The city of Chicago has created an infrastructure bank — the Chicago Infrastructure Trust — that will be funded with up to $1 billion from five institutional investors.
The five are Citibank, Citi Infrastructure Investors, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s infrastructure investment group and Ullico. Each firm has agreed to consider the projects that the trust is undertaking and evaluate them for investment, according to a news release from the office of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Citi Infrastructure Investors is committing investment capacity of up to $200 million and Citi Community Capital, a division of Citigroup’s municipal finance business is committing $200 million, said spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos.
In addition to private investment provided by the five institutional investors, the trust will be funded by the city, bonds and grants.
The trust’s first project will be to finance a $200 million to $225 million project to reduce the city’s energy consumption by 20%, according to the news release. “The Chicago Infrastructure Trust will bring additional resources to stimulate public and private investment in our infrastructure, create thousands of jobs for Chicagoans, and ensure that our residents have a world-class quality of life,” Mr. Emanuel stated in the release.
Representatives of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Macquarie Group and Ullico all confirmed their firms’ participation, but did not provide further comment. Officials in the mayor’s office could not be reached by press time.
