About
Providing a pillar of support for local businesses
The Fillmore Center offers a prime, affordable business location. Priority is offered to businesses promoting revitalization within North Lawndale and offering desirable, living wage jobs.
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Fillmore Linen Service: The anchor of the Fillmore Center, Fillmore Linen Service is a locally owned industrial-scale laundry that will serve Chicago-area hospitals by processing up to 28 million pounds of laundry each year.
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Kribi Coffee Air Roastery: A thriving Black-owned business that will soon set up a roasting plant at Fillmore Center.
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Southside Blooms: A nonprofit flower wholesaler with a social mission to alleviate poverty and nurture environmental stewardship.
Delivering direct benefits to the local community
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Job creation. Fillmore Center will bring 250+ quality jobs to the neighborhood, decreasing local unemployment and helping to boost median incomes in the community.
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Increased business activity. The project aims to increase local jobs, support the expansion of Black-owned businesses, expand opportunities for the community’s economic growth, and transform a dormant structure into a thriving manufacturing center.
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Path to community ownership. The Fillmore Center will eventually be transferred to a Community Benefit Trust, ensuring profits remain in North Lawndale.
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Community wealth creation. By prioritizing the well-being of North Lawndale residents and actively addressing the specific barriers they face, Fillmore Center will contribute to sustainable community wealth through long-term investments in economic growth.
Creating opportunities through sustainable investment
The Fillmore Center is a unique collaboration among multiple local organizations all committed to following a community-led model for economic development in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood. It represents an investment in the economic future of the community and its residents, the value of sustainable adaptive resuse of an existing structure, and the power of community collaboration to create change.
