Winter 2022 Newsletter

Winter 2022

Dear Friend of CNI,

At Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives we end this year with a great amount of thanks and hope. Thanks for the support, partnership, friendship and perseverance that has allowed us to accomplish so much over the past years despite the uncertainties around us. Hope that things will continue to improve and grow.

In Pullman/Roseland, where for thirty years there were no restaurants or convenient fresh food venues, today the choices are plenty and the locally grown entrepreneurs behind them are building health and wealth in our communities. We can also celebrate the new jobs that sustained families and our communities during the shaky economic days and institutions like the Pullman Community Center and the Pullman National Park which has provided new attention and enrichment for people across the area. And as you’ll see in the pages ahead, the past is prologue, as now on our plate in Roseland/Pullman are a hotel, a grocery store, and much more.

Roseland to Be a Medical District – Services and Amenities spell better health for people and community

While the Far South Side of Chicago has many unique assets, including the region’s only National Monument, attractive Nature Preserves, one of the city’s destination golf courses and one of the state’s premiere high schools, it has lacked adequate medical facilities.

All that is about to change, however, with the recent approval and funding of the Roseland Medical District. The new Medical District is centered around the existing Roseland Community Hospital at 45 West 111^th Street and is slated to bring health and medical research facilities, academic centers, and emerging high-tech companies to the area.

About half of the 580,000 square feet to be built on the 9.5-acre property will be medical facilities, the district also will contain 80,000 square feet of fitness and learning venues, 110,000 square feet of community services, and 100,000 square feet for parking and mixed uses. The plan incorporates drop-off and pickup zones, a public plaza with outdoor seating, and a park/plaza connector eastward to Palmer Park.

Full-Service Hotel Places Visitors at Center of Historic Pullman Area

Soon visiting family and friends, in town for a golf weekend or a sports event at the Pullman Community Center or Gately Park Indoor Running Track or in the area to explore the Historic District or Big Marsh Bike Park will have an option never before available – a full-service hotel.

Under the leadership of owner/developer Andre Gardner and his Chicago-based, Black-led Pullman Hotel Group, a four-story, full-service, 101-room Hampton by Hilton Hotel will be constructed on 111^th Street, at Doty Avenue. Adjacent to the businesses of Pullman Park and the restaurants along 111^th Street, the hotel will provide a business center, exercise center, indoor pool and street-level parking,

Financed by private equity and public investment from Federal Covid-relief resources and Chicago’s Recovery Program, the 62,000-square-foot hotel is being built on a four-acre property now owned by US bank.

Innovative Brewery/Pub Coming to Chicago's Most Innovative Community

With State and City funding in place, Pullman is set to be the home of the nation’s first free-standing, integrated coffee roaster, beer maker and brew pub. With an anticipated spring 2023 groundbreaking, the 16,000-square-foot Veteran Roasters, with its on-site coffee roaster, brewery and beer pub will rise on 111^thStreet, across from the 5^th District Police Station.

Veteran Roasters is the latest endeavor of Mark Doyle, an entrepreneur who, after spending a year in Afghanistan and meeting the men and women serving in the armed forces, began to create businesses committed to hiring veterans and meeting community needs. Known best for his successful “Rags of Honor” veteran-hiring screen printing apparel social enterprise, Doyle said that he chose Pullman for his newest venture because the community embodied the commitment and caring that he found among vets.

“Over the past several years, I’ve been drawn to Pullman by the successful, unparalleled leadership,” said Doyle. “The engaged community groups and residents fought together for decades, attracting new businesses that have created thousands of jobs. It shows what a community and passionate people can do, when they don’t let others define their future but shape it themselves.

Chicago Food Desert to Get an Oasis

About 100,000 residents of Chicago’s Far South Side, who have been living without easy access to fresh food since their grocery shut down four years ago, are looking forward to better days.

After years of effort by community leaders, residents and 9^th Ward Alderperson Anthony A. Beale are seeking use of Federal Covid-relief funds to finance the building of a Yellow Banana full-service grocery at the intersection of 130^th Street and Eberhardt Avenue in the Riverdale neighborhood.

While efforts to land a grocery store in this far southern part of the city have been ongoing for some time, it was the entrance of a new company into Chicago that made it possible.

In The Works

In Uptown, CNI is excited to partner with the iconic Black Ensemble Theater to expand its long-standing theatre site and adjacent properties into a cultural center for artists and community use. When completed, the ‘Free to BE” village will offer needed affordable housing, geared towards but not exclusively for artists; a media, film and technology education and training center – again both for professional and community use; and the Jackie’s Soul, soul and Southern food restaurant. Great progress on the $47 million project has been made with sites secured, city approvals in process and fund-raising moving steadily ahead.

In South Chicago, CNI has joined with the Comer Foundation to create the latest addition to their resource rich set of investments along South Chicago Avenue. When completed, the 40,0000 square-foot Xchange Center will house four distinct different programs under one roof that together bring skills, amenities, and opportunity to the community. The Center will include a tech workforce training and education center, an entrepreneurial accelerator with support staff, a digital health and wellness facility and a bioscience training and discovery center. With an eye toward the future and jobs with a future, we are proud to be a partner in this exciting venture.

Across the South and West Sides, CNI has partnered with new Black-owned Yellow Banana to reopen greatly-needed full-service groceries in six communities. Working together, CNI and Yellow Banana have obtained $13.5 million in City funding to purchase, renovate and reopen recently closed Save-a-Lot stores. As part of its commitment to the City, Yellow Banana has committed to keep stores in Auburn Gresham (7908 S. Halsted St.), West Garfield Park (420 S. Pulaski), Morgan Park (10700 S. Halsted St.), South Chicago (2858 E. 83^rd St.), South Shore (7240 S. Stony Island Ave.) and West Lawn (4439 W. 63^rd St.) open for at least 10 years.

In Washington Park, CNI is working with long-time partner Sunshine Ministries to create a new health, recreational and entrepreneurial center on the 6000 block of South Martin Luther King Drive. The center will house a variety of offerings, from basketball courts and exercise classes to a recording studio, performance area, teaching kitchen, and classrooms for tutoring and instruction. Sunshine Ministries expects the center to attract more than 20,000 people a year and create 40 full-time jobs, 75 summer job, and 240 initial construction jobs. The new center will make a welcome contribution to a community that has suffered from a loss of housing, businesses and investments over the past two decades.