Revitalizing neighborhoods
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has played an active role in Chicago’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood for many years.
LISC is dedicated to helping community residents transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy, sustainable mixed-income communities of choice and opportunity –good places to work, do business and raise children. LISC mobilizes corporate, government and philanthropic support to provide local community development organizations.
Bronzeville is one of the nation’s most significant landmarks in African-American urban history. In the early 20th century, it was known as “Black Metropolis” – a vibrant, dynamic area of African-American-owned businesses, cultural institutions and entertainment destinations. By the 1960s, the area began a period of steep decline. In particular, the area around 35th and State Street on Chicago’s South Side became notorious for its crime and blight.
Today, that corner is home to a bright, bustling Starbucks, which sits within a master-planned development called Park Boulevard. Where there used to be a deteriorating 1,600-unit public housing project, there are now rental apartments, condominiums, townhouses and new retail space. Starbucks anchors this corner and benefits from ongoing redevelopment efforts while at the same time helping attract new ones.
LISC and its tax-credit affiliate – National Equity Fund – invested in multiple pieces of the ongoing redevelopment effort and a variety of other projects throughout the community.
