Project of the Year Feature: Strength Through Collaboration
January 27, 2025
BURR RIDGE – For CISCO’s 7th 2024 Project of the Year Feature, the CISCO Executive Board decided to use its discretionary authority and award a Board Excellence honor. This year – HIRE360 Training & Business Development Center is recognized with the Strength Through Collaboration honor. This project was unique, and the Executive Board felt it deserved to be recognized. This is the third time the Board has use this discretionary authority. General contractor was LR Contracting; the client was HIRE360.
When considering submissions, judging criteria is based on: quality of construction, design, impact on the community and safety record.
The HIRE360 Training & Business Development Center is a newly constructed community center, converted from a former warehouse at 2540 S. State St., in Chicago’s Bronzeville community.
HIRE360, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization established in 2019, is an industry-led workforce and business development program working for Chicago communities to provide jobseekers career-level trades careers and contracting opportunities across the region’s construction industry. This new Center, with 54,000 square feet of space over two floors, is now home to our core programs: industry-focused pre-apprenticeship training applicable to more than 20 Union trades; women- and minority-owned business development emphasizing access to capital and capacity-building, career-focused youth outreach and orientation, and a supply chain diversity program to advance a more level playing field among the industry’s suppliers of goods and services.
The Center’s site was leased to HIRE360 by Related Midwest in 2019 and, over a four-year term, HIRE360 raised funds and in-kind support to purchase, gut and rehab the site and building, completely rebuilding its interior into a Center that includes space and facility for 1:1 and group instruction, meeting and conference space that can accommodate up to 500 guests, demonstration space, a parent/child center for working parents, a bicycle room, showers and an exercise facility, a loading dock and storage facilities for small business contractors’ equipment and supply, and a solar installation training center run by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).
The Center is also equipped with state-of-the-art digital, communications and security technology. Construction totaled $9 million, 30 percent of materials and labor were donated by industry contractors and Unions. Apprenticeship programs donating labor hours included Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council, Painters District Council #14, and Chicagoland Laborers’ District Council, and many others. Fifty percent of Labor was provided by WMBE owned contractors. More than half of the more than 10,300 labor hours expended for HIRE360’s construction were provided by Apprentices.
The Center secured its Certificate of Occupancy Aug. 2, 2024, and opened for business with a Sept. 26, 2024 ribbon-cutting event attended by industry and community leaders, and elected officials, including Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. The new Center can be expected to serve 5,000 guests yearly. Seventy-five percent of HIRE360’s 1,600 active candidates live in Qualified Census Tracts, Economically Disadvantaged Areas, or areas disproportionately impacted by the COVID pandemic.
Construction of the New Center comprised:
• Cleaning, restoration and repointing of existing masonry. Rebuilding of façade where needed. New windows were installed in select locations. Entry canopies for two main entrances. Loading dock rebuild with increased height. Metal paneling for loading dock and new main entrance.
• Rebuilding of roofing structure in two locations: for new elevator shaft; and to accommodate box trucks and waste collection associated with new loading dock. Patch and repair with new insulation, new membrane, and new curbs for roof mounted mechanical equipment. Replacement of three skylights. Installation of roof hatch for teaching equipment to be used for roofing and solar panel instruction.
• Construction of training lab with work benches and equipment connections for pipe bending, welding, and other technical skills instruction; eye wash stations and bathrooms in close proximity; large double doors accessing the loading dock; a standalone solar training installation lab; multipurpose meeting area; and a computer lab for digital training.
• Building modular conference and break-out rooms; board room, preserving existing doors, new acoustical materials; circulation and multipurpose space connecting training rooms and lobby for career fairs, exhibits, and reception area.
• Upper floor administrative offices renovation, and ground floor counseling and advisory offices connecting to circulation space and natural light.
• Construction of six single-stall all gender bathrooms in three clusters, each with two family- and ADA-accessible units; bike room for 16 bikes, with back of house entrance; changing rooms; shower; and gym.
• Prep for hospitality training facility including two training kitchens, cook and instructor stations, mixology and barista training labs; storage facilities accessible to loading dock, consolidated dish washing room; three model hotel rooms for training classes.
• Installation of permanent fixtures, coatings and materials, hardware and accessories needed for intended use, safety and maintenance of space, including landscaping of outdoor territories.
• Installation of equipment for passenger, freight and disability access between the facility’s first and second floors; ventilation and temperature control systems and monitoring; and a Building Management System to control and monitor HVAC and related systems.
• Acquisition and installation of electrical system components essential for security, lighting, and fire safety.
Construction safety was assured through lead contractor, LR Contracting whose comprehensive Construction Safety Policy covered administrative and environmental controls, occupational exposure, and project hazard controls.
Value engineering was integrated into HIRE360’s architect’s planning and modification of plans since their original drafting in early 2020. Efficiencies in acquisition of the project’s most costly materials and labor were maximized by the procurement of in-kind and pro bono commodities, which have been of equal or greater value than those outlined in architectural plans.
Value engineering throughout construction is also reflected in contractors’ use of prevailing wage Apprentice Labor, and in considering the maximum return on investment as commodities were either purchased or acquired through donation. HIRE360 industry partners’ donations provided them with the highest quality of materials available, which exceeded the quality of materials that might have been purchased through value engineered procurement.
This new Center also rents space to community-based organizations Chicago Federation of Labor Workforce & Community Initiative, and industry-wide workforce development program funded under the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership and U.S. Department of Labor support, and the UNITE HERE Chicago Hospitality Institute, a Pre-Apprenticeship program of UNITE HERE Local 1, who plan to construct two commercial kitchens and a hospitality training suite at the new Center.
In its five years since founding, HIRE360 has already played a leading role in projects including construction of the Obama Presidential Center, Bally’s Chicago Casino, and the modernization of Chicago Transit Authority’s rail lines. In the year ahead and beyond, HIRE360 will also be the lead for implementation of Pre-Apprenticeship programs throughout Central and Southern Illinois through the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.
Through HIRE360’s new Training & Business Development Center, HIRE360 and the industry have created a central location where industry leaders, contractors, developers, organized Labor and Apprentices can come together to advance career opportunity in the Union trades.
