1. From rezoning to restoration
By Shia Kapos March 05, 2015
Nasutsa Mabwa, who helped lead McCaffery Interests'marketing effortfor a redevelopmentofthe nearly 600-
acre former U.S. Steel site on the South Side,has left to build her own business.
Mabwa is presidentofBalmoral Interests,which owns two ServiceMaster franchises: ServiceMaster
Restoration by Simons is hired by Chicago-area commercial and residential propertyowners and managers to
clean and restore properties severelydamaged bywater or fire. The other franchise is ServiceMaster Cleaning
by Simons.She started the company in 2012 and owns itwith her husband, Sam Simon.
“I still deal with real estate from another side.Now I interface with property managers,assetmanagers,
developers,folks who need our services to help their situations,” she told me in an interview in her office in the
West Loop.
At McCaffery, Mabwa, 43, helped lead the rezoning of the 589-acre former U.S. Steel site to mixed-use and
helped secure $98 million in tax-incrementfinancing from the city. The project,called Lakeside,is still years in
the making.Though a Mariano's grocery store is slated for the site, no homes are in developmentyet.
'BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE'
“Projects need new perspectives and new opinions and creativity,” she said.“If you have the same person too
long behind anything,it can thwart the success.”
The new job allows her more time with her two young children."I have a better work-life balance,"she said.
It also has broughtnew opportunities.She's partof the Goldman Sachs “10,000 Small Business Program,”
which helps up-and-coming business leaders implementnew strategies.
“I love her and Sam and am really delighted for them,” Dan McCaffery said.“They drove the business to a point
that she could join in full time and add even more value.”
Mabwa's franchises deal with everything from burstpipes and flooded basements to cleaning up murder scenes
and hoarders'Gold Coastapartments.
“It requires a lot of projectmanagementand social work,” s he said.“It's a traumatic experience when you have
a foot of water in your home or business,or a fire or whatever happens that's intense.You have to be calm and
help the clientthrough the steps.”
WAS A SOCIAL WORKER
Mabwa graduated with a bachelor's degree from Miami Universityof Ohio and was a social worker at
Association House ofChicago,where she worked with foster children and mether husband,who also worked
there.
More school followed."From learning aboutChicago while visiting mycaseload weekly,I wanted to learn more
aboutcities and urban development,so I wentfor my master's ofurban planning"atthe University of Illinois at
Chicago,she said.
An MBA from RooseveltUniversitywas next. Before joining McCaffery, she worked in the Mayor's Office of
Workforce Developmentunder former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Shia Kapos
Nasutsa Mabw a left McCaffery Interests
to run a company that ow ns two
ServiceMaster franchises.

2. Mabwa's accomplishments have come after personal tragedyas a child.She was 12 when her father, a
professor ofAfrican studies,killed her mother,who ran an in-home day care service in their Evanston home,
and then himself.Mabwa and her three siblings were sentto separate foster families.
“The hardestthing is to not have my parents here to see their grandchildren,” she said.