Cairo, Illinois, once stood as a thriving river town of 16,000 at the meeting point of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Today, it is a struggling community with fewer than 2,000 residents. Empty buildings, abandoned homes, and a shrinking tax base reflect decades of decline.
The town once had real economic promise. Railroads eventually bypassed it, and barges replaced steamboats. Over time, jobs disappeared and families left.
by Kevin Seraaj, OrlandoAdvocate.com
A promising project
Against that backdrop, a 3D-printed housing project drew attention and hope. Prestige Project Management Inc., founded in 2021 by Jamie Hayes and Erik Burtis, proposed building affordable housing in Cairo with a large construction printer.
In August 2024, the company reached an agreement with the city to build 30 duplexes. Cairo sold Prestige a vacant lot for $1 in exchange for one finished duplex, with 29 more units planned over three years. The project briefly gave residents reason to believe new development could return to the city.
Problems emerge
The optimism did not last. More than a year later, the first duplex remained unfinished. The printer sat disassembled. The financing plan also remained unclear.
City officials later said they never received a clear explanation of how Prestige would fund the larger project. ProPublica reported no record showing that the company applied for housing program funding. City Council member Connie Williams said local leaders had already warned the company not to make promises it could not keep.
“We kept saying to them, ‘Look, we’ve had enough people come through Cairo talking all this crazy stuff and then back out,’” she said. “And they were just like, ‘No, no, oh no, that’s not us. We are here. God sent us.’”
Construction setbacks
Prestige assembled the printer on a vacant lot in August 2024 and quickly raised the walls of the first duplex. Interior work followed. Then the project stalled.
Cracks appeared in the structure. The printer was removed from the site. A year later, the duplex still had no occupants.
Hayes said defective concrete “ink” caused the delay. Burtis said the company hired an engineering firm to approve a repair plan using hydraulic cement. He also said crews returned to the site, though delays continued because of incorrectly sized cabinets. Burtis said the finished duplex would eventually go to the city.
Financing disputes
The Cairo project also sits inside a larger financial dispute. Before the city deal, Prestige reportedly lost a $590,000 deposit after canceling an earlier printer order.
In October 2023, Grand Rivers Community Bank approved a $1.1 million loan for a new printer. Another bank joined the financing. Prestige sent half the funds as a deposit to Peri 3D Construction, which was expected to deliver the printer in at least six months.
By early 2024, Prestige wanted to cancel the order because of delays. The company began looking for other suppliers. Peri 3D refused to return the deposit. Prestige later used the remaining loan funds to buy a different printer, which arrived months later.
Prestige sued Peri 3D in 2025 and won a default judgment after the company failed to respond. Recovery of the money remains uncertain. Prestige still repays the original loan at about $13,000 a month.
The troubles now extend beyond construction and financing. ProPublica reported that the FBI has opened an investigation into Prestige’s business dealings. No charges have been filed. The company denies wrongdoing.
Federal scrutiny
Investigators have reportedly issued a federal grand jury subpoena for financial records and sought additional documents from local governments connected to unrelated contracts.
ProPublica also reported that Illinois State Sen. Dale Fowler promoted the project to state housing officials and a state commission. Prestige later became Fowler’s largest direct campaign donor, contributing $22,000 from 2022 through 2024. Fowler said he did not know about any federal investigation and denied wrongdoing.
A former Prestige employee also told ProPublica that he became an FBI whistleblower and accused the company of misrepresenting its plans. Prestige disputes those claims and says it has cooperated with investigators.
Cairo’s future
Even with the setback, city leaders still hope another developer will eventually invest in Cairo. Mayor Thomas Simpson told ProPublica he still wants housing development to move forward.
Cairo’s experience shows how fragile redevelopment can be in a distressed town. A bold idea can generate hope quickly. But without solid financing, execution, and transparency, that hope can collapse just as fast.
- propublica.org
- propublica.org
- propublica.org
- propublica.org
