Our Stories is an ongoing CIC initiative to showcase Black real estate professionals and their contributions to the affordable housing and community development industries. To submit your own story for inclusion in a future profile, email CIC at ourstories@cicchicago.com. Read more about this initiative here.
Marcus Perkins and Tracy Hughes are a husband and wife team that have together meticulously rehabbed and restored a 10-unit rental property in Bronzeville. As first-time CIC borrowers, Mr. Perkins and Ms. Hughes built on the investment knowledge they gained while undertaking several small projects before taking on this larger property in Bronzeville.
Mr. Perkins’ primary occupation is as a construction worker in the concrete trades, and Ms. Hughes is a Human Resources Executive at a global Freight Services corporation.
CIC spoke to this husband and wife team about their journey to real estate investment and the Bronzeville property on which they recently completed rehab using CIC financing. Below is an excerpt from the conversation. (Responses have been edited for length.)
CIC: How did you get into the real estate development business?
Marcus Perkins (MP): My background is in construction, and I was a concrete union laborer for many years. I always knew I wanted to be the boss, and real estate investment and development seemed like a natural next step.
Tracy Hughes (TH): Our first investment together was a condo unit in South Shore. It was move-in ready, so the process was fairly simple. After that, we began small rehab projects on mobile homes. This 10-unit building is definitely our first major renovation and project.
CIC: What led you to investing in Bronzeville and in this particular property?
MP: I grew up in this neighborhood, actually right around the corner from our building. It was important to me to find the right property in this specific area. After looking for a while, the previous owner – a doctor who had served the community through his office for many years – told me he was looking to sell. He knew I was a local resident and connected to the community, so the building was ours to buy in 2016 before it went to market. Getting this property was a real blessing.
“Stay persistent, and expect the unexpected. It makes me feel good to see people living here after so many years of work.”
– Tracy Hughes
CIC: How important is that community connection for you?
MP: It is very important to both of us. This project offered a great opportunity to invest in our community and provide needed affordable rental housing. It’s also a way for me to provide community jobs. I relied primarily on local residents to hire for the gutting and clean out work, and people knew they could come to me and ask if there was any work to be done.
CIC: This building was in need of significant rehab when you purchased it. How was that process and were there any surprises along the way?
TH: This whole project was full of surprises! When you are taking on a gut rehab, you never know what issues you may discover and unexpected costs that may arise. We had additional masonry work, for example, and learning how to work with the City on all of the permitting, zoning, and other processes was also a learning curve.
MP: Rehab on an older building is definitely the harder way to go (compared to new construction). We purchased the building in back in 2016, and spent the next few years gutting the building and securing architectural plans and zoning approvals. But doing high quality work, taking our time, and putting those extra touches on the units, was a high priority for us. Not only are we providing a very quality unit for the tenant, but we are also preserving the building for a future owner.
Tom Jackson, CIC Loan Officer (TJ): From the lending side, the numbers on the deal were tough at first because of the significant work needed as a total gut rehab. Luckily, because of the extremely well done improvements, as well as adding four additional garden units, the property value and cash flow increased enough to make the deal doable.
Marcus and Tracy were incredibly patient and persistent throughout this whole process. A lot of other developers may have walked away when it got tough, but I knew that Marcus and Tracy would have what it takes to see the project to completion, through thick and thin.
“This project offered a great opportunity to invest in our community and provide needed affordable rental housing. It’s also a way for me to provide community jobs…people knew they could come to me and ask if there was any work to be done.”
– Marcus Perkins
CIC: Speaking of rehab, you clearly invested a lot of time, thought, and budget into the design and rehab of the common spaces and units. Tell us about your approach.
TH: Each unit was completely redesigned to update the floor plan to a better and more modern flow. We moved the kitchen to the front to provide a true living room and open entertaining space, and the bedrooms were moved toward the back of the unit.
Dealing with COVID over the past year, we knew people have been spending more time outside. We redesigned the back deck so that tenants could enjoy more outdoor space.
MP: The property was originally a 6-flat, so we sought zoning approvals to add two 1-bedrooms and two studio units to the previously unused basement. We were also able to include energy efficiency upgrades in the project scope. Our CIC loan included financing for this type of work, including new high efficiency windows and HVAC systems.
Basement unit before rehab 
Unit interior and common area hallway before rehab 
Finished unit with open concept floor plan 
Bedroom interior in a 3-bedroom unit 
Updated kitchen 
Finishing touches make for a modern and welcoming lobby
CIC: What is the current status of your building?
MP: We finished rehab in May and our first tenant moved in that same month. We are expecting to be fully rented up by the end of June.
CIC: What would you say are your biggest lessons learned from this first major renovation project?
MP: I would say that you need to pull together the right team from the start. Your lender, contractor, architect, and more. And make connections with those that can recommend the right team members from their own network. Our loan officer, Tom, was with us from the start and able to make those connections.
TH: Stay persistent, and expect the unexpected. It makes me feel good to see people living here after so many years of work.
Individuals interested in available units in this building can contact 5T Management at (773) 952-8004 or visit www.5tmanagement.com.
Our Stories is an ongoing CIC initiative to showcase Black real estate professionals and their contributions to the affordable housing and community development industries. To learn more about this initiative, click here.
To submit your own story for inclusion in a future profile, email CIC at ourstories@cicchicago.com
Community Investment Corporation (CIC) is the leading source of financing for the acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable rental housing in the Chicago area. Since 1984, CIC has provided $1.55 billion in lending to provide homes for 159,000 people. For more information about CIC and its affordable housing programs, visit: www.cicchicago.com.
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