CRER Managing Partner Nate Gautsche represented Diya Holdings in the land acquisition that delivered Chipotle Mexican Grill to Pullman Gateway on Chicago’s far South Side. This is Diya’s 3rd development in Pullman Gateway. The restaurant opened August 13 at 11211 S. Corliss Ave. and is the latest business to open at the eight-acre development.
The Chipotle joins Jimmy John’s and Dunkin’ on two adjacent pads where Nate also represented Diya in the acquisition and where the client developed and now operates both concepts. Those two restaurants and the neighboring Chick-fil-A all began operating within the last year, and the Chicago Transit Authority houses its Red Line Extension project offices at the site as well. Pullman Gateway was built on the former Hawthorne Racecourse OTB property.
Collectively, the four restaurants at Pullman Gateway have created more than 500 jobs in the community, according to Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives President David Doig. The Chipotle alone accounts for 25 to 30 of those positions. Doig noted that when CNI began its work in Pullman roughly 15 years ago, McDonald’s was the neighborhood’s only restaurant.
Momentum in the submarket is continuing. At Thursday’s ribbon cutting, Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) announced the Pullman Park Retail Center, a new project on 111th Street just west of the retail space that opened in 2017 and houses Potbelly and Lexington Betty Smokehouse. The new center is expected to bring Starbucks, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria, a Nashville-based chain entering Illinois for the first time with former Chicago Bear Matt Forte among its investors. Doig indicated the project could break ground as early as next spring, pending site plan approval, financing, and permitting.
Those developments sit alongside a broader pipeline in the 9th Ward that includes the Roseland Medical District, the CTA Red Line Extension, two hotel projects, and the $100 million public-private partnership announced in February to revitalize the historic Hotel Florence.
We believe Pullman remains one of the more compelling retail development stories in Chicago. A sustained public and private effort has produced the rooftops, employment base, and traffic counts that national credit tenants underwrite to, and the speed at which Pullman Gateway filled up shows how quickly well-located pad sites move once the first anchors prove out the market.
For more information on this transaction or on retail and land opportunities, please reach out to Nate for more details.
