Walmart Pre-Grand Opening in Pullman

Deborah Bayliss | As of Wednesday, September 11, 2013

A Walmart associate held the ribbon as (L-R) Cedric Clark, Walmart Rep.; Chicago's Mayor, Rahm Emanuel and Chicago 9th Ward Ald., Anthony Beale cut the ribbon during a pre-grand opening Tuesday afternoon at the new Pullman Walmart Supercenter.
A Walmart associate held the ribbon as (L-R) Cedric Clark, Walmart Rep.; Chicago's Mayor, Rahm Emanuel and Chicago 9th Ward Ald., Anthony Beale cut the ribbon during a pre-grand opening Tuesday afternoon at the new Pullman Walmart Supercenter. Photo by Deborah Bayliss

The new Pullman Walmart Supercenter held a pre-grand opening on Tuesday.

Walmart executives and local elected officials including Mayor Rahm Emanuel and 9th Ward Ald., Anthony Beale, addressed the huge boisterous audience of residents and associates gathered there at 10900 S. Doty Ave.

“We are finally here,” Beale said from the makeshift podium set up near the front entrance of the new Walmart Super Center. “We started on this journey five years ago. I want to thank the people of the ninth ward for propping me up. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has embraced this development and project and stayed in tune with every aspect of this development, even sneaking onto to the site at one point which showed his commitment.”

Beale also thanked Gov. Pat Quinn for the grant that paid for the Doty Road construction.

“You can build a store but if you can’t get to it, what good is it,” Beale said, thanking everyone involved with the project. “Forty-four percent of all the contracts and workforce went to local residents in Chicago and this store is 100 percent union built.”

Eighty-three million was spent on the entire development where Walmart is located and will soon have a Famous Dave’s, City Sports, Buffalo Wild Wings and another $12 million development is expected to be announced soon according to Beale.

“Methods product company, (producers of personal care, household and fabric chemical products from natural biodegradable elements, and in 2012 became the largest green cleaning company in the world after acquiring Ecover,) will be the first manufacturing company to come into the African American community,” Beale said. “This all means jobs and more jobs. This store will also address crime, obesity, diabetes and foreclosures and we’re working closer to no longer being designated a food desert.”

Construction of the new Walmart Supercenter got underway in 2011 for the 270-acre Pullman Park development that will include affordable housing, a hotel, park, and a new school at some point.

There was one glitch overshadowing the grand opening event however. CTA buses had not been routed to the store.

The store employs 400 hundred employees and over 250 of them, rely on public transportation meaning some of them had to walk the extra five blocks down 111th Street to get to work because the bus line did not extend to the store’s location.

Beale, chairman of the City Council transportation committee, on Monday, was upset and frustrated that CTA had not extended the bus route as agreed.

“Walmart developers worked with us on where the bus routes would go as part of the planned development, Beale said on Tuesday. “Everything is in place except the two buses that run down 111th Street; the #106 and the #103. I started noticing people walking from 111th to the store, Beale said.

Beale did eventually announced that CTA will re-route the buses to the store by Wednesday morning.

Judging from the enthusiasm from the crowd, Mayor Emanuel said he wasn’t sure if was at the grand opening, a sporting event or a late night television show, referring to his appearance on David Letterman Monday night.

“I would have been here sooner but I was dropped off five blocks away and had to walk here,” he said to loud applause and laughter for his jab at the CTA for not extending the bus route to the store right away. You don’t build a great store like this and have people get dropped off five blocks away. As we make investments in our infrastructure, other companies will come. We are writing a chapter in the history of Pullman and Roseland communities. Pullman has been designated a site for a national park.”

Walmart had the courage to be the first to come, Emanuel said.

“This is a great day for all the residents to have all the services and amenities to be called a great neighborhood,” the mayor said.

Cedric Clark, vice president of Walmart’s Northern Illinois Region thanked everyone involved with the Walmart project and that he was thrilled to have the mayor on hand to help open the new Walmart store.

“I also want to thank Ald. Beale, without whom, none of this would be possible,” Clark said.

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