New Woodlawn Jewel Opens, Bringing Jobs and Fresh Foods to Community

Tandem Ventures provided Novak Construction with compliance and workforce development consulting services for its recent construction of a new Jewel Osco grocery store in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood. The 48,000 square foot store is the first new full-service grocer in the neighborhood in 40 years. The store received an $11.5 million New Markets Tax credit to fund its equipment and inventory costs.

The new store opening brings about 200 new jobs to the Woodlawn area. Jewel partnered with Preservation of Affordable Housing to source new hires from the neighborhood. Woodlawn has previously been recognized as a food dessert, where it is hard to come by fresh produce, dairy, and meats, so the store’s opening will help local residents fulfill their nutritional needs and give them an additional place to fill prescriptions.

The construction team included DL3 Realty and Terraco. The store opened in March 2019.