A development approved by the Chicago Plan Commission will bring one of the first hotels to the Far South Side in decades.
Construction is expected to begin on the $30 million, 101-room hotel in the Pullman neighborhood early next year. Located at 111th Street and Doty Avenue, the 62,000 square foot, 4-story Hampton by Hilton Hotel will be the first ever nationally branded hotel in the neighborhood.
The Pullman Hotel Group LLC bought the land from Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives with a $5 million grant from the city of Chicago’s Recovery Grant Program. It also received a $100,000 pre-development grant from the Chicago Community Trust.
The project is the latest in a series of investments in the far south side community that began with a Walmart Super Center opening in 2014, followed by two Gotham Greens greenhouses, an SC Johnson warehouse, an Amazon fulfillment center and a Whole Foods Distribution Center.
“None of this could have happened without Walmart. Walmart was the first catalyst that broke the ice for us, and that created the synergy to keep the ball rolling,” said 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale.
The past 10 years of development are starting to turn the tides for a neighborhood that experienced redlining and other disinvestment methods from the public and private sectors throughout much of the last 75 years.
The hotel will also serve visitors to the Pullman National Historical Park which was designated a national monument by President Barack Obama in 2015. The historic site commemorates the history of the Pullman Company Town which was developed in the late 1800s to serve workers from the Pullman Luxury Rail Car factory.
Working-class residents of the town went on to play a key role in early labor and civil rights movements including the establishment of the The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which was the first all-African-American labor union in the country.
Until recently, much of the major economic activity taking place on the south side of Chicago centered around The University of Chicago in Hyde Park.
But investment has been expanding to Bronzeville, South Shore and some farther south side communities including Pullman.
In Bronzeville, a megadevelopment centered on medical technology and services could provide an economic boon to the community that was once dubbed the city’s “Black Metropolis.” Speculation has spurred multifamily interest but slow progress on the megadevelopment is casting doubt on the overall impact it will have on the area.
Meanwhile, farther south of Hyde Park, the near completion of the Obama Presidential Library is making waves. The area has seen renewed investor interest including a 28-story hotel proposal at 6402 South Stony Island Drive.
Also on the far south side, the state of Illinois is providing $500 million toward a $9 billion quantum computing campus led by CRG and Related Midwest that is planned for the former U.S. Steel South Works site, which closed in 1992.