Some of Chicago’s biggest real estate developers and restaurateurs have formed a security-focused community group in Fulton Market to deter local crime, and they’re seeking funding from area landlords and businesses to help pay for it.
The Fulton Market District Improvement Association, formed in November, wants to hire P4 Security Solutions, a private security firm, to patrol the booming Fulton Market District, which would cost $800,000 annually, Block Club reported.
The district’s new improvement association is headed by One Off Hospitality owner Donnie Madia. The group also comprises heavyweights like developer Jeff Shapack, BoKa Restaurant Group partners Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz and Kivvit founder and CEO Eric Sedler, plus development firm Sterling Bay’s managing director of security Erin Belknap.
Group leaders are asking building and business owners to help pay for the security, requesting sponsorships ranging from $1,000 to $100,000. If hired, P4 would patrol Fulton Market on a 24/7 basis, with three or four patrol cars deployed in an area bounded by Washington Boulevard, Hubbard Avenue, North Ogden Avenue and North Halsted Street. It would also mark the largest service area patrolled by P4 in the city.
“What’s really important here is that we, as a community, band together and figure out what we need to do in the next few months to deploy P4,” Madia told the outlet.
Read more
Development
Chicago
Blue-chip law firm flips the script on Fulton Market’s tech scene
Commercial
Chicago
Fulton Market lab development in flux
Development
Chicago
Shapack secures Fulton Market demo permit
P4 principal Steve Vitale emphasized that the officers wouldn’t serve as a replacement for police or do a job that’s similar to law enforcement. While P4 officers can detain someone if the situation is in line with the company’s use of force continuum — a set of policies that guide how and when officers can use their weapons — no P4 officer has shot a gun during a neighborhood patrol.
Fulton Market and West Loop have seen an increase in crime in recent years. In total, 474 acts of crime have occurred in Fulton Market so far this year, up from 376 during the same time last year, the outlet reported, citing a P4 analysis.
— Quinn Donoghue