Chicago Opens New Fleet Headquarters

Happy Valentine‘s Day, Chicago! LIVE at 10:30am, we’re cutting the ribbon on the City of Chicago's Department of Fleet and Faciltiy Management new headquarters in Englewood. Tune in here: https://t.co/MI4fvv6B9v pic.twitter.com/WT01Jo9YMd

— Mayor Rahm Emanuel (@ChicagosMayor) February 14, 2019

The City of Chicago has opened its new Fleet and Facility Management (2FM) headquarters. The facility is built on a 12.5-acre site in Englewood as part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the south-side community.

The new headquarters will be used for the repair and maintenance of city equipment and will include administrative offices and various trade shops to support the operation for carpenters, sheet metal workers, blacksmiths, and painters.

The site of the new headquarters was formerly part of Kennedy King College. The president of the college told Block Club Chicago that he is looking forward to collaborating with 2FM on job training programs for students in the school’s auto tech program.

In 2016, Mayor Rahm Emanuel directed 2FM to find ways to improve operational efficiency for the department, the city, and user departments. During this review, one maintenance shop was determined to be underutilized and expensive to operate. Annual operating expenses on the facility exceeded $1 million.

The waterfront site was sold to a developer in October 2017 for $104.4 million. A portion of the profits will fully fund the new 2FM headquarters and two additional facilities — one dedicated to heavy-duty vehicle repair and another to serve as a city fueling station. All three facilities are custom-built and energy-efficient and, according to the agreement with the construction company, will be designed and built at a guaranteed maximum price of $40.5 million.