Woodlawn gets new grocer: Jewel-Osco

Like many residents of the Woodlawn community on the South Side, Lola Gray has waited a long time to see the community come back up - 19 years, in her case.

And on Tuesday, when the city is expected to announce it has lured a new Jewel-Osco grocery store to fill the long-blighted area of 61st and Cottage Grove - further eradicating city food deserts - she'll be saying, "Hallelujah."

The 40,000-square-foot grocery with a drive-thru pharmacy is expected to open in late 2018, in an example of the kind of redevelopment radiating in close proximity to the Obama Presidential Center to be built just to the south in Jackson Park.

"I'm very excited about it. We need it. We haven't had a major grocery store chain here since I moved in, and that'll be 19 years in July," said Gray, a senior citizen, who is president of the 6500 South Rhodes Block Club.

The new grocery store targeted follows the arrival last fall of major grocery chains in two similar communities: Englewood, which saw the opening of a new Whole Foods store, and Bronzeville, which saw Mariano's open at Pershing Road and King Drive.

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