Xquina Incubator Cafe celebrates groundbreaking in Little Village
After more than three years of planning and fundraising, Xquina Incubator Cafe, lauded as a wellspring of support for minority entrepreneurs, celebrated its groundbreaking Wednesday morning in Little Village.
The coffee-shop-meets-business-incubator on 26th Street and Drake Avenue will have three floors with a cafe, business incubator, media multi-purpose room and a shared commercial kitchen on the first floor, a co-working office, private offices, podcast room and video production on the second floor and a local artist gallery, event space and workforce training rooms on the third. It will be housed over two existing buildings, and at 13,000 square feet, doubles the estimated space of the original project proposal. Phase 1 and completion of the first floor are estimated to be finished next June.
Its goal is to create an “educational ecosystem” and address inequities that Black and brown business people face through mentorship, programming and access to capital, according to Blanca Soto, executive director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, which led the project.
“This project is rooted in the legacy of the strong Latino entrepreneurship and it will drive the future of the entrepreneurship in our community,” Soto said during a press conference Wednesday morning. “Xquina will also be a safe place for community residents to gather and share ideas with one another with the purpose of one day opening their own business.”
The team behind La Catedral Cafe and Restaurant will provide coffee to guests, while a shared open kitchen will be operated by FoodHero. The tri-level space will also offer three signature programs: Juntos Lanzamos for early-stage businesses, Juntos Emprendemos for growth-stage businesses and Juntos Avanzamos for finance-stage businesses. First Midwest Bank is the corporate funder of the Xquina incubator program.
The project was funded by the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, the Illinois Capital Bill and the Little Village Chamber of Commerce and the Little Village Community Foundation. In total, the project cost about $4.5 million. The groundbreaking of the Xquina location is the latest development in Little Village’s community-oriented projects, another being a community center converted from a vacant library.
“This represents what it means when we come together and collaborate to get something done for community," said Mayor Lori Lightfoot at the groundbreaking ceremony.
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