Pullman retail project gets money for road, land

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Updated: November 10, 2011 1:06PM

The state of Illinois announced it is providing a $4.6 million grant for infrastructure improvements for the Pullman Park project, a multi-phase development that will include a 148,000-square-foot Wal-Mart with a full-service grocery and that is projected to create 1,000 permanent and 700 construction jobs.

The improvements will take place on Woodlawn/Doty Avenue between 103rd and 106th Streets, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity said Monday. The grant, which comes from disaster recovery funds, will strengthen and elevate the road up to 4 feet. The road has continued to deteriorate since flooding in 2008, the state said. The funding will support sewer and water main improvements and road upgrades designed to mitigate future flooding on the road, which leads to the retail site at 111th Street east of the Bishop Ford Freeway.

The grant was announced at a press conference to mark the beginning of construction of the development.

U.S. Bank Chairman Richard Davis also announced the bank will donate 2.3 acres of land to the city of Chicago for the rerouting of Doty Road and an additional 6.3 acres of land for future retail development and a detention pond.

U.S. Bank has provided a $9 million loan to the developer, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, an independent nonprofit. U.S. Bank also is committing more than $7.5 million in additional financing.

The first phase of the development involves about a third of 174 acres of the former Ryerson Steel plant site. Besides the Wal-Mart store, development plans call for a 125,000-square-foot second retail anchor, smaller retail stores, restaurants, a hotel and housing.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the site will go from “an industrial wasteland to a commercial viable economic anchor in the neighborhood. It’s an anchor for Pullman, but it will be an anchor for the entire area,” he said at the press conference.

Emanuel and Ninth Ward Alderman Anthony Beale noted the opening of the Wal-Mart store, expected by the end of 2012, also will mean one less food desert in the city.

“The major goal here is jobs and economic growth,” Emanuel said, adding, the city is also “making another encroachment of beating back the food desert and making sure that this community has the ability within their neighborhood to get access to fresh fruits and vegetables for their families.”

The absence of a full-service grocery store in the Pullman community, where incidents of diabetes and cancer are high, is “criminal,” Beale contended. “These things are going to change.”