MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 23, 2026--
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, in partnership with member Spring Bank, Brookfield, Wis., last week presented two Community First ® Developer Program (Developer Program) awards to Milwaukee-based developers AK Development and Milwaukee Development Corporation. The awards support paid internships and fellowships that build hands-on experience for emerging professionals advancing affordable housing across Wisconsin.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260223912436/en/
Since launching the Developer Program in 2022, FHLBank Chicago has awarded $12 million to strengthen career pathways and expand long-term affordable housing development across its district.
“Expanding the supply of affordable housing requires more than financing—it requires skilled developers who can move projects from vision to completion,” said Katie Naftzger, Senior Vice President and Community Investment Officer at FHLBank Chicago. “Through partnerships with members like Spring Bank, we are investing in the next generation of affordable housing professionals across Illinois and Wisconsin.”
AK Development received a $250,000 grant through Spring Bank to support three paid interns who will gain exposure to the full development lifecycle, including predevelopment planning, financing coordination, construction oversight and community engagement. Interns will contribute to projects across Milwaukee, including mixed-income redevelopment initiatives, workforce housing communities, transit-oriented development along the MLK corridor, and historic revitalization efforts that integrate tax credit financing and community partnerships.
“This investment allows us to deepen our impact on two levels," said Ariam Kesete, Founder of AK Development. “We’re advancing critical housing projects while creating structured, real-world learning opportunities that build confidence, expertise, and leadership capacity within the affordable housing field.”
Milwaukee Development Corporation received a $250,000 grant through Spring Bank to support four development fellows gaining experience across multiple phases of real estate development. Fellows will participate in underwriting and financing, predevelopment due diligence, construction coordination and redevelopment initiatives, including the transformation of a former hospital into senior housing and additional workforce housing efforts supporting neighborhood revitalization.
“This funding expands our capacity while mentoring the next generation of developers through active projects,” said Pat O’Brien of Milwaukee Development Corporation. “Hands-on experience in real projects builds the skills needed to strengthen Milwaukee neighborhoods over time.”
Spring Bank has accessed many of FHLBank Chicago’s Community Investment programs and uses secured loans, known as advances, to provide reliable liquidity for community lending that supports housing and economic development across Milwaukee.
“At Spring Bank, our partnership with FHLBank Chicago helps us respond to local needs with consistency and focus,” said Heather Nelson, President and CEO of Spring Bank. “The Developer Program allows us to invest in emerging leaders while supporting projects that will benefit Milwaukee neighborhoods for years to come.”
Introduced in 2022 at the recommendation of FHLBank Chicago’s Community Investment Advisory Council, the Developer Program reflects FHLBank Chicago’s ongoing commitment to supporting affordable housing development through strategic partnerships with member institutions.
Community First is a registered trademark of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago.
About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago
FHLBank Chicago is a regional bank in the Federal Home Loan Bank System. FHLBanks are government-sponsored enterprises created by Congress to ensure access to low-cost funding for their member financial institutions, with a focus on providing solutions that support the housing and community development needs of members’ customers. FHLBank Chicago is a self-capitalizing cooperative, owned by its Illinois and Wisconsin members, including commercial banks, credit unions, insurance companies, savings institutions and community development financial institutions. To learn more about FHLBank Chicago, please visit fhlbc.com.
About Spring Bank
Spring Bank is a Wisconsin-based community bank serving Milwaukee and surrounding communities with business and personal banking solutions. The bank focuses on relationship-driven lending, direct access to decision makers, and responsive service tailored to local needs. With a strong commercial real estate presence and a commitment to community engagement, Spring Bank partners with businesses, developers, and nonprofit organizations to support responsible growth and long-term neighborhood stability.
About AK Development
Founded in 2016, AK Development, LLC is a Milwaukee-based real estate development firm advancing sustainable and community-centered housing solutions. The firm focuses on revitalizing neighborhoods through mixed-income and workforce housing projects, public-private partnerships, and strategic collaboration with local stakeholders. Led by Founder and CEO Ariam Kesete, AK Development emphasizes accountability, innovation, and long-term community impact, with a goal of expanding access to affordable housing and economic opportunity.
About Milwaukee Development Corporation
Founded in 1973, Milwaukee Development Corporation is a nonprofit civic developer serving the Greater Milwaukee area. The organization advances community-centered real estate projects that expand affordable homeownership, revitalize underutilized properties, and strengthen neighborhood stability. Milwaukee Development Corporation supports emerging developers through underwriting and financing partnerships and collaborates with public and private stakeholders to advance sustainable economic development across the region.
AK Development, Milwaukee Development Corporation, FHLBank Chicago and Spring Bank celebrate Community First® Developer Program awards supporting career development for emerging developers of affordable housing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday is likely to be a test run of the message Republicans will give to voters in November's elections for control of the House and the Senate.
The president and his party appear vulnerable, with polls showing much of America distrusts how Trump has managed the government in his first year back in office. In addition, the Supreme Court last week struck down one of the chief levers of his economic and foreign policy by ruling he lacked the power to impose many of his sweeping tariffs.
Though Trump is expected to focus on domestic issues, his intensifying threats about launching military strikes on Iran over its nuclear program cast a shadow over the address.
Here are a few things to watch as Trump tries to make his case:
Trump swept back into the White House on promises to bring down prices and restore order to immigration in America. But on both issues, public sentiment has turned against him.
Only 39% of U.S. adults approve of his economic leadership and just 38% support him on immigration, according to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey. Those low numbers show the country is still fretting about the costs of groceries, housing and utilities, a problem compounded by Trump's whipsawing use of tariffs. They also show how the public was disturbed by videos of violent clashes with protesters, including two U.S. citizens killed by federal agents.
Since his party passed a massive tax cut bill last year, Trump has yet to unveil major new policy ideas on the economy. In recent speeches, he has largely offered the public reruns about his tax cuts, plans to reduce mortgage rates and a new government website for buying prescription drugs.
The Supreme Court ruling against many of Trump's far-reaching global tariffs on Friday and the president vowing to use other means to forge ahead with import taxes will only prolong the economic turmoil over trade and prices.
“I think it makes it even more important that the speech really focus on the economy," said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist.
Conant said between the tariff ruling and a Commerce Department report on Friday that showed U.S. economic growth slowed in the final three months of last year, "the president needs to bolster his economic message.”
The administration is trying to make the case that despite Trump's rewiring of global trade and tax cuts, the economy is still struggling because of choices made in 2021 and 2022 by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. But Trump is also seeking to take credit for positive signs in the current economy, such as recent stock market gains.
“Watch the State of the Union. We’re going to be talking about the economy. We inherited a mess,” Trump said at the White House on Wednesday.
Of course, Trump made the same kind of argument in his address to a joint session of Congress last year, invoking the Biden name 13 times.
Despite Trump's America First credo, his aggressive approach abroad over the past year has sparked concerns among some of his supporters about whether he should spend more time focusing on voters at home.
Trump, who's made it clear he covets a Nobel Peace Prize, is likely to use the speech to remind Americans of his attempts to try to broker peace accords in global conflicts.
But in many respects, the president hasn't been extending olive branches. Within the past year, his administration has launched strikes in Yemen, Nigeria and Iran, along with an ongoing campaign of lethal military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels near South America. Trump also shocked the world in January with a surprise raid to capture Venezuela's then-leader, Nicolás Maduro, and floated the idea of using force to seize Greenland.
In recent weeks, as he pressures Iran, Trump has bolstered the U.S. military's presence in the Middle East. But he has yet to make a clear case to voters about what his actions overseas mean for their lives.
He might even minimize foreign policy in his State of the Union despite his belief that it's been a major success.
“For as much as foreign policy has dominated his last year in office, this speech will mostly focus on the economy,” Conant predicted.
Vice President JD Vance offered a similar prediction, saying in an interview Saturday on Fox News Channel that in the speech, “you’re going to hear a lot about the importance of bringing jobs back into our country, of reshoring manufacturing, of all these great factories that are being built.”
He said Trump would also speak about lowering energy costs.
The State of the Union used to be about recapping accomplishments and seeking to unite the country, but it increasingly reflects divisions in society.
“What you’re going to expect is some version of a campaign speech in which the Democrats are the villains, the Republicans he likes are the heroes, and he is the savior not only of the nation but of the globe,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Trump supporters might cherish the moment in 2020 when the president midspeech reunited a military family. He also bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host and author who died in 2021. But that moment turned off Democrats who saw Limbaugh as a destructive figure in political media.
Trump is delivering the speech, but his audience sitting in the House chamber has a big role, too. When Trump delivered his 2020 State of the Union, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi theatrically ripped up a copy of the speech afterward, overshadowing much of what Trump said.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has said in a letter to colleagues “it is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber,” indicating some members might choose not to attend in protest to Trump. But there's also the possibility of Democrats razzing Trump as Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, did in 2025, leading him to be removed from the chamber.
If Trump in his speech lays out a fuller case for why he's using other mechanisms in federal law to continue his tariffs, Conant said it'll be interesting to see the reaction from lawmakers.
“I think that any House Republicans that don't applaud his tariffs are going to be featured prominently on the telecast,” he said.
While some presidential phrases endure, much of the rhetoric in State of the Unions is forgettable. And with Trump — who's known for veering off-script — there's a good chance a stray comment or a social media post could step on his message.
Matt Latimer, a former Republican speechwriter for then-President George W. Bush, noted in an email that people hear the president talk all of the time, so the State of the Union has lost much of its luster.
A State of the Union “only matters in moments when the country is undergoing a great trauma — a war, an attack, a global crisis — and a president and Congress want to speak in a (mostly) united voice to the country,” he said. “That’s not what we are experiencing now.”
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One shortly before takeoff, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump dances after speaking at a rally at Coosa Steel Corporation in Rome, Ga., Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
