Yeah, we have computer.
No, I don't have any I didn't bring it back. There we go
after you like it. I love it.
We have air in here today.
And I to work on Friday.
Friday was like
it's beautiful.
Hey, we want to make it work. They they better make it
work. We got 1 we got 2 and then Jeremy sent the email the
mail Zone, okay?
The email last night. It was so funny because I didn't see
it last night after she sent Amber sent the email last
night, but I was like, my nerves are bad turn my phone off.
So then I turned it on this morning at 8, and I'm like
tomorrow tomorrow's today and then I looked
Oh, don't forget that the clerks website down. So my intern
my project manager. Yeah, there they go. They were online.
It was like something is wrong. We can't check it. Are you
sure? I'm like, I am sure. Okay. Let me check go back.
So was the clerk's not my fault.
definitely Clerk
Yes, something's going on chamber's going to change.
Started his 9:30 meeting at 9:50 morning.
She don't show up. I know she kind of pull up idols.
Everybody go over there. All right, I'm gonna start my
meeting.
I'll come introduce myself. Oh, we better not switch your
phones out. Oh wow.
You're get a thousand phone calls from us.
Yeah, go ahead. Just answer it. You got that phone already.
Then I get this. Okay, so I don't really need to buy the
Amber now do I really need to buy the Amber now?
Then you saw the Republican. Um convention is coming next
week. So they were sending like a trillion emails about all
the dignitaries. Oh, I didn't hear come through here.
Tails coming through here.
I don't think Milwaukee airport is big enough to yeah, you
mean in private flights like charter flights. I don't think
this private they're just commercials coming commercial.
stand
Oh good. Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense. Sorry. No, I think you
have to ask the guy will you ask the guy Margie who's
taking him? Do you see if anybody's out of yet? Because we
know Sam.
starting
that
Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah, it's a big deal really excited. It's
great. And actually I want I got 4 of ours next door. They
want another person with you. Okay, great. He's literally
just gonna take the show but no I thought when we first
started they just gave us this basically.
video that runs
if it's bright green.
They have they feature.
3 different parts. They just have we need the videos. Will
it be done by?
Uh 1 day this um, first week of 5, I wanted to shoot. Yeah.
Okay, that would be good. We have to do Promos in play and
everything else for 2.
How you feeling?
have anybody here.
black
you have any and I'm right on the
all you see.
right, but I want them to stop you have the the like
security blanket my best friend. She has a golden doodle.
They don't know. Yes.
Sgn iPhone 13 on Zoom. Could I please have your name?
I'm sorry. Could you repeat that for me?
Sgn is Sam Nugent.
Thank you.
Sorry.
No, wait you yeah, we talked about a couple weeks ago
around. What time frame are we doing?
1980.
Hello.
I
Uh, no.
All right. Hey folks. We're gonna start in about 1 minute 1
minute.
You didn't get out.
For real quick.
Really?
Good morning.
Time is now 10:10 a.m.
The meeting of the committee on Aviation is called to
order.
We will now have a roll call to establish a quorum.
Alderman OSHA is present
Vice chairman Curtis
Herman Hopkins
Alderman Dow
Alderman Robinson
Alderman Harris
Alderman Lee
Alderman Quinn
Alderman Lopez
Alderman Coleman
Alderman Rodriguez
Alderman Taris
Alderman Bernett
alderman
Alderman Cardona president
alderman waguespack
Alderman mitts
Alderman specific chair
Alderman Nugent
present
Alderman Napolitano
Ladies and gentlemen, the following Alders have requested
remote access for today's committee on Aviation meeting.
Alderman Dow
Alderman nent here. Are there any other aldermen?
present
yeah Alderman in uh
Okay, Alderman Ervin Alderman Nugent.
And Alderman dowels here.
Alderman Dal
having a quorum already present. Can I get a motion
recommend approval of these rule 59 requests?
Alderman Cardona, so moved
all in favor say I
all opposed
the opinion of the chair the eyes have it.
Ladies and gentlemen at this point we will begin public
comment.
our first speaker
Is Teresa Hughes?
TJ Hughes, that would be me.
here
Yes, uh, please have a seat state your name, and then you
can begin. Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Teresa TJ Hughes. How you doing?
How are you?
Uh, hello Mr. Chairman and all of you find ottoman that I
hear today in person, which means a lot I am an advocate
for black contractors, um women and men and also for just
the minority contractors period
but I am specifically here to speak for my people which are
black people.
uh, and the fact that Aviation has been
Taken out the black contractors from the um Contracting.
um
process
and I would like to know why you all allow her Jamie to um,
only use boa as the
Black contractor for all of the aviation, uh contracts.
This is like crazy because there are other black
contractors who are certified and qualified and can do very
well themselves. The other thing that I would like to ask
is for you Mr. Chairman, uh Eileen the last quiz, she was
supposed to be removed is is out here in the public that
she's gone. But in actuality she's on administrative leave
paid,
And that is not good because she still has access to the
city services. She's uh able to write emails to people and
um, so it's like she's just on a pay vacation. You could
give me that job. I would do a better job. Okay, because I
do have experience in procurement.
the other thing that I would like to bring before this body
is the fact that is there any way that the IG can
investigate those 2 departments, uh as far as Aviation and
also as far as DPS, but I know you're on Aviation sir. So
I'll stick to the points of Aviation. Um,
I think I pretty much covered it. I just want to make sure
that by contractors get their fair share of contracts.
There's so much money out here in the city to be had
through, you know, the city and federal things that are
going on and um, lastly I just want to say to you Mr.
Chairman that
You said that you had been to my home you have never been
to my home and uh, I just wanted to go on a record to state
that we don't have any kind of.
Report like that. But um, I'd like to work with you and uh
help you to do your job.
And I still got 18 seconds. So cut that off.
and um
That's basically it just I want to hold you all
accountable. I will be holding you accountable just want
you to know um, and I'm not scared to do that. And um, I
expect you to
To do your job because we're paying you to do your job and I
expect you to do it. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Miss Hughes. Our next speaker is Mr. George,
Blakemore.
Mr. Blakemore should be phone he had the Ronald from the
southern meeting over here. And and it's it's just terrible
having 2 meetings at the same time. Oh, I should be clone.
Anyway, I'm looking.
at Aviation
the committee today
and I don't see anybody black here.
Now you can't lay that on these white folks.
You can't lay this on this white folks Mr. Blakemore where
your black people at this community meeting. Where are
they?
so again
It's very important for a concerned citizen to appear.
Now the last lady was speaking about these jobs in
contracts at at at O'Hare and it at these Midway Airport.
and the vendors
You know something happened to the black man and woman on
the plantation.
Something happened in Africa. He did not embrace the new
technology.
Where are inferior man had the gun and the gun powder and
capture them. So we must embrace the new technology.
The database they was talking about over here. Now, how you
gonna get by me in 2 places a George Blakemore at this
meeting and a George Blakemore over there. What did you do
this?
And then in a few minutes they bit my minutes is up. Who
did this 2 meetings are going on at the same time. I have a
right to go to bed for them and both of them.
And somebody said Mr. Blakemore, they have an aviation then
I got to run over here.
Racism is very, uh rapid here. You can see right here.
Right here.
Nepotism all of this is going on here in the city of
Chicago because we have a 1 140 system the Democratic
machine each 1 of threats to the other back Mr. Blakemore
get in the gutter with them. Tell them they 69.
Each other this is like a communist system, but you got
nerving up to tell me when my time is up. I'm supposed to
be able to go to both of these meetings.
both of them
Why would you put 2 meetings at the same time?
Again, and now look over there while I'm talking Mr.
Wilders fact, stop it you 2 while I'm talking you show
disrespect for the black community stop it.
Just stop it. Anyway, we need more jobs good contracts and
service and we need black people to step up and stop being
sour when I go out to Ohio. All these vendors are white
hispanic Asian. So you deserve the government you get and
you get the government you deserve.
Did this to your mama?
to your mama
You got thank you, Mr. Blakemore.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the public comment
period
we have 2 items before us this morning item number 1 is the
approval of the March 12th, 2024 monthly rule 45 report for
the committee on Aviation.
If there are no questions, can I get a motion to recommend
approval of the report?
Alderman Rodriguez so moves all in favor. Say I
all opposed
in the opinion of the chair the eyes have it.
Before we move on to the next item. I'd like to recognize
my esteemed colleague from the eighth Ward.
Alderman Michelle Harris is here.
esteemed
item number 2
ordinance 202401 01130
the approval of the concession lease and license agreement
at Chicago O'Hare International Airport for individual
Leasing and Licensing with HFF. Hph skord T5. LLC
concession are
Miss Amber Ritter from the Department of Aviation is here
to explain the ordinance and to answer any questions
committee members may have
Mr. Thank you chairman. Thank you members of the committee
for your time this morning. Uh, again, I'm Amber Ritter
managing Deputy Commissioner and chief commercial officer
for the city's Department of Aviation and I have also here
with me thyia towns Deputy Commissioner for IGA, uh and
customer service, uh for the Department of Aviation, um
along with some uh members of the team that will be uh
seeking approval of this lease behind me. I'll introduce
them in a moment. Um, thank you all for your time this
morning on behalf of commissioner Reed. Uh, I'm very
excited to be here to present to you a lease for a uh, what
I frankly think, uh, clo is a very cool new concession, uh
that I'm very excited to introduce to Terminal 5 of O'Hare.
Uh, what this is is a the concept is the uh, the
Bronzeville bar in bites and it is modeled after the
original Bronzeville Winery, which of course is located in
our Bronzeville neighborhood. Um, I have here today and
I'll be bringing them up for a comment shortly, uh
Representatives. Uh,
From the Bronzeville original Bronzeville Winery in
Bronzeville, specifically Cecilia cuff, um and she'll speak
a little bit about the agreement between the uh, brick and
mortar, uh on the street restaurant and this concession.
But before we get to that I'll give you a little bit more
background about the lease that we're asking for approval
of um, this uh, this restaurant and bar was put out as an
RFP in November of 2022. Um, it it includes a space. That's
what I call a bar in the round concept. It's in the middle
of The Concourse in an area of our new expansion area of
Terminal 5 at O'Hare, uh, where uh, it sort of turns a
corner. So we call it the elbow and it will be a really
really exciting focal point in the middle of that space.
Uh, we had 5 proposals that were submitted in response to
our RFP and the evaluation committee evaluated them and and
the highest points were awarded to this concept. The the
tenants here is a joint venture between uh, 3 companies.
The first is high-flying foods, which is a a national
Concession company, uh based in San Francisco, uh, they
operate 40 concession locations at uh, 7 US airports. Um,
the second partner, uh is uh Hyde Park Hospitality LLC,
which of course is a local Chicago based company, uh headed
by president and CEO Mark Brooks who is here today also to
speak. Um, and the last of the 3 joint venture Partners is
Santa clarina LLC, which is also a local Chicago based
hospitality company headed.
By Karina Sanchez who was also here today to speak 1 of the
most exciting things about this, uh, this lease this option
is the fact that it has a very high acdbe percentage. Of
course that stands for airport concession are disadvantaged
business Enterprise. So of that joint venture 45% of it is
uh controlled by the high-flying foods entity, but the
other 55% are controlled by the 2 AC dbe companies. So it
reaches an acdbe rate of 55% uh, which is um, really, uh,
you know, a very high percentage and something we're very
proud of of that 55% Uh, it's 45% uh owned by Hyde Park
hospitality and 10% by Santa. Clarina LLC.
So, um, we're very excited about this concept. What I'd
like to do now is bring let me just talk. Sorry a little
bit about the terms of the lease. It's a 10 year lease. Um,
it's just like all of our concessions. It is based on a
percentage rent, uh structure so that the uh, alcoholic
beverages, uh, pay for alcoholic beverage sales. They pay a
percentage rent of 18% and for all other, uh, food and
beverage sales, uh, non-alcoholic and all the food be food
sales. It's 15% Um, there's also a minimum annual guarantee
that kicks in in the third year. There's no mag for the
first and the second year just to get you know, focus on
their feet and then the mag momentum are annual guarantee
is based on the sales from year 2. Um, and of course,
there's also a
Base rent that's a per square foot run that they pay just
like all of our most of our concession airs, uh, and that
is set right now at $44 a square foot and then that goes up
3% a year. So it's a 10-year lease. Um, again, it's a bar
with small bites concept. So what that means of course is a
full service bar plus, uh food options, um, you know 1 of
the things that we're most excited about with this with
this concept is bringing the neighborhoods into the
airport. So we really try to focus on bringing Chicago into
our airports with our concessions and I think we've really
been doing a great job with that but a lot of times, you
know at Chicago Concepts that are downtown Chicago Concepts
that are in, you know, other areas of the city, but now
we're going to have a Chicago concept that is in the
Bronzeville neighborhood so that all of our you know, many
of our Travelers flying out of Terminal 5 and that includes
International Travelers as well as domestic Travelers on
our domestic carriers that fly out of T5, which is
Southwest and Frontier, um will be able to experience a bit
of our Bronzeville neighborhood and will become you know
more
Acquainted with it, um and through the concept that has
been perfected really by the original Bronzeville Winery
Restaurant, uh run by Cecilia cuff. So with that I would
like to take uh, if I uh, if I have your permission to
bring up some of these folks just for a quick word about
about um, their their excitement about the proposal and
also just a little bit about the business deal. So if I
could start with Cecilia cuff who is uh associated with the
original Bronzeville liner, I
Could you introduce yourself and talk a little bit about
your role with the original brandsville Winery? And um with
this concession? Absolutely. Uh, my name is Cecilia cuff.
Thank you all for having us here today. I am the co-owner
of bronzo Winery with Eric Williams right over here. Uh,
we've been open just over 2 years located at 44th in
Cottage Grove. Um, and it's been an incredible experience
for us growing as as entrepreneurs and as a small black
owned and female own business, but also as a staple in our
community and on 44th in Cottage Grove, so the space has
attracted about 200,000, uh, in foot traffic to the
location, uh, additionally we've created about 50 jobs, and
we've also just recently promoted our sous chef to a new
black owned restaurant that we've designed in the South
Shore Cultural Center. Um, so what we the work that we do
at bronzo winery doesn't stop where we are, uh, it
continues to continues to grow and grow our community and
our and our and the people in our community. Um, as far as
this partnership goes, we feel really blessed to be able to
work with, um, esteemed Partners high-flying food.
Foods when we first met them and their Journey coming as
operators on the same level as we were to now being in the
airport business, uh was really insightful and their level
of experience and depth of experience. We felt like was a
great uh partnership, um, additionally with high-flying
Foods knowing that they routed some of the first
Hospitality experiences in Hyde Park. Um, they've really
become great mentors to us and then additionally, um with
Santa um, The 2 Sisters being able to be affiliated.
With um, a female owned family run business felt again
really close to our value. So as far as any partnership
goes of all of the of all of the people who we could work
with or have the opportunity to lend our name to and know
that they would carry out our mission. Uh, we felt like
that was the right partnership. So we feel really blessed
to be here. Again. It's our first exposure going from small
business that came from an nof Grant just from the city of
Chicago and now having the opportunity to grow into this
means the world to us. Um, and we hope that it's just the
start once everybody has a chance to go and explore
Bronzeville bar and bites in in the airport. Uh, we hope
that there'll be many more.
Thank you very much, Cecilia. Um chairman should open up to
questions if there are any for Cecilia.
Why don't we have everybody go and then we'll we'll have
questions at the end if that's okay with my colleagues.
Thank you very much.
Um next I'd like to uh, introduce uh, Karina Sanchez who is
the owner of the Santa clarina LLC company, uh again with a
10% interest in this joint venture,
uh, good morning chairman and members of the committee
Karina Sanchez. I'm here representing Santa clarina where a
acdbe MBE wbe company, uh local to Chicago. We own and
operate La Luna and pilson and um soon to be 2 locations as
we're opening 1 in Logan squares as well in september and
we also um managed, uh, various family restaurants that um,
we own across the city of Chicago.
Including you know, most Cantina old car smoke house. So
we've been in the hospitality industry on the street of
Chicago for a very long time and we have always had our
sights set on trying to do something at the airport and we
felt like this was the perfect opportunity to get our feet
wet. Um, we'll be helping with marketing and training and
really I think what we're really getting out of it is
learning from 2 other companies that have been doing it for
years. So they're going to be passing down.
their knowledge and their knowhow to a new acdbe company
and hopefully what we can get from that is to grow from
there and continue our growth and success as an acdbe wbe
MBE company as well. Thank you. Thank you very much Karina.
And last I'd like to introduce. Um, Mark Brooks who is the
president and CEO of Hyde Park Hospitality, uh, which has a
45% interest in the joint venture mark
Thank you, Amber. And I Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, good morning to the aviation committee, uh
members and thank you for having us uh this morning to talk
about this exciting opportunity again. I'm Mark Brooks. I'm
a second generation entrepreneur in the food industry. Uh,
I started High Park Hospitality a little over 12 years ago
at 1 employee today. We have north of a thousand employees.
So I'm proud of that. Um, most of those jobs are in the
Chicago area we happen to touch um now 20 airports.
And again, we started with a single restaurant in High Park
a place called Park 52 that some of uh, the members of the
committee have have frequented over the years. Uh, so um
really excited about this opportunity. Uh, not only we
bring in jobs, uh to the community from the community into
the airport. But uh, as a my partners have alluded we're
bringing in an inner city concept from the fourth ward to
the airport, uh, in addition to that. This is a
minority-led transaction, which is um hard to do in this in
this industry again, we'll have 45% Santa Clara. I have the
10% and we're bringing in an inner city concept, uh, and
they'll also have a license fee in the deal. So we're
sharing the wealth building more wealth and creating jobs.
So we're really excited to bring this this concept to uh to
the to the airport.
Thank you very much Mark.
Um with that chairman I I that is my presentation. So I'd
like to entertain any questions if there are any thank you
Amber. Are there any questions from committee members?
or uh, Alderman Harris
Today I couldn't be more delighted to sit in this space and
see these uh things come to fruition. Uh people that I
actually know is who knew you know, it's like I'm really
proud of the partnership that we built today. Um, when I
look at all the beautiful lovely minority faces that will
create something and I can walk through that airport and
say gee I know these people for real and so, um, what an
amazing journey it will be for people of color, uh to have
the experience of knowing that uh, they can be something
they can see something and the exposure that this gets to
help grow minority businesses. Uh, so I'm super proud for
this day to finally come and see so much minority
participation. I want to thank again the aviation chairman
and of course Aviation for working really hard to put this
deal together, um, as we would say it's about time. So
thank you all. Um, I wish you great success. I know giving
your current models and what you currently
Do that. Um, you'll this is just the beginning for growth
and development at our major airports Across the Nation.
Thank you. Alderman Harris Alderman's Pat.
Thank you chairman. I just just want to say this is awesome
story. Um your business won the Thousand. That's awesome.
Of course Sam Sanchez. I'm guessing you're related to him.
So it's awesome guy. He has a 1 of the best testimonies
I've ever seen from somebody from Chicago a guy that was
born here but raised in Mexico and a huge success a hugely
generous awesome individual and then of course your
business, I I sought a renderings at a place. I tell you it
looks pretty awesome. So, uh, um, you know people will be
stopping there. I don't know that people are really care
about what community they're from in the city, but when
they catch an eye catch in place, and I'm sure you'll be a
friendly place to go to I just want to wish you all the
best a huge success and uh, uh, also I'm glad you didn't
say you're lucky. I'm glad you said you were a blessed
because sometimes people see you lucky. None of you got to
where you are with luck I could guarantee you that hard
work and sacrifice, and I just wish you would continue
success, and this is an awesome story for the city. So best
best wishes to all of you. Thank you chairman. Thank you.
Thank you. Alderman pasado couldn't agree with you more
Alderman Rodriguez.
Um, thank you Mr. Chairman. First. I want to congratulate
you. I think you run a rock solid committee and set a high
standard for transparency engagement with committee
members. This has been put in front of us. We've been
briefed on it. Uh, I feel like because of that attention to
detail. Um, we come out with such a good product. Um, I
couldn't agree with my colleagues more, uh, particularly
knowing uh, the Sanchez family very well, uh, very excited
about their engagement here. Uh, Eric and I are fast
becoming real good friends, uh working on a number of
issues together and I'm excited to visit your space in the
in the very near future. Um, but I think this is an example
of uh, good government promoting, um business and then
promoting the fact that this is going to lead to
significant, uh, tax dollars, uh for the city of Chicago.
Um, you know, you laid out the structure
the 18% on drinks 15 on food. Um, it's it's a Innovative
concept that uh throughout the country is looked at as a
best practice and I want to commend this partnership, uh
Community coming together building Unity around this kind
of project really is an example to others about how this
should be done. So, uh, congratulations to you all and to
you Mr. Chairman, I'm sure you agree with my statement as
well.
I do any other committee members, uh, Alderman Hopkins.
Yeah, congratulations. This is uh, an exciting concept and
I enjoyed the story as uh, my colleague just alluded to
it's a it's a good compelling story and it deserves to be
told uh, in fact your customers deserve to hear it. Of
course. The problem is you're in Terminal 5. Most of your
customers are in a hurry, right? They're trying to catch a
flight. They're not going to have time but for those few
that actually do have time maybe their flights delayed or
or they have some time to kill. Um, I'm just wondering if
there's any kind of uh, interpretive um elements to your
design, uh, you know, photographs maybe a plaque on the
wall, you know, International customers, they they might
not even know where Bronzeville is, you know, is there an
opportunity that you have uh through through your design
and your Decor to tell a little bit of your story for the
people that have time and interest
We introduce yourself to yeah, absolutely Colton Myers
president of Highline foods and thank you very much. We're
very excited by the partnership. I think, you know, we've
done a great job of bringing everyone together. It was
really, you know, led by everyone here and clearly it's a
lot of Chicago local groups and I think on the design we
worked with, you know, our chief creative officer and our
architect to really showcase what Bronzeville has in the
location.
You know, we have a lot of photography of kind of everything
that Bronzeville stands for we've done the design. So when
people are walking by it, they can see through it so that
they can see out the windows but that they can also see
that it's a bar that it's a restaurant and I think really
what we were trying to create is a sense of place of for
people to stay there. I think usually, you know, a quick
bar can be easy to just have a drink at but what we we
really wanted to focus on is look there's great music here.
There's you know, a lot of soul. There's really everything
that you'd want out of Bronzeville. And I know if you guys
have been to the Bronzeville location, but it's phenomenal
it really feels like there's something there and I think
when we were working with the design team, it was really
how do we showcase what Bronzeville is doing? It's clearly
doing something different in this location. It's bringing a
lot of people to this place. So I think with our design, we
really try to Showcase everything that they're doing
whether it's their design but also some imagery on the
the walls that shows hey, here's the history of
Bronzeville. Here's what it really stands for. So I think
we're very excited. We're very excited also go through the
design stages and really make
sure that it speaks to um, you know, the Chicago, you know
rods, uh design of what they want that whole entire
terminal to look like and I think it's really going to gain
some national attention. I think this is kind of for us.
It's I know we wanted to come through this and say, you
know what? This is a very Chicago brand let's also bring in
Chicago Partners into this and let's really take uh more of
an oversight role in this and make sure that we're sharing,
you know Santa clarina that we're shepherding.
and that Hyde Park we
design or the Ops, I think it's really going to speak to
what
excited.
Outstanding, uh, congratulations again and Mr. Chairman.
Uh, I hope this committee gets an invitation to the ribbon
cutting. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. You will.
Alderman Dow
Mr. Chairman, oh great. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I
can't be there today. Uh, unfortunately, but this is the
exactly the kind of work that the city of Chicago should be
engaging in promoting, uh, small businesses promoting
minority businesses and helping uh businesses that have
been in the trenches a while to grow I'm excited about uh,
this uh particular, um project that's being brought for us
for to us for approval. Um, I congratulate Mark Karina and
Cecilia for all of their efforts, uh to highlight and
amplify the history of Bronzeville and the the name
Bronzeville, uh, which so many across the world know now
more will know of our wonderful community and I think I
speak also on behalf of aldermen, uh, Lamont Robinson, uh,
who has the uh, who hosts the um, Bronzeville the
Original Bronzeville Winery and his Ward, but we as the
Ward residents we get to enjoy uh, their the benefit of
them being there too. And we just want to congratulate
them. I look forward to voting on this in a positive way,
and I wish everyone involved and the department of Aviation
the best and thanks.
Thank you. Alderman Dow Alderman Ervin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, really 2 quick questions. Um as
the last conversation we had on this, uh related to a
licensing agreement with Bronzeville ohriner and this, uh
Restaurant Group has that been resolved.
Uh, thank you Alderman, uh as uh, Miss cuff mentioned, um,
there will be a license agreement. My understanding is it's
uh with the lawyers, you know, which always take some time
between the parties what we do have now what the what the
parties do have now, I should say is a letter agreement,
but they are working on a license agreement that will be
showed up before the restaurant is operational.
Okay, uh, thank you. Uh, that's a question and 1 question
number 2 is we've got a 55% nbe or acdbe, uh Venture here,
uh, why uh, is it that this group could not uh do the whole
thing themselves. Uh, I mean, we're 55% and you got high
flying Foods in as well.
the sound was like there were they don't their role really
is very minimal and I'm trying to understand why the
percentage on their end is higher high and we still have
uh, you know, the other 2 people just that the uh at the
55% mark
Uh, well, I like, you know, I'm not going to speak to their
business decision. Um,
You want would you like to that'd be great. Thanks, Mark.
Hey man, um, thank you for the question, uh and this
business because it's so Capital intensive. Uh, we're
looking at anywhere from 1500 to 2 thousand dollars a
square foot to build out. So let's just take a thousand
square feet. You're talking about 2 million dollar
restaurant.
Um, although we would love to say we want to take the
entire thing.
Uh, we look at uh spreading risk, right? So we want to bid
on multiple Concepts in the future. So we want to save a
little capital and we brought in a partner who we've worked
with for the last Almost decade in high-flying Foods. Um,
the structure of this deal was unlike any structure that is
in the airport today. There are no deals that there's a 55%
acdv lead and let me let me underscore that. Um, so again
as we look at expanding we want to hold some Capital back.
Um, so when we look at Future opportunities, which we
understand will be forthcoming. We want to have some dry
powder to bid on similar types of deals. So as opposed to
going to 100% on this we want to say oh
We'll come back. We'll cut back some.
And we'll look at Future opportunities. So hopefully that
answers your question.
Okay, very well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No
other No 1 else is speaking. I'll move you pass.
Thank you Alderman Ervin Alderman Robinson.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman for allowing me the opportunity.
Uh, let me uh first uh, give up some a kudos to our
Aviation. Uh,
Commissioner and the staff, uh for uh, putting together, uh
uh, a deal that not only showcases a great community that
ottoman Dow and I represent the Bronzeville Community, uh,
but uh 3 great, uh businesses, uh that have been giving
back, uh to Chicago and the Sanchez family. Uh, we have Mr.
Mark Brooks there. You've also heard from Cecilia huff and
then we also have Eric Williams. I think that it also,
Said something that Cecilia and Eric Williams have uh have
really invested in the Bronzeville community in a world.
A whirlwind restaurant that will be on the Showcase, uh at
the O'Hare Airport and so Kudos, uh to this group again to
the aviation Department. Um, we need to figure out ways
that we can
continue to uh, work on uh, uh deals like this, uh for
minorities across the city of Chicago and so I look forward
forward to working on that, uh with the rest of the
committee members on this committee. And again, I just
appreciate the opportunity and congrats again. Thank you.
Thank you Alderman Robinson. Are there any other committee
members with any questions?
There are no questions. Can I get a motion recommend
approval of the report?
Alderman Spas so moves all in favor. Say I
All opposed the opinion of the chair the eyes have it.
Ladies and gentlemen, the new pass recommendation of this
ordinance will be reported out of the next city council
meeting on Wednesday, July 17th.
2024
I'd like to thank everybody for coming out today, uh and in
closing I just want to recognize uh the leadership.
Of some of the folks in this room not only your success but
helping others lifting them up. Um, let's keep at it.
There's going to be a lot more opportunities moving forward
at the airport, and I'd also like to recognize commissioner
re and her team uh for making sure the diversity is front
and center. Thank you.
Thank you chairman. Thank you committee members.
Ladies and gentlemen meeting and the committee on Aviation
is adjourned. Have a good day.