For the past four years, if there was a deal at City Hall that touched jobs and economic growth, Samir Mayekar was in the middle of it.
Mayekar is ending his run as outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s deputy for economic development. He’s stepping down Wednesday and headed back to a company he founded before entering city government.
The company is NanoGraf, which is working on a longer-lasting lithium-ion battery and, flush with a $10 million U.S. Defense contract, expects to complete a factory at 400 N. Noble St. by the end of the year.
His departure from a high-level city job is natural for a change of administration. The incoming mayor gets to pick a team. Besides returning to the private sector, Mayekar, 40, said he’ll be spending more time with a young family and maybe get a teaching gig or a couple of board seats.
It’ll be an active schedule but nothing like being at a mayor’s beck and call. A lot of people don’t last in that pressure, but Mayekar made it through Lightfoot’s entire term, shepherding projects from the casino plan down through neighborhood redevelopment. A particular point of pride is Lightfoot’s signature Invest South/West program to steer redevelopment to 10 largely poor communities.
In a wide-ranging conversation last week, Mayekar talked about his tenure at City Hall, what was accomplished despite the pandemic and wave of violent crime, and what he sees as the city’s greatest economic challenge. Some excerpts:
Chicago’s biggest ailment
“I think the central challenge of American cities, and Chicago’s not immune to this, is tackling inequality. The country has never had the level of inequality that it has today. … Mayor Lightfoot was the first modern Chicago mayor who saw all of the city, and I think her tenure will be a pivotal moment, so that all future mayors see all of the city and keep investment flowing in transformative ways to all areas of the city.”
The business community’s engagement in city affairs
“We need a modern approach and the business community, I think, is looking to find its voice in the post-pandemic era of what civic engagement is. There had been a definition of this. I think it was largely philanthropic based.” He said new approaches that align social goals with business opportunities are taking hold, citing investments in Chicago by Discover Financial Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Illinois Tool Works and Northwestern Medicine.
Was Bally’s the right bet for a casino?
“Absolutely, they’re already well underway constructing the temporary site at Medinah Temple. They did their sale-leaseback to get more financial capacity on the Tribune site [777 W. Chicago Ave.], and a few years from now that will open.”
Mayekar said he expects casino revenue to start flowing into city coffers this year, although that depends on the Illinois Gaming Board giving the go-ahead to Medinah Temple.
What will happen with Soldier Field?
“I still think we’re in the early — I have to use the right analogy here — the first quarter of that game. I think the next mayor is going to do everything possible, like any mayor would, to try to keep [the Bears] here and also be a prudent steward of the taxpayer funds.”
On Lightfoot’s combative style and fraught dealings with alderpersons
“I was very proud to host what I used to call rotating city halls. ... That really helped me get and build lasting relationships throughout the city. Those relationships have mattered. …
“I would just look at the results. And the results are that the city is being left on the best fiscal footing it’s ever transitioned to, we have billions of dollars in projects that are being transitioned just in the neighborhoods that never got them before. We had in the past two years over 300 companies move and expand here. … And this was all in the midst of a 100-year crisis.”
Downtown’s economic downturn
Mayekar said he expects La Salle Street will see more than $1 billion in renovations over the next five years to convert outmoded offices to residential space. “We have the fastest growing residential downtown over the past 20-plus years,” he said.
The biggest thing left undone
“I think the biggest item that’s undone is turning Invest South/West from a $2 billion initiative to a $20 billion initiative, and to do that you’re going to need a different level of embrace from corporate Chicago. … Many companies across America made enormously transformative commitments to cities in the wake of the murder of George Floyd as a model of what we’re going to do about racial equity. I think what’s left undone is that those checks have not been cashed yet by cities across the country.”
