COMMUNITY DEVELOPER PARTNERS WITH STERLING BAY TO INVEST ON THE SOUTH SIDE

Leon Walker (pictured), managing partner of DL3 Realty, recently announced he would be partnering with Sterling Bay on a new development project in the Englewood Neighborhood. Photo Credit: DL3 Realty
Leon Walker (pictured), managing partner of DL3 Realty, recently announced he would be partnering with Sterling Bay on a new development project in the Englewood Neighborhood. Photo Credit: DL3 Realty

Community Developer Partners With Sterling Bay To Invest On The South Side

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Big name developer, Sterling Bay, recently announced it will collaborate with DL3 Realty on a new project in Englewood at the corner of 67th Street and Wentworth Avenue where Kennedy-King College used to be located. Specific details about the project have yet to be released but both parties are excited to begin working.

With Leon Walker at the helm, DL3 Realty is a highly regarded community developer and has lead several projects on the south side of Chicago like the Englewood Square Shopping Center at the corner of 63rd Street and Halsted Street and a new Jewel-Osco grocery store at 61st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.

Sterling Bay is a major investment and development company that has worked on projects for even bigger companies like Google, McDonald’s, Glassdoor, Dyson, and Tyson Foods. Sterling Bay is most recently known for being the developer of the $6 billion Lincoln Yards project on the north side of the city.

“Sterling Bay has an amazing reach and resources which is what we have been missing in our community. We have a vision, a connection, the relationships, and the technical know how to execute projects but without the resources and particularly the capital that is necessary to create these developments and accelerate the pace of development in our community, we are just always running on the treadmill but never getting ahead,” said Walker.

After already executing the successful development of Englewood Square, which includes a Whole Foods Grocery Store along with several other businesses, Walker said this new development will just continue to strengthen the neighborhood and provide economic opportunity for residents.

“If we don’t create an environment that creates new jobs and economic opportunity for new businesses development, decent housing, and good schools to educate our children, then what are we fighting for? We have to move forward but we also have to move forward in a way that engages the local residents and legacy businesses and I call that revitalization,” said Walker.

Growing up on the South Side, Walker said he remembers seeing vibrant business corridors where African American business owners could be successful. These memories are what motivates him to not only be a real estate developer but to intentionally focus his efforts in struggling south side communities.

“What I hold as my guiding point and north star is what I remember as a kid when these neighborhoods were vibrant and when there were many black businesses along the commercial corridors,” said Walker. “I really see it as being important that we ultimately bring back that business class and merchant class to our communities.”

Walker said that DL3 Realty is continuing to be strategic in Englewood and put in work to make sure that the south side sees a revitalization during his lifetime.

“We need so many more developers in the neighborhood because one developer is not enough. I’m tired of our community having to wait for someone from the outside to come in and do something for the neighborhood. I’m saying that we don’t have to wait anymore,” said Walker.

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