for the incumbent, ris ing crime rates are the kind of issue that drives voters bonkers, even if the governor—any governor—has only limited control of the matter.

who drafted the new districts really stretched to maximize their potential gain, you might think the Democrats would be sweating. Well, they are. I’ve heard a lot lately from allies of Rep. Bill Foster, D-Geneva, whose district lost a lot of Latinos in the remap to the new 3rd District, making it less blue. But the Democrats aren’t sweating the way they were a couple of months ago.

“Re ects” is such a soothing, tranquil verb. Poets re ect on the beauty of a bucolic setting. Histori ans re ect on the gures and events

Phillips will best be remembered for pulling o the deal to renovate Soldier Field, a complicated dance involving government, civic and business partners who had not shown much interest in dancing previously. Hence endless delays, toothless threats and ridiculous pro posals—remember the Gary Bears?

For the uninitiated, OTAs are “organized team activities”—o sea son workouts ostensibly designed to

and meaning of an era.

A Sept. 5 story, “Hospitals pitch credit cards to patients,” incorrectly reported that Kristin Schell received a credit card from Commerce Bank that charged interest after an introductory period when she went in for surgery at Mercy Hospital. Schell actually received a line of credit from Commerce Bank, which did not charge interest.

ten’s district as “lean Democratic,” with Foster and Underwood “likely Democrat.” If you really want to nd a bang-bang, super-competitive district, you’ll probably have to go out to the Quad Cities-area seat that Cheri Bustos is vacating.

On paper, Pritzker would be the favorite—even if his personal wealth didn’t allow him to spend whatever it takes, and even if Bailey wasn’t so far to the political right that much of the city’s GOP business establishment has written him o . Pritzker has been able to balance the budget, begin restoring

e 49ers have brought back Jimmy Garoppolo, after discarding the league’s heartthrob quarterback like a bag of dirty laundry.

North suburban incumbent Brad Schneider seems safe; the National Republican Congressional Com mittee, the House GOP’s campaign arm, hasn’t even put his foe on their watch list. Ditto Rep. Raja Krishna moorthi, D-Schaumburg. e NRCC has tapped Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau for its top Young Guns pro gram against Democratic Rep. Sean Casten, with foes to Foster and Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Crystal Lake, in line for lesser On the Radar aid. We’ll see what comes of that.

Keep your eye on all of that—and on two races that will determine control of the Illinois Supreme Court. More to come.

their base in November.

2 SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS Banking products provided by Wintrust Financial Corp. banks. Based on total amount of dollars lent through SBA loans – for fiscal year ending 9/30/2021. wintrust.com/SBALending

GREG HINZ ON POLITICS

“A non-football guy making foot ball decisions” was a near-constant complaint, as six coaches and four general managers came and went during a CEO tenure that produced ve playo appearances and a 139-

Convincing proof that the NFL rules the sports world occurred several weeks earlier, via a headline that had Matt Eber us, the Bears’ new coach, “re ecting” on his rst session of OTAs.

eir true purpose is to keep the NFL’s media machine hum ming, at a time when some other sport—baseball, say, or the NBA playo s—might try to encroach on the spotlight. at OTAs are covered with the breathless hype of the Academy Awards is perhaps the clearest manifestation of our nation’s NFL obsession.

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ever been more popular.

here are probably some who have digested every word of the torrents of verbiage that have inundated our sports media outlets since NFL training camps opened in late July. I know I haven’t.

A lot of it is gambling: Football has been the bettors’ favorite outlet since the advent of the point spread. And now, with prop bets, parlays and survivor pools available to anyone anywhere, it’s likely your Aunt Florence has

See McGRATH on Page 20

DAN McGRATH

CORRECTIONS

An Aug. 29 Crain’s Forum article, “College delivered debt, not the dreams,” should have said that 57% of Illinois college graduates of the class of 2020 have student loan debt.

In the Sept. 5 Notable Women in Law section:

Contests that matter in the sprint to November

I’ll take a closer look at the proposed amendment in a future column. But the core of the measure is a clause that would prevent Illinois from becoming a so-called right-to-work state, one in which lawmakers could ban contracts that require workers to join a union. Labor views this as an existential issue, a needed step to protect itself from Alabama(or Bruce Rauner-) style union busting. Business says this is about making Illinois economically competitive again.

Bears retirement is real news amid NFL pu ery

A knowledgeable friend has the team stumbling in at 3-14 this season. I’m seeing 5-12, but that’s another story. Either way, it’s hard to tell amid the pu ery that’s inevitable with so many reporters trying to ll so much space (and airtime) with so little real news.

ON THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS

156Phillips’record.retirement, in tandem with the Bears’ near-certain depar ture for Arlington Heights, is another sign that the old ways are out at Halas Hall. Whether that translates to the eld. . . .

The pro le of Molshree “Molly” Sharma incorrectly said she represented incarcerated women pro bono through the International Women’s Forum. She is a member of the forum but handled the pro bono work separately.

The pro le of Rachael Pontikes should have said she was with a previous rm when she founded a project with the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation.

en there’s a proposed amend ment to the Illinois Constitution dealing with worker rights. In theory, it’s designed to guarantee the right of workers to organize and engage in collective bargaining. It may or may not do that, but Spring eld Demo crats put the measure on the ballot in large part to spur turnout from

The pro le of Martha E. Conlin should have noted that her position on Saint Mary’s College Chicago’s advisory board is pending.

acquaint a coaching sta with new players while providing assurance that everyone is staying in shape and out of trouble.

Still, in a year with lots of ups and downs, it’s a little early to stash away anyone’s crystal ball ‘cause things could change again.

the state’s credit rating, preside over an economy that’s growing nicely after COVID and stand strong on issues such as abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He has a record.

Meanwhile, national handicapper Cook Political Reports lists Cas-

Can Bailey use that issue to claw his way back into the race? He’s trying. Second on my list are races for Congress. Giventhat this was supposed to be a big Republican year, and given that Spring eld Democrats

And what were the Packers think ing letting most favored receiver Davante Adams walk after years of twisting themselves into pretzels trying to appease Aaron Rodgers?

A rst-year football coach, more typically given to more jarring verbs like “blitz” and “crunch” or “pound” and “smash,” might well re ect on his rst game, or rst win, or rst season, or rst playo run. But his rst OTAs? It’s the world we live in. e point is, the hype is largely unnecessary. Pro football has never,

Oh, there are storylines.

abor Day now having passed, we’re o cially in the stretch run of the 2022 general election.ere’s far too much on the ballot to write about without inducing insomnia, from contests for the U.S. Senate, statewide o ces and congressional seats to local issues and referendums. So let me narrow it down a bit to three that are partic ularlyeimportant.state’stopgovernment job belongs to J.B. Pritzker. e incum bent governor is seeking a new term, and the question is whether voters ought to give him another shot or turn to the GOP nominee, state Sen. Darren Bailey of Xenia.

But on Sept. 2, nine days out from the Bears’ season opener, comes real news: Ted Phillips is stepping down after 40 years with the organization, the last 23 as president and CEO.

But the record isn’t perfect. State pension costs remain staggering.

Phillips got it done where others had failed. And even though critics were teeing o before the construc tion cranes came down—too small, still inconvenient, too ugly—Ted’s voice would henceforth be heard within the McCaskey ruling class, sometimes to his detriment.

License holders say they’re be ing hampered by the state’s De partment of Financial & Profes sional Regulation’s rules, which prevent them from making any changes to ownership reported on their initial applications until they receive a nal state inspec tion to open a dispensary. But it can cost $500,000 to $1 million or more to get a dispensary ready to open, requiring many license holders to seek investors.

BY ALLY MAROTTI

Chicago was once home to two football teams, with the Bears and Chicago Cardinals here from 1920 to 1959.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot hinted at the possibility of Chicago hosting two pro football teams. The reality of such a move is complicated.

ere is also the issue of fund ing football stadiums. He said

facility, which he estimates will take $1.5 million to $2 million.

MODERN STEAKHOUSES, SUCH AS NEARBY MAPLE & ASH, POINT TO THE AREA’S ABILITYFUTUREPOTENTIALVIBEANDTOATTRACT THE YOUNGER GENERATION.

LIMITATIONS

RATIONALE

New era begins to dawn on the Viagra Triangle

“I have friends who have li censes who can’t raise a nickel,” Hendon said.

Some minority marijuana licensees want Illinois to loosen ownership regulations to make it easier to raise the money necessary to build out new retail shops

What about a second NFL team for Chicago?

Bill Bogot, co-chair of the can nabis practice at law rm Fox Rothschild, said he has several clients who had the resources to get up and running. “ eoreti cally, applications should have shown evidence they were suf ciently nanced,” he said. “It’s been 2½ years. Plans that people had might have changed. It’s a tough situation.”

WILL RETURN NEXT WEEK

“I have a handshake with who I want to be with,” he said. “But I’m scared to sign a contract. ( e state is) going to say (the rules) are that way because we want minority owners of these businesses in the end. But you’re killing us in the meantime.”

Several dispensary groups that won licenses have raised money, including e 1937 Group, which pulled in $17 million from an in vestment group to build out and acquire craft-grow and dispen sary locations by creating a sep arate business entity. “We started working on a deal in November. It took a long time,” said Ambrose Jackson, CEO of e 1937 Group. “I don’t believe it’s going to work for most people.”

See RUSH STREET on Page 20 See NFL on Page 22

JOE CAHILL

Sports consultant Marc Ganis of Ganis’ SportsCorp said that while Chicago is a strong market for two NFL teams, he doesn’t think Chicago will ever get an otherGanisone. said “a successful NFL team does not need a big mar ket. Green Bay, New Orleans, Cincinnati, I could go on, but you don’t have to have a huge market to be successful.”

“ e administration is always looking for ways to improve social equity in the cannabis industry, which has been a priority of the governor’s since day one of this process,” a Pritzker spokeswoman said in a statement. “ e governor looks forward to continuing to work with the General Assembly on streamlining the process and helping social equity applicants enter and thrive in the industry.”

e risk is ending up with groups of haves and have-nots in a cannabis industry that pol iticians have held up to others nationwide as a model for regu lation and social equity.

he Viagra Triangle is changing. e patch of the Gold Coast where State and Rush streets intersect has long been home to a handful of oldschool steakhouses and Italian joints. But in the next six months or so, mainstays Tavern on Rush and Carmine’s will turn o their lights—Tavern permanently and Carmine’s temporari ly—ushering in a new era for the popular dining locale. e change could shock the systems of longtime patrons of the restaurants that surround Mariano Park. e area has a storied restaurant history, and most of the establishments

any time a team has moved or been added, it had its own facil ity“Everybuilt. single one of those (ex pansion cases) has one common front: ey all had stadiums that were funded partially or entirely by the government as a precon dition,” he said. Ganis does not think the city of Chicago would fund a new stadium. Crain’s has previously reported that May or Lori Lightfoot doesn’t want taxpayers funding a renovated Soldier Field, though it remains unclear how the city would pay

CARMINE’S

Pot forwinnerslicensepushrulechange

“ ree years in, and we still don’t have any Black-owned can nabis operators,” Douglas Kelly, head of the Cannabis Equity Illi nois Coalition, said at a news con ference last week outside the State of Illinois Building in the Loop, a move aimed at increasing politi cal pressure on Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

With a move to northwest sub urban Arlington Heights possi ble for the Bears, a question to ponder is whether the Chicago market could support two NFL teams.According to Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report, Chicago is one of most ideal cities to host a new NFL “Chicagoteam.is a tremendous sports city and one of the biggest markets in the country,” Knox wrote. “ e NFL should be eager to double dip into that market if the opportunity presents itself.”

BY CORLI JAY

e state legalized recreation al marijuana in mid-2019, with the goal of creating social justice by diversifying ownership in the cannabis industry. e state nally issued 185 new dispensary licenses this summer, coinciding with a steep decline in the value of marijuana stocks, an increase in interest rates and signs that marijuana sales are leveling o . Illinois reported $129.4 million in recreational cannabis sales last month, a drop from $135.6 million in July, which is typical ly the second-strongest month. August sales were up 6% from a year earlier, marking the second straight month of single-digit growth in an industry that was averaging 30%.

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • S E PT EM BER 12, 2022 3

With Carmine’s upgrading and Tavern on Rush closing, the area where State and Rush streets intersect—home to a handful of old-school eateries—will soon be seeing some major changes I

“ e rule-making process is screwing it up. Instead of mak ing it easier for Blacks and Lati nos, they’re making it harder,” said Rickey Hendon, a former state senator who won a retail license and plans to open a loca tion in the South Loop. He said he has an agreement with investors, but the state rules make it hard to complete a deal that would allow him to raise additional money to build out a

e state has been reluctant to explain the rationale behind the ownership rules.

Some minority marijuana licensees want the state of Illinois to loosen ownership regulations to make it easier for them to raise the money necessary to build out new retail shops.

Hendon and other license winners say the few lenders will ing to back cannabis companies are charging 18% to 20% interest rates. “I may as well just sell (eq uity) for 6% or 7%,” he said.

BY JOHN PLETZ

Proft’s group and the Bailey campaign have together received more than $30 million so far this campaign cycle from conservative megadonor Dick Uihlein. ere is no proof the two are coordinat ing their e orts—something that might legally require nancial dis closure reports—but the money certainly will not help Pritzker’s

Fresh news source or recycled propaganda from a prominent political activist? That ’s debatable, as are the actions of the big donor who’s apparently picking up the tab.

Several other commissioners used the same phrase, “a free and clear” swap or exchange, indi cating they do not want the deal to be contingent on getting state

Proft did not respond to re quests for comment on the e ort, which also includes a website with a network of similar sites that have operated around the state for several years. In a 2017 editorial on the Chicago City Wire website, in which he lik ened the ap over “fake news” to “the verbal equivalent of a white ag on the battle ground of ideas,” Proft said he is “a princi pal of Local Government Infor mation Services, which owns this publication.”

Ishbia and his wife, Kristen, plan to build a mansion on their roughly 3.6 acres, though they have not released any details on the plan.epark district would de

“I only want to make the prop erty exchange free and clear,” said David Seaman, a commissioner.

UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT

re-election bid.

Who’s behind these new publications?

Chicagoans in search of reli able political coverage in today’s fractured media environment have a new source this campaign season. But whether that source is news or recycled propaganda from a prominent political activ ist is most debatable. As are the actions of the big donor who’s apparently picking up the tab.

GOP insiders say they believe Uihlein is paying for the faux newspapers. Full-color papers like these can cost as much as 50 cents each to print and mail. ere’s no indication that the publishers sought subscribers for theseChicagopublications.CityWire is a prod uct of another Proft group, Local Government Information Ser vices, or LGIS. Some articles are bylined “LGIS News Service.”

ness partner Brian Timpone, also an Illinois conservative activist, using freelance reporters to turn out similar right-leaning stories around the state. Indeed, the same bylines that appear in Chi cago City Wire also appear in the DuPage Policy Journal, Gales burg Reporter and other publi cations that appear with Chicago City Wire on the same website.

tive director of Reform for Illinois, a political watchdog group. While the Pritzker campaign, too, used digital ads that look like real news, the ultimate source is disclosed therein, she said. “Peo ple also should know who’s pay ing to try to in uence them and why. If the publishers have noth ing to hide, why not be more upfront about their contributors?”

e man who proposed a mul timillion-dollar lakefront land swap with the Winnetka Park District, which has been snagged for months over his demands, has now dropped all of them ex ceptButone.that one demand remains a sticking point, park district o cials indicated at a Sept. 8 meet ing. ey were not scheduled to vote on the idea and will next meet Sept. 22.

For instance, one article, un der the headline “More failure at Chicago Public Schools,” depicts declining school enrollment, with a big picture of the mayor and governor. Another article blames dropping test scores on “Pritzker(’s) school lockdowns” during the COVID pandemic.

Justin Ishbia has removed demands for visual screens between his property and a public beach, but his one remaining condition could still be a major obstacle

On Sept. 8, Ishbia said that over time he has made four conces sions in particular: He withdrew his request for a view-blocking

At issue is the recent appear ance in mailboxes all around town of Chicago City Wire, a broadsheet publication that bills itself just below its nameplate as “Real data. Real News.”

But Ishbia said he won’t back o the stipulation that he will hold o signing his $6.2 million parcel at 261 Sheridan Road over to the park district until the dis trict’s project for the site has ap proval from the Illinois Depart ment of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

e park district, he said, “needs to get approval before we complete the exchange agree ment.”at stipulation was endorsed, if mildly, by one of the seven park district board members present at the meeting.

BY GREG HINZ

sue are two pages of mug shots of people accused of violent crimes who may be released without bail under terms of a criminal justice reform bill Pritzker signed into law. At least 25 of the 36 men pictured are Black.

would also block the view. He will pay for the cost of demolition of the house on the property he would exchange for park district land. And he’ll agree to have the dog beach adjacent to his.

wants to know what’s going to happen to the property next to him,” said Eric Lussen, a com missioner. “I understand why you’d like to see approval by the IDNR and the U.S. Army Corps.”

velop a single uni ed park with rock seawalls that would create a swimming cove and reduce the impact of wave action on the shoreline. Such a project requires approval from state and federal agencies.Warren

“ is board is ready to do the property exchange,” said Colleen Root, a commissioner. “We’re waiting for you to set a date,” she said, addressing Ishbia, “and we are ready to exchange deeds” of the Centennial and 261 Sheridan parcels. Another commission er, Mickey Archambault, said he does not want to get approv al and then swap the land. He wants the swap made rst.

at’s the same ad Lightfoot recently declared “racist” for al legedly darkening her skin color, something Proft denied while standing by the ad.

Concluded Kaplan, “ e dif ference between propaganda and legitimate political speech is often in the eye of the beholder. e hope is that readers learn to be aware of what they’re reading and who’s behind it.”

In fact, articles in recent edi tions of the newspaper mostly are negative pieces about Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, mixed with a little pos itive coverage of GOP gubernato rial nominee Darren Bailey.

Particularly striking in one is

Crain’s detailed the initial growth of such publications, in the suburbs, in a 2016 story. What should voters make of that?“Disguising certain types of po litical communications as news is a troubling trend (since) many readers probably can’t tell the dif ference,” says Alisa Kaplan, execu

If that line sounds familiar, it’s almost verbatim the language used in an anti-Pritzker TV ad produced and aired by conser vative activist Dan Proft’s People Who Play By the Rules PAC.

Billionaire’s last stand in Winnetka beach tangle

If the land swap goes through, the park district will end up with 1,000 feet of shoreline made up of what’s now Elder Lane Park, the 261 Sheridan property and most of Centennial Park, and Ishbia would get a slice of Cen tennial that is next to his other properties, at 195, 203 and 205 Sheridan Road.

BY DENNIS RODKIN

“I want the community to know I have heard you loud and clear,” Justin Ishbia said at the Winnet ka Park District board committee meeting. He has made conces sions, he said, “in the spirit of compromise.”Ishbia,aprivate-equity ex ecutive who lives in Lincoln Park, has spent nearly $40 mil lion purchasing four lakefront mansions in Winnetka in the past few years. In 2021, he agreed to swap one of them for a piece of park district land contiguous with his other three.

e headline on another arti cle, accompanied by pictures of the mayor and governor: “Light foot’s ‘summer of joy’ one of murder, mayhem.”

4 SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

COORDINATED EFFORTS?

Crain’s reporter Corli Jay con tributed.

‘PAY TO PLAY’

privacy fence made of vertical louvers between his property and the public beach. He no longer landscapinglicets”“planterdemandspockonthepubsidewhose

e New York Times took a look at such “pay to play” publi cations nationally in 2020. It said many are overseen by Proft busi

Several citizens whose names Crain’s could not ascertain in the virtual meeting setting said they do not want the land swap to proceed under Ishbia’s terms, if at all. Some said they prefer to keep the two parks separate, as they are at present.

and federal approvals.

DISTRICTPARKWINNETKA

Proposed lakefront beach wall in Winnetka.

James, president of the park district board and part of the original group that nego tiated with Ishbia, said, “It was my considered opinion that the exchange agreement was a mar velous opportunity to combine these two parks (Centennial and Elder Lane). I still support the swap, and I support it in the man ner it was originally envisioned, a free and clear swap.”

Justin Ishbia

“I appreciate that Mr. Ishbia

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321 NORTH CLARK

comment.Feilhas had an ownership stake in the 781,000-square-foot building since 2002, when it was part of a joint venture that bought the building for $139 million, ac cording to Cook County property records. Feil bought out its part ners on the deal and took out the CMBS loan in late 2015, when the property was appraised at nearly $167 million, according to Bloomberg data.

Six years after selling for nearly $82 million, the 248-unit Woodview Apartments property is up for sale again

10 S. LaSalle St.

LaSalle Street landlords facing debt trouble

Incomes at many suburban apartment properties also have risen over the past few years amid rising rents. Of the 155 new leases at Woodview this year, the aver age apartment rented for 14.4% more than it did under the ex pired lease, according to a Berk adia market brochure.

“We’re talking to the lender and trying to work something out,” Feil said. A Rialto spokeswoman did not respond to a request for

has whittled many landlords’ pro ts and pushed some owners into foreclosure, with depleted property values making it di cult for them to re nance their loans. Historic-but-outmoded o ce buildings at 115 and 135 S. LaSalle St., 175 W. Jackson Blvd. and the Civic Opera Building are among the prominent downtown o ce properties whose owners have been stung by loan distress.

e trend of shrinking tenants

It’s unclear what an investor would pay for Woodview today,

LaSalle, a unit of Chicagobased Jones Lang LaSalle, de clined to comment, and a Berka dia executive did not respond to a request for comment.

BY ALBY GALLUN

e landmark property at 1 N. LaSalle, owned by a venture of Sandy, Utah-based Bridge Investment Group, was 61% leased at the end of March, down from 76% at the beginning of the year, loan data shows. e 493,000-square-foot building generated $1.2 million in net cash ow during the rst half of this year, less than two-thirds of Bridge’s debt service for that pe riod. e building’s net cash ow last year was slightly higher than Bridge’s debt service, according to loan data.

Two more owners are showing the pain still a icting o ce landlords 2½ years into a public health crisis that severely weakened demand for workspace

Feil has signaled its con dence in the recovery of the o ce sector from the pandemic. e rm has bought four o ce buildings in the past nine months in markets including Tampa, Fla., and West port, Conn.

Neither owner of 1 N. LaSalle or 10 S. LaSalle has stopped making payments on their mortgages, ac cording to Bloomberg loan data. But both have seen their occu pancy drop o over the past few years.e debt woes show the pain still a icting o ce landlords 2½ years into a public health cri sis that fueled the rise of remote work and severely weakened de mand for workspace. Downtown o ce vacancy stands at a record high, with most recent leasing ac tivity happening at newer prop erties in trendy locations like the West Loop and Fulton Market District—while older buildings in the Loop struggle to shore up their tenant rosters.

SIGNALING CONFIDENCE e 92-year-old tower was 86% leased when Bridge bought it for $113 million in 2018. e rm acquired it from a joint venture of Northbrook-based Hilco Real Estate and a pair of MB Real Es tate executives, which had added tenant amenities to the building and leased up some vacant space. Bridge told its lender earlier this year that it planned to spend an addtional $7.8 million on ren ovations and building out movein-ready o ce suites, according to Bloomberg loan data, as well as $4.6 million in future leasing

Feil owns other o ce build ings in Chicago, including a 200,000-square-foot property at 645 N. Michigan Ave. and a loft o ce building at 730 N. Franklin St. in River North. e rm also owns a series of retail buildings downtown, several of which are in the Fulton Market District.

e big problem is timing: e loan is due to mature Oct. 1, meaning Bridge needs to move quickly to strike a deal with spe cial servicer KeyBank to extend the loan, modify its terms or nd another solution to avoid default.

commissions and cash for tenant o ce build-outs. e building became a Chicago landmark in 1996 and in 1999 was added to the National Register of Historic Places.At10 S. LaSalle, New Yorkbased owner Feil Organization is trying to come back from losing one of its largest tenants. North ern Trust’s long-term lease for more than 100,000 square feet ex pired at the end of last year, and the lender left the space as part of a broader consolidation of its downtown o ces into 333 S. Wa bash

try Glenview recently sold for $97 million, up 19% from the $81.7 million it traded for 2017.

FeilAve.Executive Vice President Brian Feil said the building is now roughly 73% occupied and its net income no longer covers the owner’s debt service, which is what prompted the loan to be transferred to Miami-based spe cial servicer Rialto Capital.

“Regular day-to-day activity at the property has not been inter rupted as we continue to execute leases, pay for tenant improve ments and leasing commissions, and work through active propos als,” the statement said. “Exter nal market forces sparked by the pandemic have resulted in simi

6 SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

TIME CRUNCH

e owners of two big LaSal le Street o ce buildings are in danger of defaulting on their loans, potentially adding to the wave of distress among pandem ic-thumped properties in the Loop.Inthe larger of the two, a $105 million loan tied to a 37-story o ce property at 10 S. LaSalle St. was recently transferred to a special servicer, a signal that the property’s owner could default on the debt or need to restructure its terms to avoid doing so. e 2015 loan was packaged with other mortgages and sold o to com mercial mortgage-backed secu rities investors, making much of the building’s nancial informa tion publicly Kitty-corneravailable.fromthat prop erty, an $84.5 million loan borrowed against the historic 47-story o ce building at 1 N. La Salle St. also was transferred to a special servicer last month “due to imminent payment default,” according to Bloomberg data tied to the CMBS loan.

tions, including Baxter Interna tional, Horizon Pharmaceuticals, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Discover Financial Services. De mand for apartments depends largely on jobs nearby, and Woodview, at 15 Parkway North, has plenty within a short drive.

lar scenarios playing out at other o ce buildings across the Loop and (central business district). ese short-term challenges will require o ce owners and lend ers to work together and think outside the box as the market ad justs.”AKeyBank spokesman did not respond to a request for com ment.

Recent suburban apartment

deals suggest that Woodview could sell for an ample gain. In Northbrook, for instance, Tapes

ECKERDANNYGROUPCOSTAR

High-end apartments in Deerfield hit the market

Built in 2015, Woodview has the advantage of being close to o ces of some major corpora

Woodview Apartments in Deer eld.

BY DANNY ECKER

e owner of a high-end apart ment building in Deer eld has decided to cash out, putting the property up for sale amid an es pecially strong suburban multi familyLaSallemarket.Investment Manage ment has hired Berkadia to sell Woodview Apartments, a 248unit property at the southwest corner of Deer eld Road and Interstate 94 that it acquired on behalf of a client more than six years ago.

but the property almost certain ly will fetch more than the $81.8 million that LaSalle bought it for in 2016. Suburban apartment val ues have risen since then, buoyed by high occupancies and rising rents. Still, the recent increase in mortgage rates has started to lim it what investors are willing to pay for multifamily buildings.

Bridge CEO of Commercial Real Estate Je Shaw said in a statement that the rm “remains committed to our investment at One North LaSalle . . . and is ac tively pursuing solutions with the lender that will enable us to re structure our existing loan.”

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nearby are newly built Woodlawn townhouses, a lit tle less than a mile northeast, where five of the 34 units have sold in the past year, at pric es from about $690,000 to $729,000.

The Detroit deal, effective Dec. 31, will give Taft more than 800 lawyers and $525 million in revenue, putting it about No. 85 among the highest-grossing law firms, says Robert Hicks, 61, Taft’s Indianapolis-based chair and managing partner.

The finished house at 6457 S.

ALSO NEARBY ARE NEWLY BUILT WOODLAWN TOWNHOUSES, A LITTLE LESS THAN A MILE NORTHEAST, WHERE FIVE OF THE 34 UNITS HAVE SOLD IN THE PAST YEAR.

SHARED VISION

Blacks in Green, the organiza tion that owns the Till site, has been working on revival projects in West Woodlawn since 2010, including gardens and housing.

While companies wrestle with how to handle office space in a hybrid work environment, law firm Taft Stettinius & Hol lister is increasing its Chicago footprint—and expanding else where in the Midwest, too.

The buildout is primarily re lated to Taft hiring more law yers. Its numbers have dou bled here, to 140, since 2014, when Cincinnati-founded Taft moved into Chicago with a deal for Shefsky & Froelich, part of a Midwest expansion plan whose latest manifestation is the D etroit merger with Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss.

On St. Lawrence, McGee has built the first new single-family house on the block since 1954, the year before 14-year-old Em mett Till was murdered while on a summer trip in Mississip pi. Two multiflat structures on the block were built in the years after Till’s death, including one finished about a decade ago.

He and Janson are sticklers for getting people back to the office—and making those of fices part of the reason lawyers want to work at the firm.

will,” says Hicks, who spent two years in Chicago in the 1990s as head of corporate development for financial services firm CIT Group. “It’s a better way to cap ture growth, in my mind.”

der construction, was designed by Jeff Funke of FunkeArchi tects, McGee said. A rendering shows a more contemporary style than the first house, with a white peaked frame surround ing a set-back facade of glass and wood. The third building, not yet designed, will be either a house or a three-flat, McGee said.

Jenson says staff is coming to the office four days a week. “What we’re saying to our attor neys: We want you in the office more than not.”

Taft is pursuing the latest vogue in office design by add

hatchie River.

For Till’s funeral at Roberts Temple in Chicago, Mamie Till (later Mamie Till-Mobley) demanded an open casket be cause, as she later said, “I want ed the world to see what they did to my baby,” whose face was badly disfigured.

In Hicks’ view, hierarchy is a motivator. “We like people wanting to become a partner,” he says. Jenson adds, “We’re at tracting a better kind of lateral (hire) in recent years.”

Taft Stettinius & Hollister announced Sept. 4 it is merging with Ja e Raitt Heuer & Weiss, a 120-lawyer rm based in Detroit, as part of its Midwest expansion plan

About 15 years ago, starting in Indianapolis, Taft set out to have offices in the Midwest’s biggest cities. With the De troit deal—its fifth during that per iod—Taft is represented in seven of the nine largest cities. St. Louis and Kansas City are on the radar, says Hicks.

“We feel we have to com pete for their eyeballs, if you

BY STEVEN R. STRAHLER

REALTYINTERNATIONALCHRISTIE’S@PROPERTIES

New homes underway on block where Emmett Till lived

BY DENNIS RODKIN

Paul Jenson, partner in charge of Taft’s Chicago o ce, says the Chicago facilities will be able to accommodate 175 law yers, as more are on the way. at number would raise it to 12th from 22nd on Crain’s list of the city’s largest law o ces (on Page 12).Taft’s

Shawn McGee, the developer, said the presence of the former Till home, a red brick two-flat that is now a city landmark and undergoing rehab into a mu seum and community center, “adds value to our site. I like be ing part of building up this his toric“Weblock.”believe in adding home ownership to the block,” said McGee, head of development firm Benjamin Jackson & Asso ciates. It’s not clear how long the three lots the firm owns have been vacant, but it’s likely to have been a few decades.

Law firm Taft on a buildout quest after doubling in size

“We welcome our cousins who share the vision of revival,” Blacks in Green leader Naomi Davis said of McGee’s construction on the block. “We’re proud that our leadership has resounded with others.”Emmett Till was age 14 in August 1955 when he left his mother in Chicago by train to visit relatives in her native Mis sissippi. Within days, Till was murdered by white men over a white woman’s allegations, which she recanted years later, that he had touched her and whistled at her. Till’s disfigured body was found in the Talla

McGee, who has previously built or rehabbed homes in oth

The next house, not yet un

Shefsky roots have

The new house has a modern exterior, smoke gray with an articulat ed rectangular pat tern on the facade, designed by Marty Sandberg and Cristi na Gallo of Via Chica go Architects. Inside are crisp white walls and ceilings, light wood floors, a con temporary kitchen, and a rear family room with a fireplace and a bar area that includes a wine refrigerator. There’s a cov ered porch area in the rear and a detached garage.

Jet magazine’s coverage of the funeral, with graphic photos of Emmett Till’s mangled face, helped motivate the civil rights movement. Both Rosa Parks and the late Rep. John Lewis spoke of being moved to civil rights activism in part by the crime against Emmett Till.

‘I like being part of building up this historic block,’ the developer said

The nished house at 6457 S. St. Lawrence is about half a block south of the two- at where Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie, lived before his death in 1955.

THE DETROIT DEAL, EFFECTIVE DEC. 31, WILL GIVE TAFT MORE THAN 800 LAWYERS AND $525 MILLION IN REVENUE.

FIRST SINCE 1954

er South Side neighborhoods, has one house finished on the Till block and plans either two more houses or a house and a three-flat. He said he plans to donate a portion of the sale proceeds to the Till institution up the block.

MAINTAINING HIERARCHY

By the time his second fiveyear term as chair ends in late 2026, Hicks expects Taft to have 1,100 to 1,200 lawyers.

On the West Woodlawn block where Emmett Till lived with his mother before being brutally murdered in Mississippi, a de veloper has completed the first of three planned new homes.

Robert Hicks, left, and Paul Jenson of law rm Taft Stettinius & Hollister.

Taft announced Sept. 4 it is merging with a 120-lawyer De troit firm. In Chicago, it’s add ing a third floor at 111 E. Wacker Drive, and renovating its oth er two, while keeping a tiered office structure, with partners occupying the biggest ones.

8 SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

St Lawrence, a four-bedroom, roughly 2,155-square-footer, is represented by Tiffany White and Monard Lee, @properties Christie’s International Real Es tateTheagents.asking price, $560,000, falls between the prices of two new-construction homes on the 6100 block of St. Lawrence that have sold this year: $524,000 in February and about $594,000 in July.Also

“I wanted these houses to stand out,” McGee said.

ing and upgrading common areas, but it is drawing the line at leveling the playing field for private space. Partners will still have bigger offices than associates, and associates will have bigger offices than other employees among Chicago’s 106,000 square feet.

paid dividends through ties to gambling industry clients on a roll during the sports-betting boom. Jenson, who also heads that practice, says the firm in particular is recruiting lawyers who specialize in corporate transactional work, including mergers and acquisitions.

Jill Koski will be the fourth leader in the institution’s 100year history and the rst woman to hold the position

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • S E PT EM BER 12, 2022 9 DIVERSEWITHRECRUITINGCOMPETITIVEEDGEAFUTURETALENTEXCELYOURCOMPANYExceptionalMinds.ExtraordinaryFutures. @ THRIVESCHOLARS.ORG/CHICAGOthrivescholars LUXURY HOME OF THE WEEK Advertising Section

“ e Morton Arboretum helps millions of people maintain a vital connection with trees and plants, while leading e orts to conserve trees throughout the Chicago region and around the world,” Koski said in the release. “I am honored to lead the institution into its second cen tury and to advance its strategy as a tree champion to create a greener, healthier and more beautiful world.”

“Lakeshore Public Media is an amazing community resource and asset. We are lucky it is available to us all, to learn about the world and also about our local communities through their robust local pro gramming,” Cli ord said in the re lease. “I am excited about the op portunity to work with their board and sta to ful ll and advance their mission of life-long learning, diversity, civic engagement and enriching the lives of people in the communities they serve.”

Morton announcesArboretumnextCEO

Koski, who is originally from Wis consin said she is ready to come back to the Chicago area in her new role at a familiar place. “I’m looking forward to just the extraordinary time that we are at to leverage the assets of e Morton Arboretum to enable a sustainable resilient future for trees and in turn for all people. And I look forward to continuing the growth trajectory in tree science education and, of course, connect ing more and more people to trees, plants and the natural world around them.”“Jillis a tree advocate who strong ly values the scienti c work of the Morton Arboretum,” Donnelly said in a press release. “She believes in the power of nonpro t organiza

nization as well as its commitment to the community are being met.”

Nancy Cli ord takes the position after James Muhammad stepped down to lead a radio group in California

BY CORLI JAY

Lakeshore Public Media names interim CEO

As Koski gears up for her new role, the Morton Arboretum announced a Grand Garden opening Sept. 18 as part of its centennial celebration. e Grand Garden features three main spaces: Centennial Plaza, Cel ebration Garden and Joy of Plants Garden.

Northwest Indiana public broad caster Lakeshore Public Media has selected Nancy Cli ord as its inter imCliCEO.ord takes the position after James Muhammad stepped down to take the job as president at the University of Southern California Radio Group. Lakeshore, parent of TV station Lakeshore PBS and Lake shore Public Radio, is searching for a permanent CEO.

tions to change the world and con tinues to dedicate her career to such causes.”Donnelly is familiar with Koski, since she worked at the arboretum from 2007 to 2017 as vice president of development. In that role, she led fundraising e orts for the “Growing Brilliantly” campaign, which raised $70 million to expand new tree de velopment and improve core facili ties.Koski was chosen in a process led by the arboretum board’s Leader ship Transition Committee, which included executive recruiting rm KoyaWithPartners.previous positions at the Shedd Aquarium and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Koski has an extensive history in leader ship positions at science-focused environmental nonpro ts.

e Morton Arboretum an nounced Sept. 6 that Jill Koski, a former fundraising chief for the in stitution, will be its new president andKoskiCEO.will be the fourth leader in the Lisle attraction’s 100-year histo ry and the organization’s rst wom an to take the position. She current ly is president and CEO of Holden Forests & Gardens in Ohio, where she’s been since 2017.

BY CORLI JAY

Cli ord has been on the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Great er Northwest Indiana for about 25 years. For 23 years she was on the investment committee of the Lake County, Ind., Legacy Foundation. She was chairman of the founda tion’s board for four years “during a period of substantial reorganiza tion,” the press release said.

Koski, 53, will start Nov. 28 at the Morton Arboretum, succeeding Gerard T. Donnelly, who will retire after 32 years leading the arbore tum. James S. Fawley, vice president of nance and chief nancial o cer, will be interim president and CEO until Koski takes over.

“Cli ord brings a wealth of knowledge in strategic planning, sta ng, and nancial manage ment that she gained throughout her extensive nancial services ca reer,” Merrillville-based Lakeshore said in a press release. “Cli ord will primarily focus on improving organizational work ow and sta development, while relying on the expertise of current sta to ensure the day-to-day needs of the orga

any labor dispute could become embroiled in litigation, which would often end up be fore a partisan state high court dominated by Democrats continuously since 1962.

Now they’ve hit another snag: As Crain’s John Pletz reports, the state of Illinois says the applicants can’t take on investors until they have their shops built out, inspected and open for business. Yet to build out those shops, some applicants need capi tal. Most banks still aren’t willing to lend to marijuana businesses because weed is still illegal on a federal level. Those who do

Of course, the state has a justifiable in terest in making sure that the 185 new weed-shop licenses are going to the type of owners—minority entrepreneurs whom

Illinois’ path to weed legalization was unique in two key aspects. It was done by legislation rather than referendum. For good or for ill, legislators clearly stated that one of their motivations in legalizing sales of pot was to create opportunity for those hit hardest by poverty and violence asso ciated with enforcement of the state’s old marijuana laws.

regulators have vetted—that the Legisla ture was trying to help in the first place. Another laudable goal: preventing a baitand-switch that brings in wealthy outsid ers who are now sliding into the industry through an unguarded back door.

llinois’ legalization of recreational marijuana was designed in part to generate revenue by taxing the mari juana trade and in part to balance the scales of justice for minority communities that had been hit hard by heavy-handed pot prosecutions dating back to the “war on drugs” era.

But now it’s the Department of Finan cial & Professional Regulation’s rules that are causing the heartburn. It’s time for the Pritzker administration to either clarify why it’s blocking the access to outside cap ital so many of these entrepreneurs need to get their operations off the ground—or get out of the way.

and its savvy, longtime power bro ker Jim Sweeney, labor gets what it wants from the Illinois Legisla ture, which at present has the su permajorities in both chambers necessary to put constitutional amendments on the ballot.

Even the unions admit that Illinois’ job growth has been slower than the national

n amendment to the Illi nois Constitution spon sored by organized labor is quietly, as if on cat’s paws, march ing toward enactment at the No vember election. The amendment would prohibit “right-to-work” legislation and also give unprece dented power to unions where the authority of the National Labor Relations Act is uncertain, such as with charter Enactmentschools.bythree-fifths of those voting on the amendment would send a chilling message to American CEOs, who in Chief Ex ecutive magazine regularly rank Illinois as having among the worst business climates in theWithnation.the recent fall from grace of Dem ocratic powerhouses House Speaker Mike Madigan and Ald. Ed Burke, both of whom have pleaded not guilty and await trials on multiple charges of public corruption, or ganized labor has filled the void, becoming the dominant power within the Democratic Party of SparkedIllinois.byOperating Engineers Local 150

lend are reportedly charging 18% to 20% interest rates.

Like all institutions, labor unions can change over time. Labor unions in America have gone through both their idealistic as well as corrupt phases. What if 20 years from now, organized labor in Illinois became thoroughly corrupt and used state constitu tional protections to run amok? Public pol icies should be hammered out among the legislators and the governor on the basis of current conditions, not enshrined among fundamental constitutional principles.

J.b pritzker

email us

to Crain’s Chicago Business,

“Right to work” means that workers can not be forced to join the union that bargains for them. You would think that a strong, benevolent union would have the support of most workers, though maybe not so for corrupt or ineffective unions. Willingness to pay union dues voluntarily should discipline elected union leadership to be good stew ards for their workers.

Sound off: Send a column for the Opinion page to editor@ chicagobusiness.com. Please include a phone number for verification purposes, and limit submissions to 425 words or fewer.

THE STATE HAS A DUTY TO HELP MINORITY ENTREPRENEURS REALIZE THE DREAM THAT WAS DANGLED BEFORE THEM THREE YEARS AGO WHEN THE LAW WAS FIRST CRAFTED UNDER THE BANNER OF SOCIAL EQUITY.

St.,

Labor looks to tighten its control over Illinois

Many license winners had accumulated wealth or teamed up with investors before filing their applications, or they have since lined up capital. Others have not. One op tion is to let capitalism run its course and cull the weakest from the herd. But that’s not what legislators had in mind when they legalized weed in spring 2019.

Illinois already has strong col lective bargaining powers. For example, the state employees’ unions sit, in effect, on both sides of the bargaining table in negoti ations with Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.Asaresult, say my former state agency director acquaintances, the unions largely run state government day to day, through grievance procedures and hiring restrictions. For example, it is almost impossible for a state agency to hire anyone from the outside—say, a hotshot techie—be cause the opportunity must first go to a state employee. If no state employee is qualified for the job, no problem, the state will train you. Good luck.

An economist friend of mine who has studied Illinois for decades says the amend ment is a real mess. He worries that almost

Labor has thus far raised $11 million and counting to promote their amendment, while barely a peep has been heard from the business community. Funds raised by busi ness to oppose the measure haven’t been enough to register on state election report ingGovernorsforms.

in other Midwestern states are surely fine-tuning their pitches to CEOs around the world, waiting for the likely en actment of this benign-sounding labor ef fort: “Avoid Illinois, and come to my state.” Alas.

And the slowdown in tax revenue is one more reason to help these licensees get their doors open.

Write should be as possible and may be edited. Send letters 130 Randolph Suite 3200, Chicago, IL 60601, or at letters@chicagobusiness.com. Please include your full name, the city from which you’re writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes.

as brief

average. Indeed, since 1990, the University of Illinois reports the rate of job growth has also been slower than for the rest of the Mid western states, most of which are right-toworkIllinoisstates.should be an economic power house. Entrepreneur and former Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Op portunity Director Jim Schultz observes that in each of what he calls the six R’s critical to economic development—roads, rails, run ways, rivers, routers and research—Illinois is arguably among the top three states. And lo cated smack dab in the middle of the world’s largest market. Yet, the state limps along.

us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters

Pot shop applicants are owed an explanation

EVOLUTION

There are troubling signs that Illinois’ le galization program, which went into effect in January 2020, is falling short on both fronts. After a fast start, growth in overall sales and tax revenue is slowing, largely because Illinois has far fewer retail locations per capita than other states. Meanwhile, the effort to give Black and Brown entrepre neurs a fair shot at potentially lucrative re tail licenses has also been hobbled by bu reaucratic delays, not to mention a historic pandemic and—of course—litigation, all of which means that what was supposed to be a six-month process is now closing in on its third Would-bebirthday.owners of new weed shops, most of whom spent thousands on need lessly complicated applications only to have their fates determined by the luck of the draw, hung on to finally get their li censes this summer.

Jim Nowlan is a for mer Illinois legis lator, state agency director and pro fessor.

But the state also has a duty to help those same minority entrepreneurs realize the dream that was dangled before them three years ago when the law was first crafted under the banner of social equity. If there’s a reason the state won’t allow outside investment during this critical pe riod, it needs to be clear and vocal about

YOUREDITORIALVIEW

the rationale. Otherwise, Gov. J.B. Pritz ker’s often-uttered words about Illinois having the “most equity-centric approach” to cannabis in the nation ring hollow.

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in 1944 by residents of the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on the Far South Side. Reportedly the country’s rst Blackowned food co-op sold groceries, magazines and newspapers, appliances and phonograph records. e co-op began with 300 families and grew to include thousands of residents.

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home, once completed, at 925 S. Ada St. and and operated by six public housing resident entrepreneurs. e EHub will also include pro bono consulting for up-and-coming business owners, nancial coaching and expert-ledUltimately,workshops.successful community invest ment means less patronizing and paternalism and more models that position communities to prosper, which requires resources, trust and time—in other words, the opportunity and space not just to survive, but to thrive.

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ommunity investment regularly falls short of its stated aims. Too often, economic development in underresourced neighborhoods spells doom for longtime residents who are soon priced out or made to feel unwelcome once their communi ty begins to ourish.

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“Cooperatives are ways of building commu nity wealth,” said Stacey Sutton, an associate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, who studies community economic develop ment, with a focus on racial and economic justice.Inaco-op model, all ships rise together, ver sus highly individualist capitalist models with distinct economic winners and losers. New

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Ti Beatty is program director of arts, culture and public policy at the National Public Hous ing Museum.

One element of the EHub is the Corner Store Co-op inside of the museum’s new

York and Minneapolis have a track record of building ecosystems of worker-owned coop eratives.Now similar e orts are gaining traction in Chicago—and will go a long way toward strengthening communities, rather than dis placing residents. Last fall, as part of her 2022 budget address, Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed $15 million to a community wealth-building pilot. Inspired by the Altgeld Gardens co-op, the museum created the Entrepreneurship Hub, which builds infrastructure to support small businesses and cooperatives led by pub lic housing residents.

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172

JosephKrasovecIII Firmwide co-managing partner 158 1.3%6256259047181908—1904423914021$176.6 1.5% 16 14 JONESDAY

AlexanderMaryRose Chicagooffice managingpartner 209 7.7%2,1763,3005813615141712245381194044$5,488.8 26.7%

CardelleSpangler Chicagomanaging partner 265 8.6%82490211313413——————————————$1,153.2 17.5%

ARENTFOX SCHIFF

4 4 WINSTON & STRAWNLLP 35W.WackerDrive,Chicago 60601-9703; 312-558-5600; Winston.com

71S.WackerDrive,Chicago 60606; 312-782-0600; MayerBrown.com

12 DLA PIPERLLP

10 11

3 MAYER BROWNLLP

JonA.Ballis Chairman 740 5.4%2,6843,310346394—125280141562103911131101733$6,042.0 1 25.1%

RandyE.MehrbergKatyaJestin Co-managing partners 237 -2.9%4574779085———————————————$465.6 4.3%

444W.LakeSt.,Suite900, Chicago60606; 312-368-4000; DLAPiper.com

JesseA.CrizRajN.Shah Chicago co-managing partners 181 7.7%1,6004,8007464——1134300941500171$3,471.4 10.8% GREENBERG TRAURIGLLP 77W.WackerDrive,Suite3100, Chicago60601; 312-456-8400; GTLaw.com

Co-managing shareholders 1.7%1,9812,51410060181808121001943132184$2,003.8 15.8% BAKER MCKENZIE

181

13 13

TinaM.Tabacchi Partnerincharge 148 -5.7%1,4732,320607632—————————————$2,446.0 1 9.9% 17 19 HINSHAW CULBERTSONLLP&

KlamrzynskiGregoryA. Chiefexecutive partner 160 1.9%2352351063417120481626410018832117$262.0 15.6% 15 16

233S.WackerDrive,Suite7100, Chicago60606; 312-258-5545; AFSLaw.com 110N.WackerDrive,Suite4800, Chicago60606; 312-782-3939; JonesDay.com

Polsinelli.com BonaccorsiMaryClare Officemanaging partner,Chicago 144 18.0%967967825169—————————————$697.3 12.8% 19 20 NEAL GERBER EISENBERGLLP& 2N.LaSalleSt.,Suite1700,

12 10

NGE.com RobertG.Gerber Managingpartner 133 5.6%13313300————————————————

TAFT STETTINIUS & HOLLISTERLLP

129

CezarM.Froelich Partner,chairman PaulT.Jenson Partnerincharge 9.3%6706706736261416611851082626124$415.0 13.7% SWANSON MARTIN & BELLLLP

330N.WabashAve.,Suite3300, Chicago60611; 312-321-9100; SMBTrials.com

MichaelA.Carrillo Chicagooffice managingpartner PERKINS COIELLP

321N.ClarkSt.,Suite3000, Chicago60654; 312-832-4933; Foley.com

122 0.0%1,2281,24257471591022005313——82$1,155.6 15.4% LARGEST LAW FIRMSCRAIN'S LIST Ranked by local attorneys as

1,05984311717—————————————$1,000.0 8.4% 21 17

PetersenMatthewJ. Managingpartner

122 0.0%79179183278143232359266195223$575.5 1 13.7% 24 22

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 13 VIRTUAL EVENT | TUESDAY, SEPT. 27 | 11 AM - 12 PM ILLINOIS’ EMPLOYERSHEALTHIESTAWARDS Presented by FREE REGISTRATION www.healthiestemployers.com RANKLAW2021 FIRM LOCAL PARTNERMANAGING NO. OF 1-YEARATTORNEYSLOCAL6/30/2022;CHANGE NO. OF U.S. ATTORNEYS WORLDWIDE6/30/2022; PARTNERSLOCAL ASSOCIATESLOCAL COUNSELSOFLOCAL PARALEGALSLOCAL ANTITRUST BANKING CREDIT&REORG.BUSINESS SECURITIES&CORPORATE CAREHEALTH INSURANCE PROPERTYINTELLECTUAL LABOR LITIGATION LEGISLATIVE&ENVIRONMENTAL MUNICIPAL ESTATEREAL TAXATION 2021 1-YEAR(MILLIONS);REVENUEFIRMWIDECHANGE 20 27

10S.WackerDrive,40thFloor, Chicago60606; 312-207-1000; ReedSmith.com

23 21

RichardL.Sevcik Chicagooffice managingpartner of June

30. CHICAGO PARTNERS' SPECIALTIES

FrankPasquesi Chicagooffice managingpartner 132 22.2%1,038 REED SMITHLLP

131 -1.5%1,1251,8266154141207182913189134170117$1,436.0 9.6% 22 25

ResearchbySophieRodgers(sophie.rodgers@crain.com) noted.|Includesattorneysintheseven-countyChicagoarea:Cook,DuPage,Kane,Lake,McHenryandWillinIllinoisandLakeinIndiana.AllstafffiguresareasofJune30unlessotherwise IntheChicagopartners’specialtiessection,partnersinmorethanonespecialtyarecountedineacharea.NOTES: 1. FromAmericanLawyer. ChicagoBusiness.com/Data-Lists

1N.WackerDrive,Suite4400, Chicago60606; 312-357-1313; BTLaw.com

111E.WackerDrive,Suite2800, Chicago60601; 312-527-4000; TaftLaw.com

141804222805242521148807150— 24 22

FOLEY & LARDNERLLP

TimothyG.Nickels Managingpartner 124 -0.8%141 BARNES & THORNBURG

131S.DearbornSt.,Suite1700, Chicago60603; 312-324-8400; PerkinsCoie.com

Want 54 law firms in Excel format? Become a Data Member:

Kelleher + Holland, LLC, North Barrington

James Petrungaro has built a diverse practice in education law focusing on board governance, labor and employment, business practices, and student issues. James has an extensive litigation background at both the trial and appellate levels that make him a much sought-after ally and representative of educational institutions.

Melissa Kandinata joins as Vice President. Most recently, she worked at Cisco Investments in Venture Investments and M&A. Kandinata earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond and an MBA from Northwestern Kellogg School of Management.

of profiles contact

Wintrust Financial Corp., a nancial services holding company based in Rosemont, Illinois, with 175 locations across Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, is pleased to announce the promotion of Ryan De Witte. Ryan was promoted to EVP, Chief Credit Of cer at Wintrust Financial Corporation. He will assume leadership of the credit function. Ryan joined Wintrust in 2013. He will celebrate 10 years with the company next July.

BANKING

Old National Bank, Chicago

First Bank Chicago, one of the top ve privately held banks in Chicagoland, is pleased to welcome Katerina Ouchakov as SVP, Middle Market Banking. Based in our Westchester of ce, she is responsible for supporting our expansion strategy by developing strong client relationships while underwriting and managing our Commercial Real Estate & Middle Market portfolios. Katerina brings 19+ years of commercial banking expertise and has held leadership roles with Fifth Third Bank and MB Financial Bank.

INVESTMENT BANKING

17+ years of nonpro t education experience, having served eight of those years at DMSF. Cindy holds a B.A. in Spanish Literature and Women’s Studies from Rhodes College and an MSW from the Crown Family School of University of Chicago. Cindy brings with her an expertise in education, fundraising and programmatic development.

Miller Parsons

Scott Parsons joins the banks Sponsor Finance group to develop relationships with middle market PE rms across the Midwest.

LGIM America, Chicago

Shivani Shah, LEED AP, joins Gensler Chicago as Regional Director of Sustainable Design.

Lamar CollaborativeJohnson(LJC) has promoted WoldgeorgisMulugeta to Associate Principal. He has over nine years of experience delivering elegant and sustainable designs for architecture and interior projects within diverse markets, including corporate, healthcare, higher education, and residential. Mulugeta has a BS from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an M.Arch from the University of Illinois.

LGIM America (LGIMA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Jennifer Wiley as Associate General Counsel. In this role, Jennifer assists with a wide range of legal and regulatory work ows for the rm, including those involving segregated account clients, commingled funds and investors, and investment and trading matters. Jennifer has over 20 years of experience working as a lawyer, the majority in the nancial services industry.

Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, CindyChicagoHallums

Croke Fairchild Morgan & Beres welcomes Lin Ye as an associate in the rm’s nance and liquidity solutions practice. Lin focuses her practice on nance transactions and general corporate matters. She has experience in structuring and closing real estate nancing transactions for multifamily and commercial properties in the areas of affordable housing and historic preservation. Lin received her J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Kroll Corporate Finance, Chicago

Old National Bank is proud to welcome two new commercial bankers to its corporate banking team in Chicago. Brett

Golan Christie Taglia LLP, Chicago

REAL ESTATE

PREMIER Design + Build Group, Buffalo Grove

DESIGN / CONSTRUCTION

Baird Capital, the Venture Capital and Global Private Equity arm of Baird, recently announced two new hires on its Venture team.

Petrungaro Dauksas

Neighborhood Housing Services, E.ChicagoGordon

Baird Capital, Chicago

Scott brings nearly 30 years of leveraged nance and capital markets experience, including the past 9 years in JPMorgan’s middle market syndicated & leveraged nance group, and most recently helped launch JPM’s Direct Lending initiative.

Chuhak & Tecson, P.C. welcomes Janet Wagner joining our rm as a principal in the Banking group. Janet focuses on banking and commercial nancing. She provides counsel to commercial banks, credit unions, institutional lenders, insurance companies and other lenders in a wide range of commercial and real estate nancing. She is a skilled attorney with experience in analyzing transactions in the banking, corporate and real estate areas with knowledge of all phases of loan and credit transactions.

LAWWintrust,

Golan Christie Taglia LLP welcomes Kimberlee M. Jones as an associate to the rm. Kimberlee is a skilled attorney, business strategist and thought leader who focuses her practice in the areas of intellectual property, corporate and real estate law. She has experience serving clients of all sizes, including startups, mid-level companies and established global businesses in a variety of complex intellectual property, corporate governance, employment and commercial real estate matters.

Brilliant®, Chicago

Franczek P.C. is pleased to announce that James Petrungaro and Adam Dauksas have joined the rm as a partners.

Franczek P.C., Chicago

PHILANTHROPY

Rosemont

Miller joins the bank as a Senior Vice President focused on driving new loan growth, with an emphasis on middle market and mid corporate commercial lending in the Chicago area. Brett brings over 20 years of banking experience in Chicagoland, most recently at BBVA Compass.

Catherine Rahe wasSolutions.BrilliantPracticerecruiting/consultingjoinsrmBrilliantastheDirectorforTechnologyCatherinehiredaspartoftheleadershipteamandwill

To order frames or plaques Lauren Melesio lmelesio@crain.comator 212-210-0707

PREMIER Design + Build Group has named Jason Spataro as Vice President clientsinJasonPreconstructionofServices.joinedtherm2017andworkswithwhoaredeveloping industrial and commercial facilities. In his new role, Jason will continue to re ne PREMIER’s national preconstruction processes while also working closely with clients from due diligence and conceptual estimation through construction. PREMIER is a national rm with regional of ces in Illinois, California, and New Jersey.

LAW

has been named Executive Director of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund (DMSF), a organization.andscholarshiphigh-schoolassistanceeducationalShebrings

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Donnelly Kandinata

BANKING

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Prominent attorney Andrew J. Boling has joined Kelleher + Holland, LLC as the Employment Law Practice Group chair. He brings over 35 years of experience representing domestic and international clients, especially in the areas of employment counseling, litigation, and compliance. An accomplished author and lecturer, Andrew has been recognized as an ICFM 500 Leading Lawyer, an Acritas Star, and ranked by Euromoney’s Expert Guides as one of the country’s 30 best labor and employment lawyers.

EDUCATION

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Kroll, the leading provider of data, technology and insights related to risk, governance and growth, is pleased to announce the hiring of Cathleen Hughes as Director in its Corporate Finance practice. Her broad network and extensive experience in the middle market will be used to support growth initiatives across Kroll’s investment banking, corporate nance, restructuring and insolvency services to investors, asset managers, companies and lenders.

First Bank Chicago, Westchester

LAW

/ DESIGN

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Rice is the organization’s new Director of Lending Services. He has over 25 years of experience with multiple senior level roles in consumer and residential lending. He is responsible for driving loan originations from a variety of sources in targeted LMI areas through the organization’s outreach, counseling, and educational efforts. He’ll also support existing relationships with public and private partners and correspondent lending entities serving the greater Chicagoland area.

Chuhak & Tecson, P.C., Chicago

Adam Dauksas focuses his practice on collective bargaining negotiations and advising his clients on the entire range of employment issues, from the work rules for school districts under the Illinois School Code to compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act.

oversee all client solutions and talent acquisition activities for the technology division. She brings more than 23 years of experience in the workforce solutions industry including managing large global clients across multiple business lines. Catherine most recently served as VP-Client Solutions at ManpowerGroup Inc.

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

Mark Donnelly joins as Partner and will work to deepen the group’s B2B technology and services footprint. Donnelly comes to the rm from Runway Growth Capital, where he served as a Managing Director and Head of Origination. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Lamar Johnson Collaborative, Chicago

Croke Fairchild Morgan & Beres, Chicago

Gensler, Chicago

ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN

Shivani is an architect, building scientist, and environmental designer with 16 years of experience between practice and research. With expertise in designing climate-responsive, highperformance, and thermally resilient built environments, she has informed the design of numerous complex and ambitious campus masterplans and zero carbon projects including academic buildings, museums, and of ce buildings.

ARCHITECTURE

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago announced appointmenttheof Cathy Carlson as vice president of nancial analysis and planning. In this role, Cathy will manage accounting and nancial reporting; cash, endowment, and debt management; and purchasing for the School. Cathy is a Certi ed Public Accountant who comes to the School with over 10 years of experience in higher education nance.

LAW

FINANCIAL SERVICES

“I couldn’t digest that, and I felt like that was not going

Few would argue that the pandemic upended the lives of teachers, administrators and, especially, students at every economic level.

MAKING UP LOST GROUND

DIPLOMA SUCCESS: How CPS got more students to become high school graduates. PAGE 16

BOEHMR.JOHN

to set him up on a road for success,” Yarbrough says of the minimal interaction her son had with his teacher.

More a uent families dealt with child care and remote learning struggles, and many were able to ditch public schools by turning to home schooling; joining other

At the time, Josiah was in third grade, and his class met online with his teacher only on Fridays. For the remaining four days, Yarbrough says, students were tasked with completing their schoolwork largely by themselves.

BY TRINA MANNINO

Michelle and Israel Yarbrough transferred their son, Josiah, now 11, out of CPS to a private school in the fall of 2020. This fall, daughter Joycelyn will join her brother at the school.

Yarbrough’s daughter, Jocelyn, on the other hand, who attended James E. McDade Classical School, a CPS selective-enrollment elementary school where admittance is by application and testing, had regular touchpoints with her teacher and continued to do well academically.

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

SPONSORS See LOST GROUND on Page 18

efore the pandemic, Michelle Yarbrough says her son, Josiah, was a straight-A student at Charles H. Wacker Elementary School in the Washington Heights neighborhood. But once Chicago Public Schools went remote in spring 2020, she saw his grades begin to slip.

For CPS students who were already struggling before the pandemic upended their learning, the district is rolling out new programs, but some parents aren’t waiting for systematic change

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 15

“I didn’t think it would a ect the progress report the way that it did,” Yarbrough says. But when she saw that he had a D, she knew she had to do something. “He never had a D or F.”

MAINTAIN MOMENTUM: Chicago can’t afford to lose a decadelong run of success. PAGE 16 SCHOOL AT HOME: Some parents believe they can do a better job educating their kids. PAGE 19EDUCATION

SUCCESS FORMULA

A growing body of research is pro viding insight into what these collec tive traumas are having on our young people. Last December U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a public health advisory warning of the crisis state of youth mental health in Amer ica and called on all caring adults to play a role in supporting their recov ery. And in two separate studies, re searchers found that elementary-age students in many urban school dis tricts entered last academic year a staggering 20-plus weeks behind in their learning trajectory, widening the achievement gap between Black and white students in the process.

16 SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS EDUCATION

that are need of greater support rela tive to the district mean. Male African American students, English language learners and students with disabilities, for example, all posted graduation rates last year that signi cantly lagged the CPS average of 84%. At the same time, 30 of the city’s roughly 130 high schools—most located on the South and West sides—had graduation rates belowere75%.was no quick x for these challenges pre-pandemic, and there certainly are none now. It will not only take the long-term collaboration of our city’s dedicated teachers, princi pals and parents to get the job done; it will require coordinated support from the private sector and commu nity-based organizations like mine fo cused on investing in students’ mental health and removing barriers to their education to amplify the work of our schools.Together we need to make sure our most vulnerable students, schools and communities remain front of mind and engaged when new policies and funding strategies are devised. If we do right by them, then everyone in Chicago bene ts. And in another 30 years, we’ll be able to look back and say we rose to meet one of the greatest challenges of our era.

Krys Payne and Sarah Duncan are co-executive direc tors of Network for College Success at the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy & Practice.

Even more important, we now hear teachers taking responsibility for stu dent success, reframing their jobs from judging who is “getting the ma terial” to seeing their role as respon sible for doing what it takes to make sure all students can be successful.

conversations about what is being taught, why it’s being taught and how learning is assessed. Teaching began to change, moving from lectures to classroom discussion; from students silently taking notes to actively learn ing. Educators also started to talk about how racism and biases show up in schools. We started to examine our identities and the identities of our students. We began to ask which of our students felt they belonged in our schools and whether they felt supported.Here’swhat did not happen (we get asked this a lot): Educators did not “just pass” students. We did not lower standards.

CPS, along with respected partners like the University of Chicago and rive Chicago, has been a leader among urban districts in disaggregat ing performance data and identifying students, schools and communities

Bart St. John is chief innovation and cationscommuniocer at Communities In Schools of Chicago.

As a matter of fact, attendance im proved. Performance on standard ized tests went up. More students enrolled in college.

CPS, and Chicago, can’t a ord to go backward

the nearly 30 years since I com pleted teacher training in South Central Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King social justice move ment, our nation’s cities—and their public school students—have faced no shortage of challenges rooted in inequity. The dismantling of public housing; the upheaval of tens of thou sands of families in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities after Hurricane Katrina; the sledgehammer economic impact of the Great Reces sion on low-income families; and the slow, steady displacement of residents of color from the urban core as a re sult of redevelopment and exorbitant housing costs have all taken a toll on the stability of public schools and the path to upward mobility.

As devastating as these collective traumas have been, they arguably pale in comparison to the wringer our young people and families here in Chicago and the rest of the nation have been put through the past three years. e litany is familiar by now, but worth repeating: a pandemic that has killed more than a million Amer icans and resulted in the unthinkable suspension of in-person schooling; graphic incidents of racial injustice and political upheaval; and a trou bling spike in community violence

improvement.Chicagohas every right to be proud of our public schools. Of course we can still improve—and we have so much good work to build upon.

How Chicago raised its graduation rate

Here’s what Chicago did: We learned from the UChicago Consor tium on School Research that how well students did in ninth grade mat tered far more than we had thought. Students who fail classes in ninth grade are much less likely to graduate than their peers. So we reorganized our schools to support student suc cess in ninth grade. Teams of ninth grade teachers analyzed student data and asked themselves, “Which stu dents are succeeding and which are struggling? In what classes? What are we going to do about it?”

at prospect is troubling for many reasons. Not least among them is the matter of equity. Even in today’s hightech, knowledge-based economy, a high school diploma is a steppingstone to life success. Compared to students who dropout, graduates earn more during their lifetimes, enjoy a much lower unemployment rate and are far less likely to be involved in the crimi nal justice system. It’s not that there’s something magical in the piece of pa per a diploma is embossed on. Instead, it’s the ongoing learning, socialization, goal setting and coping abilities em bedded in the PK-12 journey that in vests graduation with such power.

Now, hundreds of educators come

In a school district where almost 90% of students are of color and some 70% live in economically disadvan taged homes, it’s essential that CPS’ demonstrated track record of grad uation success continues so that our young people have a strong founda tion on which to pursue postsecond ary and career success.

PAST,

Our team of coaches at the UChi cago Network for College Success witnessed other changes. We saw big shifts in teacher conversation about students. Whereas in 2007 it was common to hear teachers blaming students for failing (e.g., “ ey just won’t do their homework” or “ ey don’t care about school”), it is now common to hear teachers taking

Two of Chicago Public Schools’ bed rock statistics—graduation rates and dropout rates—haven’t yet registered these immense shocks to the system. In fact, last year, the district reported its highest graduation rate and lowest dropout rate ever. at said, it’s not hard to envision what may happen if the massive learning loss and mental health challenges experienced among elementary-age students during the pandemic years isn’t addressed head on. At best, Chicago will see its remarkable, decadelong run of im proved graduation success stall. More

PRESENT, FUTURE

likely, a pronounced reversal of the trend will occur.

an asset-based approach: “What is working? Where is that student suc ceeding? What are their strengths?”

veryone in Chicago should know this, but many do not: Chicago’s public high schools are leading the country in improving graduation rates for our young peo ple. There has been steady improve ment over the last 15 years, from 49% in 2007 to 80% last year. This is a phe nomenal accomplishment for the third-largest district in the U.S. Other districts are wondering what we did.

In response to this data, schools designed and implemented sup ports, such as Freshman Connec tion the summer before ninth grade, mentoring and tutoring. Educators also started to take up more complex

that has disproportionately impacted communities of color.

to Chicago each year to learn from us on how we use data for improve ment, leverage student voice data, think about groups of students who need support and build high-func tioning teams of teachers that drive

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • S E PT EM BER 12, 2022 17

At the same time, businesses and others seeking to invest in our young people should consider alternatives to a four-year college degree as an en try card. For example, is your business o ering internships to students from nontraditional backgrounds? Can it partner with a community college or other entity to develop workers with

One alternative path to career suc cess and wealth building is a com munity college education, such as that provided by the City Colleges of Chicago. ese institutions o er a vi able, low-cost academic pathway to a bachelor’s degree as well as career and technical education. ey gen erally require less than four years, or can ladder into a four-year option at another college or university.

With Money Smart courses provided by the FDIC, Wintrust strives to provide the communities we serve with tools they can use for a positive ﬁnancial future.

the skills you need while expanding local job opportunities? Are your job descriptions needlessly limiting those opportunities? Is a four-year college degree necessary or just a barrier to entry for those who might otherwise qualify through their skills or life Educationexperience? remains a ladder to a successful career and wealth-build ing opportunity for millions of Black and Latinx families that have been denied them historically. However, they must be provided with the sup

port, access and options that enable them to succeed and ful ll the prom ise and potential a orded by their work experience or degrees.

Education is just one rung on the ladder to wealth equity

Banking Products provided by Wintrust Financial Corp. Banks.

uates must have access to the people and jobs that can turn their academ ic credentials into a wealth-building career. Without deliberate attention to linking their academic achieve ment to the appropriate opportunity, many graduates may end up working at jobs and careers below their ca pacity. Apart from college, postsecondary programs and apprenticeships can provide young people with training and placement into lucrative careers. Some include stipends for those who need to cover living expens es while pursuing their career goals. A successful local exam ple is the apprenticeship and work-based learning program at Aon, which has bolstered and diversi ed its workforce by expanding its recruitment universe.

Wintrust Financial Corporation Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity O cer Melissa Donaldson

Caleb Herod, a former high school math teacher, leads e Chica go Crain’sisCommunitygion. inbusinesstodevelopmentandtionalsupportTrust’sCommunityeortstoeducaattainmentworkforceandbuildinclusivepracticestheChicagoreeChicagoTrustasponsorofEquity.

t’s a truism that a college edu cation is a “ladder to success” in our economy. But what happens when certain rungs are missing for our Black and Latinx young people? And what if there’s more than just one ladder to the top?

Obtaining admittance to college, however, is only the beginning for many students. Ensuring that they survive and complete their studies is equally important. It is a prescription for failure when the price of pursuing a four-year degree requires that stu dents go hungry or can’t a ord their rent and other living expenses. Yet that is reality today for many college students.Astudent’s success requires more than getting a Pell Grant or college loan. eir schools and donor com munities must remain with them through every step of their education journey. is means providing on

WE’RE C OMMITTED TO

Our businesses and institutions must recognize that there is more than one ladder to success, and each requires all the rungs necessary for young people to make the climb suc cessfully.

PATHWAYS

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CERTAIN RUNGSARE MISSING FOR BLACK AND LATINX YOUNG PEOPLE?

Pr omoting inclusion through financial empo w erment

A strong correlation continues to exist between college education and higher lifetime earnings. For those young people and their families who can a ord it, college can provide the path to a rewarding career and to the middle class—or higher.

e huge amount of debt accu mulated by many college students can undermine their opportunity to start building wealth, despite a degree. Recent studies have shown that the typical white student owed 65% of their student loan amount 12 years after college. Yet the typical Black student owed more than their original loan amount. Latinx gradu ates had paid down only 20% of their loans. Obviously, this long-term debt burden only adds to racial and ethnic wealth inequality.

going support and wraparound ser vices, including the food, housing, income and mental health assistance necessary to keep them in school through graduation.

Even after obtaining a degree, grad

“Wintrust was built with a mission to make banking more accessible to more people in communities throughout Chicagoland. The goal is to advance ﬁnancial inclusion through initiatives, products, and services designed to enhance wealth creation, home ownership, and access to capital.”

Antoine Kitchen credits guidance counselors and teachers at Edward Tilden Career Community Academy High School for giving him the support he needed to graduate.

families in so-called pandemic pods; or putting their children in private schools. But for families in Chicago’s economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, already limited by access to fewer educational resources, the public health crisis exacerbated long-standing inequities that contribute to a stubborn racial wealth gap.

In another nationwide evaluation of the test score data of 8.3 million students, researchers found that young people are starting to regain the learning that they lost between the 2019-20 and the 2020-21 school years, according to a July report by NWEA, a nonpro t testing organization. Yet student achievement in the 2021-22 school year was still weaker than pre-pandemic periods, and those gaps are larger for Black and Latino students and those in high-poverty schools, which are de ned as schools where more than 75% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.While standardized tests aren’t the only predictor of academic success, experts say time is of the essence to get students the support that they need to get back on track.

“The pandemic really exposed the high level of the digital divide that exists in Black and Brown communities,” says Venise Hardy, vice president of educational services at Ada S. McKinley Community Services, a nonpro t provider of academic and mentorship support.

LOST GROUND

EDUCATION

e pandemic switch to remote learning revealed many systemic weaknesses and other education inequities.CPSChief Education O cer Bogdana Chkoumbova says the district had to quickly catch up in “getting the technology in place” and pivot to remote learning at the onset of the pandemic. e result was an uneven implementation that the district is trying to rectify. e challenges around implementing remote instruction prompted CPS to place “schools that are the most disadvantaged” at the forefront of its ongoing and post-pandemic initiatives, Chkoumbova says. Almost every school in the district now has digital devices for every student, and the district increased remote instruction support for teachers. Its new Skyline curriculum is standards-based and culturally responsive and available to schools districtwide. Skyline can help “combat some of this variation in terms of access to digital curriculum,” she adds.

But there’s still much work to be done.e pandemic deepened pre-existing gaps for Black and Latino CPS students. During the 2020-21 school year, only 5.6% of Black and 11% of Latino students met the statewide math standardized testing benchmark, compared with 43% of their white peers and 53.3% of their Asian peers. School o cials presented those ndings, based on Illinois Assessment of Readiness test results, during the August Chicago Board of Education meeting.

ose pre-existing equity gaps intersect with Chicago’s segregatedDuringhistory.the Great Migration in the 20th century, many of the 6 million African Americans who left the South settled in Chicago. Often they were relegated to live in de ned areas, hemmed in by discriminatory housing policies and even violence.

and technical education opportunities.Twoweeks into the school year, CPS announced it will start o ering Mad Science STEM enrichment workshops to qualifying elementary schools as an out-ofschool-time option.

But school interventions are only part of the post-pandemic solution toward closing the achievement gap.“ e pandemic really exposed the high level of the digital divide that exists in Black and Brown communities,” says Venise Hardy, vice president of educational services at Ada S. McKinley Community Services, a nonpro t provider of academic and mentorship support to Chicago middle and high schoolers.Hardysays many students didn’t have adequate high-speed internet at home that’s essential for remote learning. As a response, the district launched Chicago Connected to provide eligible students high-speed internet and hot spots at no cost. Philanthropists like Ken Gri n and foundations, including Penny Pritzker’s, underwrote the program.Hardy also points to the personal struggles she sees among students, which go beyond completing classroom work. Some CPS students couldn’t nd a quiet and private space to tune in to online learning. Others struggled to log in on time for classes because they shared devices with siblings.

In the last decade, CPS has made strides in graduation rates and standardized testing. By 2018, the district’s 78.2% graduation rate had risen signi cantly above the 2011 rate of 56.9%. Yet amid that bright spot, enrollment declined in many predominantly Black neighborhood schools, leading to the closing of 49 elementary schools and one high school program in 2013. A 2021 report conducted by

“ e issues range from mental health to too many students falling academically behind,” says Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce who is at the helm of widening education and workforce opportunities for Chicago’s Black and Brown communities through her foundation and organizations like P33. “But it’s not just a Chicago problem. . . . is is a problem for all of us, not just for individuals. It’s a problem for our communities.”Ifschoolsystems and communities don’t take steps to address the learning that was lost during COVID, members of this generation of U.S. students stand to earn $49,000 to $61,000 less over their lifetimes due to the pandemic, according to an article by McKinsey.

STEEPED IN HISTORY

“As school districts are trying to recover, they’re needing to do two things: ey’re needing to help students catch up from the impact of a pandemic,” says Emma Dorn, education senior knowledge expert at McKinsey and co-author of the article. “But they also need to continue to be thinking about, ‘How do we tackle some of those pre-existing equity gaps as well?’ ”

Segregation restricted not only where Black Chicagoans could put down roots but also where they could attend school. When the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education ruled that racial segregation in public education was unconstitutional, many students largely remained racially separated. In Chicago, former Superintendent Benjamin Willis was seen as the force that prevented Black children, many of whom were in overcrowded schools in the 1960s, from enrolling in majority-white schools that had more space and resources.

18 SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

“I needed to educate myself on how to navigate Google Classroom,” says Lilia Guevara, a mom of three in McKinley Park, about the online platform that her kids used to submit their assignments. “I didn’t know how to help them. . . .It was very overwhelming and stressful.” Technology setbacks weren’t the only challenges. Hardy notes that

BOEHMR.JOHNBYPHOTOS

But now, it seems, the pandemic has given CPS a chance to make substantive changes that will provide “a high-quality public education for every child, in every neighborhood, that prepares each for success in college, career and civic life.” at’s the basis of CPS’ three-year blueprint and other initiatives that aim to re-engage students and address achievement gaps. E orts will include strengthening neighborhood schools, improving services for students with diverse learning needs, widening mental health services and increasing career

Now the question is whether the city’s public school system, which is nearly 83% African American and Hispanic, can adequately prepare students for a job market increasingly reliant on technology and the STEM skills—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—needed to support sustainable employment.

NEED TO CATCH UP

If interventions like high-dosage tutoring, more social-emotional support and creating engaging class environments aren’t put into place to help students make up lost ground, the last 2½ years may have long-lasting e ects. It could lead to lower graduation rates and declines in college and postsecondary training enrollment. Young people may struggle to gain the necessary life-sustaining job skills. And as a consequence, the racial wealth gap will be even harder to close.

Student test scores sank nationally as well. Reading and math scores of 9-year-old students across the U.S. on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the nation’s report card and considered a gold standard in testing, declined during the past two years of the pandemic. Math scores dropped from an average score of 241 in 2020 to 234 in 2022, a 2.9% decline. Reading scores went from 220 in 2020 to 215 in 2022, a 2.3% drop.

Kids First Chicago, a nonpro t organization, cited a combination of lower birth rates and Black residents leaving the city because of the loss of industrial jobs and affordable housing as reasons for the enrollmentDwindlingdrop.enrollment also affects school funding, which results in fewer resources like pre-college o erings, enrichment programs and counseling services.

Continued from Page 15

“ ere should still be something in place to address the social-emotional side that was taken from them as well,” Yarbrough says. “And I saw that at St. John with Josiah there. I didn’t see that at CPS where my daughter remained.”isfallher daughter, Jocelyn,

A University of Chicago Education Lab study last year found promising results when CPS ninth and 10th graders were given two-on-one math instruction every day for about 45 minutes. e tutoring model increased grades and reduced failure rates in math and non-math courses.

But some parents and students feel that their teachers or school administration didn’t give them enough support during the pandemic.Yarbrough, the South Side mom, wished she had a more assertive response from her son’s school and teacher when she brought up his agging grades. “I didn’t feel like we were on the same team,” Yarbrough says. is led her to transfer Josiah in fall 2020 to St. John de la Salle Catholic Academy, where she has seen him ourish. He has access to more extracurricular activities, she says, like a Saturday STEM program, and is now a recess monitor on the playground.

TOTAL ENROLLMENT

20172018 202120192020 330,411 2017-20182018-2019 2021-20222019-20202020-2021 371,382 361,314 355,156 340,658

400,000300,000200,000100,0000 330,411

A concerted e ort by the city, public school system, community organizations and families is imperative for preparing students to one day support themselves. But for some families, too much is at stake to wait on systemic change to Nowhappen.that Yarbrough’s children are in private school, she says, “I feel like we’re planting a good seed and we’re on good ground right now. And I see the best for them.” CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS ENROLLMENT

400,000300,000200,000100,0000

◗

ADDED BURDENS

Families like Hardy’s are making the move because of unsatisfactory remote learning and in-person experiences at traditional schools. Some parents choose home schooling because they want more oversight of their children’s curriculum, while others want less rigidity. Regardless of motive, a growing home-schooling movement could further blunt schools’ e orts across the city and state to attract families back into public school classrooms.

Illinois saw a 3% drop in public school enrollment in the 2020-21 school year from 2019-20, with kindergarten and elementary schools seeing the steepest declines, according to data from the state’s Board of Education, the board’s annual report and the State Report Card analyzed by Advance Illinois, an independent organization that promotes public education.

During the pandemic, Black parents “saw the whitewashing in some of the history books that their children were using,” Burges says. “ ey didn’t see their history—their foreparents and forefathers (contributing) at all to the making of this country.”

For Black parents frustrated by not seeing their children thrive academically, the pandemic was the nudge they needed to try home schooling. While white students tend to make up the vast majority of home-schoolers, increasing numbers of Black families are making it their education option.

Several programs that prepare individuals for livable-wage jobs without obtaining a four-year degree already exist. Some partner with CPS and City Colleges of Chicago, and others are run by local companies. ere’s Aon’s twoyear apprenticeship program, which has onboarded more than 200 apprentices since 2017. Another is the ComEd Construct Infrastructure Academy, which graduated 69 participants in the spring. Over 70% of its graduates are placed into jobs, and 95% of this year’s graduates were people of color, according to the program.

2017-20182018-2019 2021-20222019-20202020-2021 361,314 355,156 340,658

In Illinois, total households reporting that they home-school more than doubled, increasing to 5.4% in fall 2020 from 2.1% in the spring of that year. Among Black households nationally, home schooling increased vefold, to 16.1% from 3.3% in the same period, according to U.S. Census Bureau data

“We just woke (up) to the fact that our children were not learning what’s important to us,” she says. “Parents are not standing on the sidelines anymore.”

Illinois is one of the few states that doesn’t require home-schooling families to register with the state or local district.

“ ey got a chance to see exactly what the children were being taught,” says Joyce Burges, CEO and co-founder of National Black Home Educators, a national membership home-schooling organization. “And a lot of these families have reported to me that they did not like what they had been taught or how they were being taught.”

371,382

While rigorous tutoring and remediation are important, fostering an engaging environment for students is also key.

A clinical therapist, Hardy meets with clients in the evening so that she can oversee her son’s education during the day.

CPS Schools could lose another 44,000 K-12 students by 2025.

CPS

CPS ENROLLMENT BY RACE, FOR OCTOBER OF EACH YEAR

many of the students that Ada S. McKinley serves also assumed child care duties at home or helped their families nancially. Parents who lost work or wages “are leaning on them heavily.”

“It’s possible that some of those kids are being home-schooled,” Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois, said during a City Club of Chicago education event in August. “ e truth is we don’t do a good job of collecting all of that information and bringing it up to the state level. We don’t know.”

e pandemic’s impact on education gave parents and caretakers a closer view of their children’s day-to-day academic experience. And some were underwhelmed.

When it was time to return to in-person learning for his senior year last fall, Kitchen decided to move out of his mother’s home on the South Side so he could focus on completing high school. e 18-year-old graduated in the spring and is now enrolled at Harold Washington College, part of the City Colleges of Chicago system. Kitchen credits guidance counselors and teachers at Tilden for giving him the support that he needed to graduate.

an incoming fourth grader, will join her older brother at St. John.

e district’s rst day attendance bounced back to around pre-pandemic levels as 93.4% of enrolled students were present for the rst day of school on Aug. 22, according to the district.

“Let’s face it: We have seen enrollment declines over the past decade. We have under-enrolled schools,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said during a City Club of Chicago event in August. “I see it as an opportunity . . . an opportunity to create innovative school models.”Martinez described one such potential model: a high school serving 500 or so students that o ers college credits toward an associate degree and is aligned with a career pathway, such as aviation or Bolsteringcybersecurity.existingCPS career pathway programs and creating new ones would create additional postsecondary opportunities, particularly for its most disadvantaged students.

e We Will Chicago plan, rolled out in July by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, notes that “with approximately two-thirds of Illinois jobs reportedly requiring at least some postsecondary schooling or special training, formal education is a key predictor for an individual’s income potential.”

has seen a steady decline in student enrollment in the last five years. Declines are due primarily to falling Hispanic births and Black families leaving Chicago. Based on current trends, some independent analysts project Chicago Public

Does 20192020

not include Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American/Alaskan, multiracial, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and “not available” because each category was less than 2% of total enrollment. Source: Chicago Public Schools 200,000150,000100,00050,0000 14,38335,649119,025153,931 20172018 2021

Elaine Allensworth, the LewisSebring Director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute, thinks that schools and educators should also pay close attention to absenteeism and grades, which indicate engagement. “If a student is not coming to class, if they’re not getting good grades, (then) they’re probably not getting something that they need,” sheInsays.its 2023 budget, CPS increased its art and dual-language o erings and expanded its universal pre-K program. More funding for after-school and summer programs is in the works. e district also increased the budget by $9 million for its Choose to Change program, which supports young people who are a ected by violence and trauma and struggle with absenteeism.

Hispanic Black White Asian

Antoine Kitchen struggled to keep up with school remotely while he was a student at CPS’ Edward Tilden Career Community Academy High School in the Fuller Park neighborhood on the city’s South Side. His mom had to return to work after giving birth to his baby sister and needed him to babysit. As the pandemic progressed, home and child care responsibilities began to pile up for the teenager.

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 19

Quiana Hardy, 47, a resident of Chicago’s Ashburn neighborhood, decided to home-school her 8-year-old son starting this fall. When he returned to in-person learning at a Chicago Public Schools magnet school last year, Hardy and other parents were alarmed to learn that their children’s teacher was frequently absent, leading to inconsistency in the classroom. Hardy feared that her son was falling behind. She says that was the tipping point.

CPS and other entities are launching initiatives to address academic gaps and revive engagement. e district’s $25 million tutoring program is more than three times the amount CPS spent on the initiative in the previous school year. e increase in funding allows CPS’ tutoring corps program to expand to about 240 schools, with 760 tutors providing high-dosage tutoring in reading and math.

PATHWAYS TO CAREERS

The pandemic revealed inequities that they believed were not allowing their children to thrive academically

Black parents bring the schoolhouse to the home front

150,000100,00050,0000200,000 14,38335,649119,025153,931

Even though the pandemic is receding, Burges thinks the Black home-schooling movement is going to continue to grow.

“To be honest, I really couldn’t manage it,” he says.

Burges says the pandemic’s shift to remote and exible work has allowed more Black families to consider home schooling for the rst time. She also witnessed more parents gravitate to in-home learning because they felt Black history and perspectives were absent in their children’s mainstream education.

Jaleesa Smith integrates lessons and activities that re ect her students’ identities in her home-schooling program. e mom and educator runs Friends of Cabrini, a Chicago-based coop that o ers unschooling online, a type of home schooling where children guide their own learning. Smith’s students have done geography lessons on the continent of Africa and practiced multiplication and division in Swahili. She nds books with Latino and Black characters. ere’s even been a Black History Month coding project.

BY TRINA MANNINO

But there were other factors that contribute to the decision to home-school.Hardy’sson has special needs and requires “a little bit more attention in certain areas,” she says. She felt the curriculum at CPS wasn’t allowing students the time and the space to grow naturally. Home schooling allows that, she adds.

Chicago Public Schools enrollment continues to fall. Last October saw a 3% decline from the previous year, bringing enrollment in the country’s third-largest district to 330,411 students, according to a CPS 2021 press release.

“ at corner is going to be emp ty for a good year and a half, which is going to be very weird,” said Nick Lombardo. “Now’s the time to get in and relive the glory days of the ’90s.”

some action going on a typical weekend.Another lot of it is fantasy football, by which you can indulge your inner coach or GM. I

A story Crain’s published in 2005 depicted the scene back then.

ough Gibsons and Hugo’s, which opened in 1989 and 1997, respectively, have both had reno vations done in the recent years. e group is considering adding second-story balconies to keep up with Carmine’s planned expansive balcony.It’shard to believe such drastic change is afoot there, said Blast Mar keting CEO John McCartney, who at one time handled marketing for most of the restaurants surround ing the park. “It’s a bummer. I mean, it’s the Viagra Triangle. What a great name. And what’s amazing is that it was accepted by people to use that term,” he said. “When Viagra came out, nobody wanted to admit that they took it.”

impervious to bad news? Remem ber the bold, scary headlines citing chronic traumatic encephalopathy as a grim threat to football’s future? When was the last time you read a concussion story?

“It’s going to force us to step up our game,” he said.

Crain’s contributing colum nist Dan McGrath is president of Leo High School in Chicago and a former Chicago Tribune sports editor.

But legendary restaurants in the area have come and gone. ere was Mister Kelly’s, which hosted performers such as Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler in the 1950s, ’60s and 70s. Morton’s e Steakhouse also opened its original location there at 1050 N. State St. in 1978, but it succumbed to the COVID closures of 2020. Morton’s founder Arnie Morton also had a restaurant called Arnie’s in the area from the 1970s until it closed in 1993.

RUSH

McGRATH

Modern steakhouses, such as nearby Maple & Ash, point to the ar ea’s potential future vibe and ability to attract the younger generation. It remains unclear what will be come of Tavern on Rush’s space at 1031 N. Rush St. e restaurant an nounced recently that it would close after 25 years in business because its lease expires at the end of the year. e landlords, whom property re cords list as trucking magnate Fred B. Barbara and Chicago attorney James J. Banks, have not responded to requests for comment.

Lombardo—no relation to Rose bud’s Nick Lombardo—said he ex pects the upgrades will drive more business to the neighborhood and increase competition.

STREET from Page 3

Of course, the clientele has changed since that article was pub lished nearly 20 years ago, a shift the pandemic has helped accelerate. Some regulars have moved out of the neighborhood, and others don’t come to the city as often because of work-from-home norms. Conven tions and business diners still hav en’t returned in full force. Lombardo said some snowbirds stopped com ing back to Chicago during the sum mer. Overall, the crowd on a Satur day night trends more in their 30s and 40s than 60s and 70s, he said.

Do we care about Brian Flores’ lawsuit alleging racial discrim ination in the NFL’s hiring of coaches? When more than 70% of the league’s players are Black and fewer than 10% of its coaches are, shouldn’t we?

from Page 2

Another sign the old ways are out at Halas Hall

Gibsons Restaurant Group op erates three establishments on the Triangle, including Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse, Hugo’s Fish Bar & Fish House and Luxbar. Chairman Steve

Oh well. ey kicked it o for

e good news for regulars or those waning nostalgic: ere’s still time to experience it as is before Car mine’s and Tavern on Rush close.

On the menu: A new era for the Viagra Triangle

Representatives from L3 did not respond to requests for comment, but Lombardo said Carmine’s new space will have a very open feel. e redone restaurant will occupy 15,000 square feet, up from its current 10,000. Carmine’s rst- oor bar will occupy one of the building’s store fronts, and the upstairs will house a “monster terrace” that overlooks Rush Street, the main restaurant, an other bar and private dining space. e change is tting, Lombardo said. Carmine’s opened in the early 1990s. In the next decade, the area surrounding Mariano Park would earn its Viagra Triangle nickname for the older men who ocked to the restaurants to court younger women and vice versa.

FUTURE VIBE

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One woman told the Crain’s re porter: “If you’re a woman under 40 in these places, you’re fresh bait.”

One 53-year-old Tavern on Rush patron told Crain’s at the time that women asked what he does for a living. “‘I’ve been in business for 23 years, and I make $250,000 a year.’ As if thinking this might sound a bit low for the room, he quickly adds, ‘ at’s net income.’ ”

namentthefantasytimepartake—adamantly—anddon’teveryIhear,“I’vegothimonmyteam,”IlongforspringandfrothybanterthatNCAAtourbracketsalwaysinspire.Not.Isitme,oristheNFL

Men, typically executives or bankers with big paychecks, would come to the restaurants solo, buy ing drinks for younger women. e men would sometimes put their wedding rings in their pockets or ad mit they were looking for their next wife. e story described the area as “Chicago’s ultimate intersection of beautiful women, rich older men and expensive cars. Should the gods be smiling, the little blue pill might come in handy.”

It remains unclear what will become of Tavern on Rush’s space at 1031 N. Rush St. The restaurant announced recently that it would close after 25 years in business.

operating there have been around for the better part of three de cades. ough some will mourn the changes, others welcome a new vibe. “It’s the Gold Coast of old, but it’s just in need of a facelift,” said Nick Lombardo, chief operating of cer of Rosebud Restaurant Group, which operates Carmine’s. “We all knowethat.”building at 1043 N. Rush St. that houses Carmine’s was sold re cently to Chicago-based L3 Capital, which plans to knock it down and build anew. Carmine’s signed a long-term lease with L3 to reopen in a bigger, more open space in the new two-story building, Lombardo said. He expects to close the restaurant in January, depending on when L3 se cures the necessary permits, and re open in summer 2024. Current Car mine’s employees will be transferred to other Rosebud locations after the restaurant closes, Lombardo said.

ALAMY

real this past weekend. Some of us headed for the stadium, no matter the price of a ticket, a beer and parking. But most slid into our lounge chair or the neighborhood sports pub to watch, captivated. We can’t help it, and the NFL knows it.

“ ey’re still looking for what we do, which is great Italian food, and they want to be able to hang out in an area where you get to be seen and see everything,” he said. ere’s still “Lamborghinis and Bentleys driving down the street. Now it’s the young tech kids driving them rather than the old banker guy.”

Developer Mike Reschke, CEO of Prime Group, sits down discuss the Future of the Loop. As the work-from-home on a downtown rebound.

Mike Reschke CEO, Prime Group

BUY TICKETS T ChicagoBusiness.com/RealEstateODAY!ForumWEDNESDAY,SEPT.21|7:30-9:45AMTHECHICAGOCLUBCORPORATESPONSORS

FORUM: FUTURE OF THE LOOP REAL ESTATE

White Castle’s Impossible Foods version of its sliders is considered successful, likely because of its low price. In con trast, the McPlant was a pre mium-priced product at Mc Donald’s. The sandwich is still available at the chain’s Global Menu Restaurant at its head quarters in the West Loop. It costs $5.99—more expensive than the $5.29 Quarter Pounder with Cheese, the $5.29 Big Mac and the $2.49 McDouble.

CEO Chris Kempczinski has said customers are gravitating toward the value menu as infla tion forces them to pinch pen nies. Getting customers to pay extra to try an unknown item these days is particularly dif ficult, says Tom Bailey, senior consumer foods analyst at Ra bobank.“Yougo there for affordable good food, and you come away spending more on a burger that you might not think is as good as the one you actually wanted,” he says of customers who tried the McPlant.

‘A NICHE PRODUCT’

“It added operational com plexity and just didn’t generate the sales needed to justify that added complexity,” says Mark Kalinowski, CEO of research firm Kalinowski Equity Re search, which regularly surveys McDonald’s franchisees.

eld for a private business, said he doesn’t see Chicago getting a second NFL team. Television revenue is a huge reason why, he said.“Because most of the Bears’ revenue is not from fannies in the seats in Soldier Field or selling beer. It’s a television market, and so that matters,” Sanderson said.

e idea of a team moving from a less attractive stadium in

Could Chicago become the future home of two NFL teams? It’s complicated.

Last year, the NFL nalized new television deals that will make each team more than $300 million over 11 years.

Sanderson, who with others submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court case that resulted in the justices enti tling college athletes to receive money from their names, images and likenesses, also said it’s im portant to consider how televis ing college sports could possibly a ect NFL Financially,games. Sanderson said an other NFL team wouldn’t bene t

He brought up that Los An geles, the NFL’s second-largest market, sat vacant for over 20 years before it got two teams, be cause they didn’t have a stadium deal.“

If they plan to move, the Bears would have to buy out their lease or stay at Soldier Field until the lease ends in 2033. During the proposal event, Lightfoot hinted at the idea of Chicago having two NFL teams if the Bears chose to move to Arlington Heights. e Bears have entered into a $197.2 million purchase agree ment to buy Arlington Interna tional Racecourse. e team is set to unveil plans for the 326acre property next week.

SALES DATA

As a result, the bar for adding new menu items has been set very high among franchisees, says Richard Adams, owner of San Diego-based consultancy Franchise Equity Group.

for such a Football,project.withits emphasis on television revenue, di ers from basketball and baseball, which need strong local markets to sell tickets, according to Ganis.

the urban core to a more attrac tive suburban location has hap pened many times. And that does not mean the market has lost the team. at just means it moves to the suburbs, like many other businesses have done over the years.” Currently, 10 NFL teams play outside of their namesake cities.

for a complex new o ering like the McPlant. McDonald’s won’t disclose sales data for the test, but analysts gure the numbers fell short of the level needed to give the McPlant a permanent place on menus across the chain.

the Bears in the city.

A report from analysts at nance rm BTIG concluded franchisees were disappointed in sales, according to industry publication Restaurant Dive. Some locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth and San Francisco Bay ar eas sold about 20 McPlant sand wiches per day, but some East Texas spots were selling just three to ve, according to Restau rant Dive’s story. e number of McPlants each location would need to sell to make them eco nomically viable depends on franchisee nancials, but some industry estimates puts it at 50 to 100 per day.

The same fate has been met by plant-based meat alterna tives at other fast-food chains that have trimmed slow-mov ing items from their menus.

Kempczinski has indicated he’s not giving up on the McPlant.

“When customers are ready for McPlant, we’ll be ready for them,” he told analysts earlier this year.

McPLANT from Page McDonald’s1 McPlant meatless burger wasn’t a hit. But why didn’t it sizzle?

MORE OPTIONS

burgers and did not respond to a request for comment.

“They learned they can get along perfectly well with not having things on the menu that don’t sell,” says Adams, a for mer McDonald’s franchisee.

DIFFICULT SITUATION

“That is an indicator it’s going to be a niche product,” he says. “It’s not going to be your top seller.”There is still a chance Mc Donald’s could bring back the McPlant. The burger is perma nently on its menus in the U.K.,

Ireland and Austria. McDon ald’s confirmed it takes time to evaluate results after a test con cludes, and it can take six to 12 months to roll out a new item more broadly. It began opera tions tests of the Crispy Chick en Sandwich in 2019, for exam ple, and rolled the product out nationwide in February 2021.

Experts say the premium pricing on McDonald’s plant-based burger, the McPlant, made consumers less willing to try it, as they turned toward value amid soaring inflation. Here are menu prices for several sandwiches at the chain’s Global Menu Restaurant in the West Loop.

is summer, Lightfoot pro posed a plan to put a dome over Soldier Field in an e ort to keep

Before it became home to the Chicago Bears, Soldier Field hosted a variety of events, from college football games to speech es, something Ganis and Sander son believe it should return to.

“It should go back to being more of a public space, public events kind of facility. It doesn’t have to be for a major NFL team. Rather, it can be used for lots of other purposes,” Ganis said.

McDonald’s announced back in late 2020 that it would roll out a line of plant-based meat prod ucts, starting with the McPlant burger and eventually includ ing faux chicken and meat for breakfast sandwiches. The chain was fresh off a Canadian test run of a sandwich called P.L.T., or plant, lettuce and to mato, which, like the McPlant, used a patty developed by Be yond Meat. McPlant tests began a year later in eight restaurants in Texas, Iowa, Louisiana and California. In February, the test expanded to about 600 loca tions around San Francisco Bay and Dallas-Fort Worth.

THE PRICE OF PLANT-BASED Source: Crain’s reporting QuarterBigMcPlantMacPounder with Cheese Crispy McDoubleChicken $5.99 $5.19$5.29$5.29 $2.49 BOEHMR.JOHN

The sandwich came with cheese and mayonnaise and was cooked on the same grill as meat-based products. Though it didn’t require any new equip ment, it still added complex ity to kitchens that have been thriving on simplicity. When the pandemic hit, McDonald’s fran chisees trimmed their menus down to top sellers. Without allday breakfast, salads and oth er ancillaries, customer lines moved faster, boosting sales and easing labor issues.

NFL from Page 3

Chicago much at all and would be more a drain on the city’s re sources. “I’m not anti-sports. I’m just trying to be a scientist, take a look at the numbers, the dollars. e local team (doesn’t bene t the city) that much,” he said. ere is also the question of whether a prospective second team would want to start in or move to Chicago. Ganis said it’s possible that a team would con sider Chicago, as it is a good mar ket for football, but “teams don’t leave a di cult situation for an other di cult situation,” in the case of not having a stadium built speci cally for them and Chicago being unwilling to do that.

Last summer, Dunkin’ scaled back its Beyond Sausage sand wich, keeping it on the menu at just several hundred spots. The coffee and doughnut chain introduced the offering in 2019 and cut the price before scaling it back.Some wonder if Burger King will follow suit with its meat less burger. The chain rolled out the Impossible Whopper in 2019 and benefited from the first-mover advantage. It moved the item to its Value Menu in 2020—possibly a negative sign. However, Burger King plans to add two new Impossible burg er options. The chain has not disclosed sales figures on the

22 SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

More teams means less money for each one as that revenue is split up, he said.

Observers expect McDon ald’s to try again: It needs meat alternatives to reach certain sustainability goals and meet future consumer demand.

As far as an NFL expansion, Sanderson said there are many things to consider. “I think that one has to think about if the NFL is going to have 36 teams, you don’t just think about Arlington Heights by itself. You say where are the next four (going to be placed)? We’re gonna have to think of those four as a batch; that’s where politics come into play.”

Additionally, few consum ers go to McDonald’s seeking out vegetarian options, experts say. Still, there is a market for plant-based burgers, says Rich Shank, senior vice president of innovation at Technomic. A re cent study from the market re search firm found one-third of customers said they would try a plant-based menu item, but only 3% said it would be the first thing they buy.

“ e NFL is less reliant on lo cal markets; 75% of all revenues are shared equally amongst the teams,” Ganis said. “In baseball, the teams control all their local broadcasting; in the NFL, the league controls all broadcast ing of all games.” Baseball relies much more on ticket sales, con cessions and merchandise.

University of Chicago econo mist Allen Sanderson, who con ducted a study on Soldier Field and the political and economic motivations around using the

“I was in grade school when I noticed the power of that build ing next to more normal build ings,” Johnson says. “I saw that it did something special.”

at’s in part because Johnson, whom virtually everyone who is asked describes as “soft-spoken” or “mild-mannered,” would be the last person to trumpet his own“Ralpheminence.isde nitely not a starchitect. He doesn’t have that giant ego,” says Linda Kozloski, an architect and creative design di rector for Chicago development at Lendlease. At its Southbank development on the Chicago Riv er just south of the Loop, Austra lia-based Lendlease nished one building designed by Johnson, the 29-story Cooper apartments, in 2018 and expects to complete another, the 41-story Reed con dominiums, in 2023.

O’Hare’s striking international terminal; the cloverleaf-shaped Rush Hospital tower that breaks up the monotony of a drive into the city on the Eisenhower Ex pressway; a colorful combination of library and a ordable senior housing in West Ridge; the dra matic Skybridge condo building that towers over the Kennedy Expressway in the West Loop; and William Jones College Prepa ratory High School, a seven-story campus in the South Loop.

Kihnke’s rm, CMK Devel opment, had a tight site in River North, where much of the new construction at the time was large, uninspired concrete tow ers. For CMK’s site, “I wanted something special that would stand out,” Kihnke says.

The Boeing Building

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It’s not just here, in his native city. Johnson designed a single-family home in India 27 stories tall, a mu seum in Shanghai that resembles a nautilus shell and an 80-story sky scraper planned as a showpiece of Egypt’s new administrative capital outside Cairo. And yet, if you sat near him on a CTA train—and it’s possible you have—you’d have no idea he’s a prominent gure in the world’s architecture scene.

FIRST MEETING

“I like Jones because I went to public schools in Chicago,” John sonHesays.grew up near 104th and Troy streets in Mt. Greenwood, with a father who was an electri cian, a mother who worked in a food lab at Standard Brands and a brother. He rst noticed architec ture, he says, when his parents, Clarence and Violet, would drive past a house Frank Lloyd Wright designed on Longwood Drive in Beverly, about two miles from the Johnsons’ family house.

After Harvard, Johnson went to Florida to work for a rm that was lined up to design Disney’s Experimental Prototype Com munity of Tomorrow. at work didn’t materialize and soon he was headed home to Chicago.

After working brie y for post modern guru Stanley Tigerman, Johnson went to Perkins & Will, where he’s been since 1976. Within a decade, he was the rm’s global design director, a post he still holds. It requires him to provide critical analysis of works in progress at the rm’s 24 o ces around the world.

ALAMYGROUPCOSTARLENDLEASE

In both his leadership role and his design work, Johnson “led the resurgence of modernism” after post-modernism had its heyday, says Blair Kamin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former architecture critic at the Chicago Tribune. Ka min explains “he didn’t just lead it back to the Miesian steel-andglass boxes of the ’50s and ’60s. He led it to a more humane style that is more comfortable, more related to the context of the city.”

A few years later, CMK tapped Johnson again, this time for a 46-story condo building complet ed in 2010 at 235 W. Van Buren St. Its four sides all look a little di er ent from one another, the jazziest being the south facade, where dozens of balconies appear to be arrayed in a random dots-anddashes pattern.

Although the work takes him all over the world, Johnson re mains planted in Chicago, living with his wife, Kathy, the daughter of another modernist arhcitect, James Nagle, in an 1880s house near DePaul University. e cou ple have a daughter, Clare, who about a decade ago nudged her father to learn to play the banjo, which he says, “I’m not going to

“It looks like a lotus,” Johnson says, “but they’re calling it the IconicAmongTower.”the many icons by Johnson that pepper Chicago are

make any money at.”

Johnson’s buildings, by contrast, speak volumes. As he nears the 50-year mark of practicing archi tecture in Chicago, Johnson, who will turn 74 on Oct. 1, has a vast portfolio of bold works here and around the world. In recognition, this year he’s receiving lifetime achievement awards from the University of Illinois architecture school and the American Institute of Architects Chicago chapter.

‘HIGH HONORS’ e twin lifetime achievement awards, Johnson says, “are high honors, and they also mean that I’m stillat’sworking.”aboutall the self-indul gence he allows in an interview be fore switching the topic to his Egypt tower, a model of which stands in the reception area of the Wrigley Building o ces of Perkins & Will, the architecture rm where he has worked since the mid-1970s. e round, slender tower due to be completed in 2023 appears to open slightly at the top, like a slim ower stalk about to bloom.

At Morgan Park High School, Johnson sped through a threeyear program in mechanical drawing in less than two years, but the teacher wrote up more curriculum to keep Johnson go ing. He went on to the University of Illinois and a Harvard graduate degree, spending his summers working rst for an architectural rm that designed cold storage spaces at the Stockyards and later for A. Epstein & Sons, a longtime innovator in Chicago architecture.

Architect may stay under the radar, but his prominent Chicago designs don’t

Shanghai Natural History Museum

e design that Johnson cre ated, called Contemporaine, is a 15-story concrete-and-glass building with balconies that can tilever o one side of the building and a high- ying concrete can opy above. It “showed that con crete could be light, beautifully sculptured, poetic,” Kamin says, “not those concrete monsters.”

Johnson has done “a long list of projects all around Chicago that, without having an exclamation point that says ‘these are Ralph Johnson buildings,’ are really ex posing people in Chicago to the best of the built environment every day,” says Drew Deering, an associ ate principal at Chicago architec ture rm Moody Nolan and presi dent of AIA Chicago.

In the 1990s, Colin Kihnke was an ambitious young developer who discovered the work of Ralph Johnson in a book he ipped through at the old Prairie Avenue Bookshop.Takinghis shot, Kihnke called Perkins & Will, got Johnson on the phone and scheduled a meet ing, excited at the prospect of working with an esteemed archi tect. When Kihnke arrived at the o ce, “Ralph comes walking out with Wite-Out all over his hands because he was working on some drawings,” Kihnke recalls.

Iconic Tower in Egypt

“It’s art with Ralph,” Kihnke says. “You can look at both of those buildings and see his art.” Johnson is now designing ve buildings in Denver for CMK. In the South Loop, CMK’s plan to work with Johnson on an entire neighborhood along the Chicago River has stalled. But architec tural boat tours still take tourists past Johnson’s 36-story tower for Morton International, completed in 1990 on Riverside Plaza next to the South Branch.

Center, the international termi nal at O’Hare Airport and several sharp, contemporary downtown residential buildings.

The Reed, 234 W. Polk St.

Later the headquarters of Boe ing, the building has a soaring clock tower, two-level riverwalk and handsome, tailored mod ernist style that are popular with sightseers.“Ifpeople know my name, it’s because they heard it on a tour boat passing that building,” John son says.

at last one, Johnson says, is one he’s especially proud of in Chicago. It’s not because Jones is a sculptural eye-catcher like his Contemporaine condo build ing on Grand Avenue in River North, nor because it’s an exam ple of Chicago’s vaunted innova tive modern architecture.

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JOHNSON

USAHUANDINFLATIONNGERFFECTALL.

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