The demand from a coalition of community groups for a binding community benefits agreement for the Obama Presidential Center continued Wednesday during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Jewel-Osco supermarket at 61st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in Woodlawn. Members of Kenwood Oakland Community Organization and Southside Together Organizing for Power picketed the site with signs and bullhorns. Inside a heated tent on the site, a small number of community residents supporting the push for a benefits agreement took seats in front, quietly listening to remarks from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Alderman Willie Cochran and developers. The site is the last parcel of undeveloped land from the former Grove Parc affordable housing projects. Preservation of Affordable Housing Chicago, which has spent the past six years redeveloping the site into a mix of market-rate, affordable and low-income housing and retail sold the site to a joint venture of DL3 Realty and Terraco Real Estate Development and Management last year for $2M. Jewel-Osco will build the store and enter into a ground lease with DL3. The store is expected to open later this year.
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