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Neighborhood Planning

ICNC advocates to decision makers on behalf of our members to keep the Kinzie Industrial Corridor strong and to maintain a healthy business climate.  Our areas of focus include:
  • Industrial and small business policy
  • Neighborhood planning and development
  • Business attraction and retention
  • Infrastructure improvements
  • Transit
  • Crime and safety
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Local access to grants and development opportunities
  • Other issues impacting local business and jobs

Local Industrial Retention Initiative (LIRI)

Chicago's LIRI program offers funding to not-for-profit organizations that provide economic development services to companies located in and around designated industrial corridors. LIRIs work toward job retention and creation, they find solutions for individual business needs, and they make linkages between businesses, their communities and City services. LIRIs also offer assistance with City incentive programs such as the Small Business Improvement Fund, Enterprise Zone Program, and TIFWorks.

Financial Assistance - Grants, Incentives, and Funding Opportunities

ICNC helps companies access both public and private resources, including finding and securing grant money. Your business may qualify for subsidies to support hiring, relocation, exporting, or capital improvements without realizing it. We’re proud of success in bringing companies’ tax dollars back to the neighborhood. Current grants and funding opportunities available to our members include:

On-the-Job Training (OJT): Reimburses up to 50% of a new hire’s wages for their first 6 months on the job.

Empowerment Zone Benefits: Federal tax credits of up to $3,000 per employee for employing people from the neighborhood (business
must also be located in the Empowerment Zone).

Work Opportunity Tax Credits: Federal tax credits between $1,200 and $9,600 per employee for hiring from targeted groups like
veterans, ex-felons, and SNAP recipients.


Kinzie Industrial Corridor Planned Manufacturing District

ICNC was the chief advocate of implementing the Planned Manufacturing District in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor in 1998, and today we’re at the center of the conversation on how to ensure it continues to drive economic development here.
 
The City is required to review the PMD from time to time, but unlike TIFs, PMDs don’t expire. Because of the massive changes in the Fulton Market portion of the Kinzie Industrial Corridor, the continuing development pressure moving westward, and the construction of a new Green Line CTA station at Damen and Lake, this is an important time for the City to examine how the PMD can help businesses locate or stay in the Kinzie Corridor and grow here.
 
ICNC explored some of the most important issues behind the PMD in order to help business owners, policymakers, and others understand how it affects our local economy. Here’s why we’re doing that:
  • Modern urban manufacturers – including brewers, food and beverage manufacturers, and companies making apparel – need production space that’s small and close to the Central Business District
  • These companies provide jobs to Chicagoans of diverse backgrounds and educational achievement
  • The PMD is the main planning tool that ensures these companies can continue to locate and grow here
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Photo by Helios Visions.
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ICNC - Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago
320 N Damen Ave., First Floor
Chicago, IL. 60612
Tel: (312) 421-3941
Fax: (312) 421-1871
Email: info@industrialcouncil.com
Help ICNC Make An Impact