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Pullman:<br />
A Design for Community<br />
Development and Impact
PULLMAN,<br />
the historic community built in the 1880s by Pullman’s<br />
Palace Car Company, is widely recognized as one of the<br />
nation’s first planned industrial communities. And<br />
because of its Romanesque architecture, also one of its<br />
most beautiful. Now visitors to the neighborhood’s house<br />
tours and the designated Pullman Monument marvel at<br />
the community’s vitality, but this wasn’t always the case.<br />
Rather than spinning another tale of an industrial town<br />
ravaged by neglect and abandonment, Pullman presents<br />
a remarkable story of resilience and recovery.<br />
While Pullman was a thriving community throughout<br />
much of the 20 th Century fueled by the rail car and steel<br />
industries, the exodus of industry from the Pullman yard<br />
shutdown in the 1960s through the closing of Ryerson<br />
Steel in 2006 left the community with a loss of jobs and<br />
population and a growing abundance of vacant land,<br />
abandoned historic buildings and soaring unemployment<br />
and crime rates.<br />
While the pundits and the public wrote off Pullman as<br />
just another victim of a changing global economy, there<br />
existed strong local forces that saw potential in the<br />
attributes that others neglected – an unparalleled<br />
location where the nation’s rail, roads, waterways
connect; vast tracts of contiguous available land; 98% of<br />
its original housing stock which, despite being distressed,<br />
was well-designed and well-built; and a strong grassroots<br />
movement that forged support with local<br />
institutions and elected leaders and were fiercely<br />
committed and passionate about revitalizing Pullman.<br />
What was needed to transform hope and dreams into a<br />
strategy and success was a community development<br />
partner. Such a partner was founded in 2008 when a<br />
local bank saw the potential about which others spoke<br />
and created an affiliated nonprofit community<br />
development organization – one that eventually became<br />
Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (<strong>CNI</strong>).<br />
From the 10 th floor window of the building it occupied,<br />
the fledgling community development organization<br />
could see first-hand the acres of vacant land and<br />
buildings that exemplified the challenge. The defining<br />
question was: “Where to begin – by promoting the sale<br />
of the 180-acre site to which it sat adjacent, or<br />
addressing the latest addition of abandoned homes<br />
caused by the recession in 2008, or trying to salvage the<br />
crumbling infrastructure of the old Pullman Factory?”<br />
<strong>CNI</strong> began its work in Pullman by listening – convening<br />
an extensive community planning process, involving a<br />
myriad of grass-roots block clubs and organizations,<br />
facilitating 80 community meetings and a host of<br />
planning workshops. From this process evolved these<br />
key themes: job creation and retail access; affordable<br />
housing; and recreation and tourism.<br />
While this list of priorities could resonate in many of<br />
Chicago’s or the nation’s under-invested communities,<br />
the next question for <strong>CNI</strong> was how to begin to tackle the<br />
varied objectives? The strategy soon became apparent<br />
during the planning process, and <strong>CNI</strong> took the lead on<br />
the integrated and intersecting need for housing renewal<br />
and increasing employment opportunities and<br />
recreational amenities.
OUR IMPACT<br />
The impact of <strong>CNI</strong>’s efforts can be measured by<br />
looking at what has been produced in terms of<br />
generating investments, creating new developments<br />
and other opportunities that have improved the<br />
quality of life.<br />
<strong>CNI</strong>’s commitment and resources have<br />
turned $132 million of its own coordinated<br />
investment, including over $125 million from U.S.<br />
Bank, into $339 million of additional public and<br />
private investments that has created 1,300<br />
new jobs.<br />
However, there is more to Pullman’s story than jobs<br />
creation. It has also:<br />
And <strong>CNI</strong>’s commitment and achievements in<br />
the Pullman community were recognized<br />
when it was presented with several prestigious<br />
awards:<br />
| The John Baird Award for Stewardship in<br />
Historic Preservation in 2015 for the restoration<br />
of Pullman’s historic rowhomes.<br />
| The Chicago Community Trust Award for<br />
Outstanding Community Strategy in 2015<br />
| The Burnham Award for Excellence in Planning<br />
from the Metropolitan Planning Council in 2016.<br />
Pullman
+<br />
CREATED<br />
200+ new units of single-, and multi-family<br />
affordable housing<br />
over 1 million square feet of commercial,<br />
industrial and recreational space<br />
INCREASED<br />
number of jobs in the community by<br />
43% between 2010 and 2015<br />
l<br />
number of six-figure households by 58%<br />
number of college graduates by<br />
nearly 10% between 2006 and 2015<br />
property values 136%; Pullman<br />
experienced the second highest level of home<br />
appreciation among all Chicago neighborhoods<br />
average annual rate of new construction<br />
is 20x higher than it was prior to <strong>CNI</strong>’s work<br />
l<br />
DECREASED<br />
violent crime 52% from 2005 to 2015<br />
(Chicago Tribune)<br />
violent crime 34% from 2015 to 2017<br />
(MPC); the area within most of <strong>CNI</strong>’s investment<br />
has not experienced a single homicide since 2014
Credit: Gotham Greens and
Julie McMahon<br />
JOB<br />
CREATION &<br />
RETAIL<br />
ACCESS<br />
Following the significant exodus of resident and worker<br />
population from the steel industry closings, <strong>CNI</strong><br />
understood that creating new jobs was the only option<br />
to bring people back to Pullman. So <strong>CNI</strong> turned its<br />
attention to attracting new businesses to generate new<br />
jobs. Using the resources on hand, and through the<br />
extraordinary united efforts of community organizations,<br />
government agencies and local elected officials, <strong>CNI</strong> and<br />
the City of Chicago secured the first national-retailer<br />
based shopping center on the city’s South East Side.<br />
In 2012, with an initial $5 million grant from the State of<br />
Illinois for infrastructure work on the former site of<br />
Ryerson Steel, <strong>CNI</strong> broke ground for Pullman Park, a<br />
$125 million mixed-use site at 111 th Street and I-94<br />
anchored by a 150,000 square foot Walmart Supercenter,<br />
where as a result of a Community Benefits Agreement,<br />
employees earned higher wages as compared with other<br />
Walmart workers nationwide.<br />
When the Walmart opened in 2014, it was the first and<br />
only store in the area to provide access to quality foods.<br />
Soon it was accompanied by a new Ross Dress for Less,<br />
Planet Fitness and an Advocate urgent care clinic. Having<br />
secured additional public transportation routes to better<br />
serve the area, the bustling Pullman Park shopping center<br />
today provides the community not only with goods and<br />
services, but with nearly 700 jobs.
Credit:
Three years later, <strong>CNI</strong> developed another retail center –<br />
the 111 th Street Gateway, at the entry to the Pullman<br />
National Monument site, bringing a Potbelly’s Sandwich<br />
Shop with a drive-thru and a minority-owned Star Dry<br />
Cleaners. Today, plans are underway to create a new<br />
food hall within the retail center and grow additional<br />
local small businesses thanks to a $1 million grant from<br />
JPMorgan Chase, helping <strong>CNI</strong>’s Micro Finance Group<br />
(<strong>CNI</strong>MFG) to make microloans to entrepreneurs in<br />
under-resourced communities.<br />
“All the new retail signals that Pullman is once again<br />
becoming a major destination for families, businesses<br />
and visitors,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel.<br />
While focusing on attracting retailers to Pullman Park,<br />
which fronts the expressway and offers unparalleled<br />
visibility along the eastern most portion of the former<br />
Ryerson site, <strong>CNI</strong> had equally ambitious plans for the<br />
west – attracting new businesses for which the rail, road<br />
and water connections would be important assets.<br />
The hard work and strategy paid off. The first company to<br />
locate just west of Pullman Park was Method Home<br />
Products in 2014, one of the world’s leading makers of<br />
environmentally-friendly cleaning supplies. It was here<br />
that the company built its first U.S. based plant, a $30<br />
million, 150,000 square foot manufacturing and<br />
distribution center at 720 East 111 th Street, in a building<br />
that gets almost half of its power from renewable energy<br />
created by a giant wind turbine and solar panels.<br />
“We reviewed more than 100 sites from across the<br />
country but Pullman’s access to transportation and a<br />
skilled workforce were the leading factors in our decision<br />
to move there,” said Method Products Chairman<br />
Jonathon Bond.<br />
Gotham Greens
Joining them was another newcomer to Chicago,<br />
Gotham Greens, the worldwide pioneer in the field of<br />
urban agriculture which built the world’s largest<br />
commercial rooftop greenhouse atop of the Method<br />
plant in 2015. Now the greenhouse grows and distributes<br />
more than 20 million heads of lettuce annually. And in<br />
the Spring of 2018, Gotham Greens “doubled-down” on<br />
Pullman and began building a new 140,000 square-foot<br />
greenhouse and administration building. Once<br />
completed in 2019, the new facility will become the<br />
largest-ever built in Chicago and it will create 60 more<br />
full-time, green collar jobs.<br />
“Thanks to the leadership and hard work of the City of<br />
Chicago, 9 th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale, <strong>CNI</strong>, and all<br />
of our community partners, Pullman has been a great<br />
place to do business,” said Viraj Puri, CEO at Gotham<br />
Greens. “This is the perfect time for us to expand our<br />
presence in the Midwest, and Pullman is the ideal place<br />
for us to do so,” added Viraj.”<br />
Additional excitement arrived at the crossroads of<br />
Pullman and the Lake Calumet region in early 2018 when<br />
Whole Foods opened its new Midwest Distribution<br />
Center. The new 150,000 square foot distribution center<br />
occupying 17 acres of once-vacant land, allows Whole<br />
Foods to join two major suppliers, Method and Gotham<br />
Greens in the Pullman neighborhood. It serves more than<br />
70 Whole Foods’ locations across the Midwest and parts<br />
of Canada and its 90 employees earn an average of<br />
$42,000 a year. To attract Whole Foods to its new<br />
location and ensure the site was competitive, <strong>CNI</strong> helped<br />
secure $8.4 million in TIF assistance from the City of<br />
Chicago to pay for site preparation costs, including<br />
grading, demolition, and utility installation. The new<br />
Pullman location provides a building double the size of<br />
its former facility in Indiana.<br />
These new manufacturing and distribution entities<br />
created another 400 jobs, making Pullman one of the<br />
fastest growing employment sites in all of Chicago.
AFFORDABLE<br />
HOUSING<br />
While the south part of the community with its historic<br />
church and parks had long seen stable ownership and a<br />
thriving community life, the northern half of Pullman,<br />
closer to the original Pullman Factory complex was a<br />
different story with failing rental housing amid a sea of<br />
abandoned buildings.<br />
<strong>CNI</strong> began by investing $5 million in the preservation and<br />
renovation of dozens of Pullman’s historic rowhouses for<br />
sale or rent, through its partnership in the Micro Market<br />
Recovery Program with the Neighborhood Housing<br />
Services of Chicago and the City of Chicago. This<br />
neighborhood stabilization initiative provided resources<br />
for rehabbing and purchasing homes in Pullman, in<br />
addition to helping existing homeowners prevent<br />
foreclosure.<br />
<strong>CNI</strong> worked to bring Mercy Housing to the community to<br />
take over the Pullman Wheelworks – a mammoth 200<br />
apartment rental complex that had fallen into severe<br />
disrepair and disrepute. <strong>CNI</strong>’s efforts generated a $15<br />
million investment by Mercy Housing that not only vastly<br />
improved the structure but also stabilized the immediate<br />
area, encouraging additional investment like Butler<br />
College Prep, a Noble Charter School, and further<br />
renewal in the community.<br />
Another additional investment came in the form of a new<br />
housing opportunity and one that would make Pullam<br />
the choice for young creative minds – Artspace Lofts, an<br />
innovative work/live space featuring 38 rental apartments<br />
and community space for exhibits. <strong>CNI</strong> helped to finance<br />
the project, securing a mix of grants, Historic Tax Credits<br />
and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Once construction<br />
of the new Artspace Lofts is completed in 2019, and it’s two<br />
adjacent historic buildings are restored, it will be first new<br />
residential construction in Pullman in approximately 50 years.
RECREATION<br />
& TOURISM<br />
A 20 year-long dream comes to fruition. After being<br />
urged by national and local leaders, preservation groups,<br />
members of the community and other key stakeholders,<br />
President Obama designated a portion of the Pullman<br />
Historic District as part of the National Park System in<br />
2015. This included the historic clock tower and<br />
administration building at 111 th Street and Cottage Grove<br />
where <strong>CNI</strong> and the National Park Services (NPS) have<br />
launched a $35 million renovation project. Once<br />
construction is completed, the clock tower will be<br />
transformed into the new Visitor Center for the Pullman<br />
National Monument site, which is expected to attract<br />
more than 300,000 visitors annually.<br />
“Once we introduce visitors to the nationally significant<br />
Pullman stories, we will encourage them to explore the<br />
community and visit the National A. Philip Randolph<br />
Pullman Porter Museum and the Historic Pullman<br />
Foundation Visitor Center,” says Kathleen Schneider,<br />
Superintendent of the Pullman National Monument.<br />
Thanks to the commitment and efforts of members of<br />
the community and elected officials, another positive<br />
development in Pullman has been its public schools like<br />
Edgar Allen Poe Elementary School and Gwendolyn<br />
Brooks College Prep, among the best performing schools<br />
in the city and state. And Chicago’s Olive-Harvey College<br />
recently announced a $45 million transportation-training<br />
center.<br />
In 2017, the academic performance of students from Poe<br />
earned the first-ever National Blue-Ribbon Award for a<br />
CPS elementary school on the city’s South Side. It was<br />
one of only 16 public schools in Illinois and 342 schools<br />
nationwide to be honored with this distinction.
In the fall of 2018, <strong>CNI</strong>’s development of what Chicago<br />
Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts described: “The most<br />
substantial community athletic project of its kind” will<br />
open – the Pullman Community Center. The new $20<br />
million, 135,000 square foot Center at 104th and<br />
Woodlawn Avenue will provide a safe, fun nurturing<br />
environment for Pullman’s young people and young at<br />
heart, and the surrounding communities.<br />
Privately funded by a dozen of Chicago’s leading civic<br />
and business organizations and professional sports<br />
teams, the Pullman Community Center will become the<br />
largest year-round sports, educational and cultural<br />
programming facility in the region. More than 1,100<br />
participants and visitors each week are expected to use<br />
its indoor playing fields and surfaces as well as take<br />
advantage of its flexible space for community events,<br />
exhibitions, classrooms, camps and tournaments.<br />
The Center will create approximately 100 full- and parttime<br />
jobs, including new employees from <strong>CNI</strong>’s<br />
partnership with Chicago Creating Real Economic<br />
Destiny (CRED), a workforce development program for<br />
at-risk neighborhood youths. Programming will be<br />
coordinated by the Roseland Youth Center.<br />
“We’re creating a place where people of all ages, skills<br />
and interests can come together in a safe place,” said 9 th<br />
Ward Alderman Anthony Beale.<br />
Another safe place in Pullman was recently created when<br />
a truce between gangs led to the transformation of a<br />
neglected block into a new playground for children on<br />
South Corliss Avenue.<br />
“When I asked the young men what they wanted in<br />
return for a truce, they said they wanted a park for their<br />
kids –it was incredibly powerful,” said Arne Duncan,<br />
CRED, and former Secretary of the U.S. Department of<br />
Education.<br />
Now that the playground is completed, CRED has hired<br />
the young men to maintain the park.
BEYOND<br />
PULLMAN<br />
In Pullman, <strong>CNI</strong> created a model – comprehensive<br />
community development, involving simultaneous efforts<br />
in housing, economic development and civic amenities.<br />
It is a strategy with which <strong>CNI</strong>, in partnership with other<br />
grass-root organizations and community leaders is<br />
working to implement to help transform other Chicago<br />
neighborhoods.<br />
In Bronzeville, <strong>CNI</strong> works with Farpoint Development,<br />
Draper & Kramer and the Bronzeville Community<br />
Development Partnership, among others, on one of the<br />
largest redevelopment projects in the city – Burnham<br />
Lakefront – the former Michael Reese hospital site which<br />
is one of the eight locations in Chicago that’s vying for<br />
the Amazon Headquarters.<br />
Also in Bronzeville, <strong>CNI</strong>, the Chicago Housing Authority<br />
and the City of Chicago delivered a new 75,000 square<br />
foot Mariano’s Grocery Store at 3857 South Martin Luther<br />
King Drive that opened in 2016 and created 400 jobs<br />
with 95 positions for CHA residents. <strong>CNI</strong> and its<br />
development partners awarded 40% of all construction<br />
contracts to minority and women owned firms. The<br />
Mariano’s brought a full-service grocery store to a<br />
longtime food desert and features more than 50 different<br />
locally made products by Chicago food companies.
<strong>CNI</strong>MFG<br />
Another important vehicle for fueling the growth of new<br />
opportunities has been <strong>CNI</strong>’s Micro Finance Group<br />
(<strong>CNI</strong>MFG), a nonprofit microlender and certified CDFI. By<br />
making microloans of up to $50,000 to entrepreneurs<br />
and individuals, <strong>CNI</strong>MFG has deployed more than $2<br />
million in capital to fuel the growth of more than 100<br />
minority-owned small businesses in under-resourced<br />
and disinvested neighborhoods throughout the Chicago<br />
area.<br />
In Pullman alone, <strong>CNI</strong>MFG has deployed eight<br />
microloans totaling $120,000 to catering, engineering,<br />
delivery and retail businesses. <strong>CNI</strong>MFG’s loan to the<br />
Pullman Cafe brought the first sit-down restaurant to the<br />
Pullman historic district in over 20 years. It provides a<br />
great spot for residents and tourists to enjoy a cup of<br />
coffee or a salad featuring Gotham Greens’ lettuce or<br />
the Cafe’s famous warm lemon bar. <strong>CNI</strong>MFG also<br />
collaborated with <strong>CNI</strong> to provide a loan to fund<br />
construction of the 111 th Street Gateway retail at the entry<br />
to Pullman National Monument.<br />
Pullman embodies the remarkable public and private<br />
collaboration, innovation and creativity that it takes to<br />
increase equity and attract new jobs and investments<br />
that can catalyze the revitalization of under-resourced<br />
neighborhoods, even Midwest industrial towns. A close<br />
look at <strong>CNI</strong>, Pullman and other urban areas demonstrates<br />
what can be accomplished when individuals,<br />
government agencies, business leaders, civic<br />
organizations and philanthropists work together<br />
encouraged to create and achieve a shared vision.
CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOOD INITIATIVES<br />
773.341.2070 | www.cnigroup.org<br />
Credit: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture