The first fully freestanding Culver’s in Chicago is headed to the city’s historic Pullman neighborhood. The first sit-down restaurant to open in the community in many years will be built on a vacant lot at the corner of 111th Street and Doty Avenue, adjacent to the thriving Pullman Park Shopping Center and a new Amazon distribution center opening in the fall of 2020.
The land was acquired from Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI), the nonprofit developer that pioneered Pullman’s redevelopment.
“With a golf course on one side of the expressway, the city’s only National Monument site on the other and literally thousands of households and jobs in the area—we believe there could not be a more sound investment,” said the restaurant owner, Baron Waller.
9th Ward Alderman Anthony A. Beale sees the Culver’s as the latest milestone in the community’s revitalization. “We, the community, CNI and I have worked long and hard these past years to reinvigorate Pullman. Where vacant land once signaled despair, today there are new stores, small businesses and environmentally friendly industries—with more on the way—bringing people the goods, the services and the jobs they need.
Construction on the 4,300-square-foot facility is expected to commence in the fall and be completed in time for a spring 2021 grand opening.
