* 7/22/26 - Crains - MHub is planning a massive West Side campus bigger than The 78..................
Buzz Sawyer
MHub is planning a massive
West Side campus bigger than The 78
MHub is starting to assemble properties next to its Near West Side advanced manufacturing incubator, hoping to kickstart an ambitious vision for a 72-acre “ecosystem” for industrial companies just blocks from both Fulton Market and a mixed-use campus taking shape around the United Center.
An affiliate of the nonprofit is in advanced talks to acquire a full city block immediately south of its building at 240 N. Ashland Ave. and a neighboring property at 1640 W. Walnut St., according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The potential expansion comes about two-and-a-half years after mHub relocated to the neighborhood from River West.
If the deals are completed, they would secure early pieces of a campus mHub has dubbed “M+” in the heart of the Kinzie Industrial Corridor and a few blocks north of the United Center, whose owners recently kicked off the $7 billion 1901 Project on the arena’s surrounding parking lots.
The creation of the M+ district — which would have a larger footprint than The 78 megaproject emerging in the South Loop — would mark a new chapter in the Near West Side’s long history as a hub of light industrial businesses and bolster an advanced manufacturing sector Gov. J.B. Pritzker has prioritized as a centerpiece of economic growth for the region.
Details of the M+ campus remain largely under wraps and in pre-development stages, and mHub CEO Haven Allen declined to comment. But the nine-year-old nonprofit disclosed a high-level description of the expansion in its most recent annual report, framing M+ as sprawling version of its existing hub with “purpose-built space for startups, manufacturers, researchers and workforce training programs to co-locate and accelerate advanced manufacturing and sustainable technology development,” the report said.
MHub reported receiving grants and investments last year to launch pre-development work from groups including the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, Builders Vision, the Blackhawks Foundation, Good Chaos and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.
“Their investment will lay the groundwork for a new model of place-based economic development that combines clean energy infrastructure, modern industrial space and a thriving ecosystem of hardtech companies, making Chicago a national blueprint for building a sustainable industrial future,” the annual report said.
A conceptual rendering in the report shows the M+ campus featuring a mix of new and repositioned industrial buildings running west from mHub’s current home to Damen Avenue between Lake and Kinzie streets. That would close a gap between mHub and the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago, another manufacturing-focused incubator just west of Damen that leases space to industrial entrepreneurs.
The mHub website also includes a job listing for a managing partner of the “M+ District Development Fund I,” an investment vehicle designed to support “a ~$250M Phase I development of the M+ District.”
It’s unclear how mHub would finance the massive expansion, which would require assembling a swath of properties in an area long-populated by brewers, floral shops, caterers, food wholesalers and other similar ventures operating out of vintage, mostly low-slung buildings. The annual report lists a target of $1.3 billion in unspecified “public and private investment” at the campus.
Ald. Walter “Red” Burnett, 27th, said mHub has submitted its vision to the city’s Department of Planning & Development and is seeking city help to bankroll the project. The nonprofit already received $17.6 million in tax-increment financing money — property tax gains generated in the area — to help finance its $32.5 million 2023 acquisition of 240 N. Ashland and transformation of the property into a breeding ground for early-stage manufacturers.
Burnett told Crain’s the city assistance for M+ could include TIF money and would be “focused on the infrastructure buildout for the mHub expansion, primarily dealing with legacy buildings that need more investment for infrastructure purposes.”
“The original purpose of the (Kinzie Industrial Corridor TIF District) was to support a dilapidated industrial district, and particularly over there, west of Ashland, you see a lot of buildings that are old and need to be repurposed,” Burnett said.
The proposed campus, he added, “allows us to keep the (Kinzie Industrial Corridor) a planned manufacturing district, while not inhibiting all of the residents who live directly south of there with pollution because it’s more advanced manufacturing.”
The mHub annual report projected the M+ campus would retain and create 8,500 permanent jobs.
A DPD spokesman said in a statement the department is reviewing an application submitted by mHub earlier this year for a Community Development Grant-L to support the proposed expansion. CDG-L grants cover a range of city subsidies when a request exceeds $5 million.
It’s unclear how much city assistance is being discussed, but a source familiar with the matter said mHub is seeking about $50 million from the city for the initial phase of the project.
Other public help could come from the state of Illinois, which contributed $9.6 million in grant funding for mHub’s acquisition of its current building. The state has frequently supported the nonprofit’s mission: Illinois’ Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity is helping fund the buildout of 4,000 square feet of lab space for “advanced research and development of deep tech and quantum technologies,” Allen wrote in the annual report.
The state also reappropriated a $15.43 million grant for mHub in its budget for the fiscal year that began this month. The grant was originally appropriated in the previous year’s budget “for costs associated with construction of facilities and other capital improvements” for mHub, according to state records.
A DCEO spokeswoman said in a statement to Crain’s that plans for the grant funding have not been finalized and the department “is not currently involved in the financing of the M+ District.”
MHub’s current home and planned expansion are located in a federal opportunity zone, opening up another potential funding source for the project. Created by the Trump administration in 2017 — and made permanent by legislation last year — the program allows investors to defer paying taxes on capital gains if they redirect those profits into one of thousands of designated blighted areas, known as opportunity zones.
Sources familiar with the matter said mHub has toured a range of properties in recent months it may pursue for acquisition as part of the expansion.
Buildings and surface lots mHub would acquire along Lake Street between Ashland Avenue and Paulina Street are owned by entities managed by local real estate investor Steve Casper, according to Cook County property records. It’s unclear how much mHub is negotiating to pay for the properties, and Casper declined to comment.
Immediately west of mHub’s current home, the nonprofit would purchase the 41,118-square-foot building at 1640 W. Walnut from a venture of Chicago-based Peppercorn Capital, which bought it in 2023 for $4.7 million, property records show. Peppercorn also sold the 240 N. Ashland building to mHub in 2023.
A spokesman for Peppercorn did not respond to a request for comment.
MHub supported more than 320 startups and an average of 200 daily users at its Ashland building last year, according to the annual report.
Justin Laurence contributed.