Leaders Break Ground for Popeyes' Training Center
Patrick Barry
Published: September 18, 2006
Photo: Francine R. Johnson
Nearly 50 residents and leaders in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood joined business owner Woodrow “Woody” Hall and the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation on August 23, 2006, to break ground for a 7,000-square-foot training center for Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits.
The new center and an adjacent Popeyes restaurant, at the redeveloping corner of 76th and Racine, will serve Popeyes’ five-state Chicago region, which includes 120 restaurants. Hall owns eight Popeyes franchises on Chicago’s South Side, making him the region’s third-largest franchisee.
“I could have built this somewhere else, but I believe in the South Side of Chicago,” said Hall, of Norcross, Georgia. “This was an opportunity to support the community and bring back some jobs to the area.”
The $1.6 million project will include administrative facilities for Hall’s company, THG Restaurant Group, LLC, training rooms and renovated restaurant and kitchen facilities next door to show employees and managers how to prepare and present new products.
The project will create about 20 construction jobs and 21 permanent jobs, of which roughly half will be middle-management positions.
Photo: Francine R. Johnson
17th Ward Alderman Latasha R. Thomas praised Hall’s decision to invest in the area, noting that it would be the first corporate training center in “the mighty 17th Ward” and another example of African-American business owners committing to the community.
In 2003 the Department of Planning and Development negotiated the sale to Hall of two city-owned parcels at 7601-35 S. Racine. The properties are just across the street from the Chicago Park District’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park and Family Entertainment Center, and just south of the Auburn Gresham branch library.
“The alderman has played a major role in guiding us and supporting us, and she kept a very watchful eye,” said Hall, acknowledging that this was his first real-estate development and that it took several years to bring the project together. “This groundbreaking is a milestone for us as a business.”
Construction of the training center fulfills one of the goals of the neighborhood’s 2005 quality-of-life plan, which stresses new-business development with a mix of retail and professional uses, said Cheryl Johnson, New Communities Program director for the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp. “I’ve been working in Chicago for 25 years and this is the first time I’ve seen a corporate office center being built in an ‘inner-city’ neighborhood,” she said.
The facility was designed by Vernon Williams Architects of Chicago. It will use an insulated concrete-form system to accelerate the construction schedule and provide substantial energy savings compared to conventional construction. The builder is Krause Construction of Blue Island.
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