CHICAGO (CBS) — CBS News Chicago reported on one Tuesday evening Aldi closed abruptly in the West Pullman neighborhood last weekend, giving residents one less option for shopping.
But new investments are coming to the community – $200 million to be exact.
For years, businesses large and small have come and gone in the West Pullman neighborhood. But the nonprofit Far South Community Development Corporation is working to create everlasting change — and has a vision specifically for the commercial corridor at 115th and Halsted Streets.
“Someone is planning something bigger,” said Abraham Lacy, president of the Far South Community Development Corporation.
That plan is something bigger than the Morgan Park Commons, where a Jewel-Osco store once stood.
Far South Community Development Corporation
“The entire project is a 40-acre, 258-unit mixed-use development,” Lacy said. “It has 16,000 square feet of new retail, it has a two-and-a-half-acre park and a 13,000-square-foot performing and culinary arts center that will come with this development.”
The plan is to create a new wave in West Pullman, making it more walkable, providing more resources and expanding housing options.
Far South Community Development Corporation
“We haven’t really invested much in affordable housing, and that’s what’s going to keep people here,” Lacy said. “Imagine being able to walk down the street and enjoy a two and a half acre park. Imagine living in this complex and being able to walk down, and you have restaurants and shops at the bottom of your house .facility.”
Far South Community Development Corporation
The idea has been in the making for six years – and comes just in time as the recent closure of Aldi has left residents with fewer options for grocery shopping.
“We are disappointed that it happened so quickly,” Lacy said.
But what Lacy hopes happens soon is the green light to move the project forward so that West Pullman doesn’t experience one closure after another.
“And we hope to start phase one next year. We are working with the city and the councilor to make this happen,” Lacy said. “But it took us a long time to try to get this project off the ground.”
Far South Community Development Corporation
The Far South Community Development Corporation is also in the planning stages for redevelopment plans for the Maple Park Marketplace – the shopping plaza where Aldi was located – and the adjacent Walgreens at 115th and Halsted Streets.
At this time, the Far South Community Development Corporation is still going through processes such as trying to get approval and funding from the city before any groundwork can begin.
