Brew City Match gets $3.5M for development in the city
JPMorgan Chase will provide cash over 3 years
A program to help draw commercial development to central city neighborhoods near downtown Milwaukee is getting $3.5 million from one of the nation’s largest banks.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is providing the cash, over three years, for the new Brew City Match program.
It is expected to help support hundreds of local businesses, while helping to eventually redevelop 1 million square feet of commercial space throughout central city neighborhoods, according to Local Initiatives Support Corp., a national economic development group.
Brew City Match will combine around $1.1 million of annual bank loans and grants with city grants, as well as
consulting services.
The focus will be on neighborhoods near downtown to take advantage of hundreds of millions of dollars invested in new and ongoing developments such as the Fiserv Forum, the BMO Tower office building and the 7Seventy7 apartment high-rise.
Focus on entrepreneurs
The business districts being targeted include those centered on North King Drive, between West McKinley Boulevard and West Locust Street; on West North Avenue, between North 8th and North 27th streets; West Fond du Lac Avenue, between North 17th and North 27th streets; and South Chavez Drive, between West National Avenue and West Lapham Boulevard.
Other central city business districts could be added to the program.
Brew City Match will help those areas benefit from emerging opportunities, with a focus on working with entrepreneurs who live in those neighborhoods, said Donsia Strong Hill, executive director of the Local Initiatives Support Corp.’s Milwaukee office, which is leading the program.
The new funding expands a development effort LISC launched last year.
Known as “RampUp,” it started with a $200,000 investment from JPMorgan Chase.
The program provided grants to renovate building facades and interiors, with a focus on helping small central city businesses with “pop-up” retail sites. Those affordable sites can lead to longer term stores and other retail businesses.
Brew City Match is modeled on Motor City Match, a business plan competition sponsored by Detroit Economic Growth Corp., a nonprofit group.
Motor City Match offers business planning courses, free architectural services, loans totaling $2 million and grants totaling $500,000 during each competitive round, which occur four times a year. The program targets startups and expanding small businesses.
Launched in 2015, it is funded with foundation grants as well as federal Community Development Block Grants provided through the city.
Brew City Match’s partners include such lenders as the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce, Columbia Savings and Loan, Milwaukee Economic Development Corp. and the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp.
Additional partners include the African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Urban League, which will provide training for entrepreneurs.
Also, the program will work with the Department of City Development and the Greater Milwaukee Committee.
“Collaboration is the key to developing long-term, regional economic solutions that benefit everyone,” Whitney Smith, head of Midwest philanthropy for JPMorgan Chase, said in a statement.