A new 67,000 square foot incubator for companies in the food and beverage industry will break ground in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood later this year. The Hatchery as it’s called will feature state-of-the-art kitchens for small businesses like cookie makers, coffee roasters and distillers and offer up a menu of resources to help those businesses grow their operations. According the Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who announced the project Tuesday, the Hatchery will create 150 jobs in its first year and 900 jobs over the course of five years. It will also transform a few empty lots around the Kedzie Green Line into a what has the potential be a hub of economic activity.

Morning Shift talks to Steve DeBretto, executive director of the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago, about Chicago’s growing food and beverage sector, how plans for the Hatchery came together and what we can expect from the incubator a few years down the line.