Whole Foods Market plans to open a new distribution center in the Pullman neighborhood in early 2018, the company announced Thursday, a move that presages further expansion for the upscale grocery chain in the Chicago area.
Politicians and Whole Foods executives stood together at the edge of the 16.5-acre site on a sunny, wind-swept Thursday morning to tout the news as another victory for the historic Pullman neighborhood on Chicago’s Far South Side. The 140,000-square-foot facility will employ about 150 people and replace Whole Foods’ current distribution center in Munster, Ind.
The distribution center will serve stores throughout the Midwest, including 25 currently in the Chicago area and the three new stores coming to the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Englewood and the suburb of Evergreen Park. And there’s more to come, said Michael Bashaw, Midwest regional president for Whole Foods Market.
“This is a further commitment to the city of Chicago,” Bashaw said at the news conference. “We’re continuing to build new stores in the city and in the Midwest region. … We’ve planned this for expansion. We’ve got room to grow.”
Whole Foods announces Pullman distribution center
To help persuade Whole Foods to build a new center in Pullman, the Chicago City Council this spring is expected to consider $7.4 million in tax increment financing for eligible development costs, such as site preparation work, according to the mayor’s office.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel quipped that Chicago drawing the Whole Foods distribution center away from Munster was a “late Valentine’s Day (gift) to Indiana,” one of several jabs at the neighboring state.
“Five years ago, I said (to Whole Foods) if you’re going to call yourself a Chicagoland store, you have to be in every part of Chicago,” Emanuel said. “I compliment all of Whole Foods … they’re going to invest in every part of Chicago and that’s exactly the kind of corporate citizen we need to see more of.”
To the mayor’s point, a new store is opening in Hyde Park this summer, to be followed by the Englewood location in the fall. Whole Foods also announced last month that it’s opening one of its new, lower-priced 365 stores in Evergreen Park in fall of 2017.
Bashaw said after the news conference that Whole Foods would continue to expand in the Chicago area, both through traditional Whole Foods stores and the smaller-footprint 365 stores that can fit into more locations. Asked whether there’d be more Whole Foods stores opening in low-income neighborhoods like Englewood, Bashaw said some of that will depend on how that store performs.
“Englewood’s like a test store for the company. Depending on how it does, that would affect our decisions not only in Chicago but all over the country,” Bashaw said.
When the Pullman facility opens, some of the 150 employees will be those currently working in Munster, Bashaw said. But it’s too early to say how many will make the move and how many jobs will be filled from people currently living in the Pullman area, he said.
The distribution center will have two Whole Foods suppliers as neighbors — Method Products and Gotham Greens. In October, New York-based Gotham Greens began growing its leafy veggies in the 75,000-square-foot rooftop greenhouse atop the Method plant.
Having the Whole Foods distribution center right next door will only strengthen their business relationship, said Viraj Puri, Gotham Greens CEO.
“And obviously it will bring more economic development and job growth to Pullman,” Puri said.
Pullman, once a company town for a railroad sleeping car manufacturer and birthplace of the nation’s first African-American labor union, was designated a national monument by President Barack Obama last year.
News of the distribution center was first reported by Crain’s Chicago Business.
