CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | JULY 10, 2023 | $3.50
Invest South/West projects ring up sky-high building costs Affordable housing financed through former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s signature economic development program costs far more to build than the most expensive apartment towers in the city I BY ALBY GALLUN
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evelopers spend a lot of private money building luxury apartments in expensive neighborhoods like River North, the Gold Coast or the Fulton Market District. But it costs even more to build affordable housing financed mostly with government money in places like Auburn Gresham, Englewood and Bronzeville.
That’s one of the great ironies of Invest South/ West, a massive economic development initiative launched four years ago by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Construction costs for the program’s affordable housing projects in some of the city’s See INVEST SOUTH/WEST on Page 18
JOHN R. BOEHM
In Auburn Gresham, 838 79th St. is under construction at left. It is part of a two-building project with a total cost of $48 million, or $827,596 per unit.
Starved for cash, banks offer enticing savings rates It’s been over 15 years since savers could get more than 5% on a fully insured CD Banks want your money — in a way they haven’t for more than 15 years. They’re running ads on television offering 5% or more on certificates of deposit. They’re stuffing mailboxes with offers. They’re posting big signs in branch windows. They’re running banner ads online. Banks are starved for cash, only two years after they were swimming in it and scrambling for money-making places to stash it. Adding anxiety to what otherwise would be a straightforward
matter of paying enticing enough rates to stay liquid are the failures earlier this year of Silicon Valley Bank and New York’s Signature Bank, impelled by depositor runs on both institutions. “As an industry, we’ve continued to see surge-deposit runoff,” says Brent Tischler, CEO of community banking for Evansville, Ind.-based Old National Bank, which has a large presence in Chicago from its 2022 acquisition of First Midwest Bank. “Consumer spending continues to be strong, and stimulus is starting to burn through.” For savers, it’s a refreshing change after more than a decade
in which bank accounts were the last place anyone would look for yield. No one now has to search long for offers of more than 5% on as little as $1,000. For banks, it’s an abrupt end to a long era of near-free money, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s rapid ramp-up of interest rates to tame inflation. Liquidity is now their top concern, even as they face growing worries about future loan defaults, particularly in commercial real estate. With the second quarter just ended, investors and analysts See BANKS on Page 14
GETTY IMAGES
BY STEVE DANIELS
Keeping existing depositors and finding new ones is suddenly job one for banks.
VOL. 46, NO. 27 l COPYRIGHT 2023 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
THE TAKEAWAY
CRAIN’S LIST
A top executive at City Cruises describes a heart-thumping career moment. PAGE 6
See our roundup of the area’s biggest out-of-town employers. PAGE 9