Chicago's Pullman neighborhood celebrated the opening of a Chipotle on Thursday, and it won't be the last new name on the block. Starbucks, Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Chicago's first Slim & Husky's are all expected to open at the Pullman Park retail center on 111th Street by late next year.
Daniel Doig said the three eateries are expected to open late next year at the new Pullman Park retail center on 111th Street, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The new Chipotle occupies a 1,500-square-foot space with a drive-thru at 11211 S. Corliss Ave., per the same report, joining a retail corridor that has been steadily filling in since ground broke on the nearby Pullman Gateway development in 2024. Doig said Pullman Gateway, the 8-acre complex at the intersection of South Doty and South Corliss avenues, is now built out and demonstrates the kind of momentum developers hoped for when the project began.
A Corridor Built From a Former Betting Parlor
The Pullman Gateway site was formerly a Hawthorne Racecourse off-track betting facility and parking lot, the Sun-Times reports, a stretch of pavement that has since become an anchor for national chains. Chick-fil-A opened its first Far South Side location there in April 2025 as the retail hub's anchor tenant, according to REJournals. Pullman Gateway also includes Dunkin', Jimmy John's and offices for the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line Extension project, and the site now hosts roughly 300 CTA employees, per the Sun-Times.
That transit project is not a minor footnote. The $5.75 billion Red Line Extension will stretch 5.6 miles and add four new stations, including one at 111th Street serving Pullman and Roseland, according to the Chicago Transit Authority. Having transit planners physically embedded at Pullman Gateway underscores how tightly the retail buildout and the infrastructure expansion are linked on the Far South Side.
Slim & Husky's Brings a Black-Owned Pizza Brand — and an Ex-Bear
Slim & Husky's, the pizza chain opening its first Chicago location in Pullman, was founded in 2015 in North Nashville by childhood friends Emanuel Reed, EJ Reed and Derrick Moore, growing from a garage startup into a multi-state Black-owned brand, according to The Tennessee Tribune. Per the Sun-Times, the chain's investors include former Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte.
Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives led Pullman Gateway's development alongside the Hope Center Foundation, the Sun-Times reports, and the project has drawn nearly $1 billion in public and private investment reshaping the Far South Side. That figure sits within a broader pattern: Pullman and Roseland have attracted about $900 million in public and private investment since 2009 and created almost 2,000 permanent jobs over that span, per the same report. Businesses at Pullman Gateway alone have created nearly 500 jobs, the Sun-Times notes.
A Growing List of Anchors, Old and New
Pullman's retail and industrial roster now includes Illinois' first Whole Foods distribution center, a Walmart, and the first Gotham Greens greenhouse outside New York, according to the Sun-Times. Method opened a soap plant in the neighborhood that was the first factory to open on Chicago's South Side in 30 years, the outlet reports. The neighborhood has seen an influx of corporate investment since 2014, building on a foundation that Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives says has generated $370 million in new private and public investment and nearly 1,500 jobs at its 180-acre Pullman Park master-planned site.
Smaller, community-rooted businesses have grown alongside the national chains. The Pullman House Project expanded the neighborhood's first cafe in 2024 at 605 E. 111th St., according to the Sun-Times, offering a homegrown counterpoint to the arriving fast-casual brands.
Retail Growth Meets Historic Preservation
Pullman was created in the 1880s as a company town to house workers who made luxury railroad cars, with George Pullman owning the factory where those cars were built, per the Sun-Times. The neighborhood was also the site of the pivotal 1894 Pullman Railroad Strike that inspired the federal creation of Labor Day, and the 1925 founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union, according to the National Park Service. President Barack Obama designated the Pullman Historic District as Chicago's first national monument in February 2015, and President Joe Biden signed legislation in December 2022 elevating it to the Pullman National Historical Park, per the same agency.
That federal designation has helped anchor a wave of preservation-driven investment nearby. In December 2025, developer Celadon Partners won a state bid to lead an $85 million restoration of Pullman's historic 1881 Hotel Florence into a boutique hotel, restaurant and artist housing, along with an event space in the adjacent former factory complex, according to The Real Deal. Hoodline previously reported on the Hotel Florence restoration plans in November.
Housing Push Aims to Fuel Retail Demand
Retail recruiters and city planners alike are watching whether population growth can sustain the new storefronts. The Hope Center Foundation, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives and United Power have partnered on the Reclaiming Communities initiative, aiming to build 1,000 affordable single-family homes across Roseland and Pullman to increase local density, according to the Illinois Policy Institute. Pullman also added residential capacity in November 2025 with the opening of the Imani Village Senior Residence, which provided 70 new affordable homes for older adults, as Hoodline reported at the time.
Whether that growing residential base can keep pace with an expanding retail footprint remains an open question for a neighborhood whose identity has long been defined by its industrial past and its ongoing status as a national park site. For now, the Sun-Times reports that Doig and other backers see Pullman Gateway's full build-out as proof the momentum is real, with Starbucks, Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Slim & Husky's set to test that momentum when they open their doors next year.
