Elevated Works: A Legacy of ETOD Impact and Technical Assistance

January 5, 2026
Posted By: Elevated Chicago

Overview

Elevated Works is a City of Chicago-backed initiative created to help community-driven development ETOD projects overcome the technical and financial barriers that often delay or derail progress. Launched in 2023 and anchored by a collaboration between Elevated Chicago, IFF, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and Rudd Resources, the program supported 26 projects citywide—often on the South and West Sides. Many of these projects were led by first-time or small-scale developers and included affordable housing, grocery stores, early childhood education centers, and other essential neighborhood assets. All projects received no-cost technical assistance in areas like zoning, design, legal services, market analysis, and marketing to help developers navigate the development process.

Over its two-year run, Elevated Works demonstrated the power of pairing expert technical assistance with early-stage capital. The program delivered over 2,000 hours of technical assistance and nearly 850 hours of real estate coaching across projects, while City funding provided up to $150,000 in pre-development grants and $250,000 in development grants per project. This combined approach helped projects reach critical milestones with fewer delays—resulting in 22 projects securing site control, seven groundbreakings, and six grand openings—while ultimately leveraging more than $300 million in community development investment from public, private, and philanthropic sources.

As the program sunsets at the end of 2025, Elevated Works leaves behind a proven model for accelerating equitable development. By centering the needs of local developers, coordinating trusted technical experts, and aligning public investment with on-the-ground support, the initiative reduced risk, increased project readiness, and strengthened community outcomes. Chicago’s experience shows that when cities invest not just in projects, but in the people building them, community-serving development can scale faster, more efficiently, and with lasting impact.

Impact at a Glance

Technical assistance has focused on real estate readiness, capital readiness and capacity-building to support first-time and emerging developers with system navigation and project storytelling.

$5MM in City of Chicago grants, $1.25 MM in TA

42 TA scopes (estimated by EOY)

36 direct TA matches (estimated by EOY)

2,000+ hours of technical assistance

Nearly 850 hours of real estate coaching

23 site acquisitions, seven groundbreakings, and five grand openings

6 developer education opportunities (group TA)

3 peer learning events

Technical Assistance at Work

Ignatian Mission Center

Ignatian Mission Center has one full-time staff member with limited capacity. They were matched with TA provider Morreale Communications to receive support in identifying project and organizational messaging and developing an organizational brand and logo. This helped support the Center’s organizational messaging, brand awareness and project storytelling with project stakeholders and the community it serves.

Chicago Printworks

Chicago Printworks at 2811 W Fulton was matched with TA provider Cityscape for a zoning and parking needs assessment. Cityscape determined that the project was eligible for a reduction in parking requirements under the Connected Communities Ordinance. It paved the way for the developer to submit an administrative adjustment, successfully eliminating parking requirements from the development.

Starling by Duo

Starling by Duo, a community-based developer, was matched with TA provider IFF to provide construction management and draw support. This provided the developer team with additional capacity and a steady flow of capital for milestone payments, ensuring the project was completed on time.

St. Leonard’s Ministries

St. Leonard’s Ministries had complex zoning needs for their transitional housing project. They were matched with TA provider MUSE Community + Design to support holding a community meeting to share their project plans with adjacent neighbors and engage community stakeholders. This was an opportunity for St. Leonard’s to develop project storytelling and engage the community before successfully receiving zoning and special use permit approval from the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA).