Pullman ‘renaissance’ picks up steam as Whole Foods breaks ground

The economic “renaissance” that has fought crime with jobs in the Far South Side’s Pullman neighborhood picked up steam Tuesday.

Whole Foods broke ground on a 150,000-square-foot distribution center on a site at 720 E. 111th St. prepared for development with help from an $8.4 million tax increment financing subsidy.

Chicago’s gain was Munster, Indiana’s loss. It will put 150 people to work serving 70 Whole Foods stores in the Canadian province of Ontario and eight Midwest U.S. states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

The Whole Foods center is the latest in a $225 million parade of public and private projects that have transformed Pullman.

The renaissance started with construction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter that ended a 6-year-long battle over the world’s largest retailer’s $1 billion Chicago expansion.

It picked up steam with President Barack Obama’s decision to designate Pullman as a national monument during the middle of a heated 2015 mayoral campaign. The momentum continued with the opening of Method Products, the Far South Side neighborhood’s first manufacturing plant in 30 years, topped by Gotham Greens’ massive rooftop greenhouse.

Construction of a $15 million community center also is planned at 104th and Corliss. So are improvements to dozens of historic homes in the neighborhood that once served as a company town for the railroad sleeping car manufacturer by the same name.

During Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said it’s no surprise that a real estate company has named Chicago as the No. 1 city in the nation for industrial property.

“People see, what I call the four T’s all coordinated: talent, transportation, technology and transparency. If you double-down on those areas, you’re gonna get a Method factory and now, Whole Foods Midwest distribution center. Why? Not far from Olive-Harvey, the community college, where transportation distribution and logistics [is the focus]. Not far from the Bishop Ford, the highway that allows them to get out throughout the Midwest,” the mayor said.

“They’re also gonna have the most modern technology that’s part of this. And a city and community that is a partner that gives them the certainty where they know they will have the workforce, the investment in the infrastructure, transportation and technology they need to make sure this continues to be a world-class facility that will facilitate and support the 70 stores.”

Emanuel pointed to Pullman’s “rich history” as the birthplace of the African-American labor movement.

“But that history is one thing. The future we’re building is another thing,” he said.

“And I want to thank Whole Foods, like Method, like Gotham [Greens] and the Chinese manufacturer that’s not far from here that will now be building rail cars again in the city of Chicago,” the mayor said. “They see what we see: The grit of the community of both Pullman and Roseland.”

Local Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) said it was a “huge lift” to reverse the exodus of businesses from Chicago to Indiana.

“We’re losing businesses every day as they go across the border. But we were able to get Whole Foods to see the vision of what’s happening here in the Roseland-Pullman community,” Beale said.

“The mayor has been relentless in making sure we bring Whole Foods to Chicago. He said he didn’t care where they went. He wanted ’em in the city of Chicago. And I told him, `Well, I care where they go. I want ’em in the 9th Ward.’ So we teamed up to make it happen.”

Then Beale talked about the all-important bottom line.

“When you create jobs, crime goes down. When you create jobs, you get people off of the corners. When you create jobs, you give people hope in re-investing in your community. And we’ve done that,” he said. “Crime down 24 percent here in the 9th Ward in the 5th District. Overall, violent crime is down 44 percent in the community because we’ve been able to create those jobs.”