‘Development jobs and involving the people of the community’

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has hired Chicago building contractor Margaret D. Garner as the first African-American female to head up construction of a Wal-Mart store, and it’s the first Wal-Mart being built inside Chicago city limits.

Garner, 45, has run Broadway Consolidated Cos., 400 N. Noble, as owner, CEO and president for five years.  She will have responsibility for building the 150,000 square-foot store in the Austin community on Chicago ’s West Side scheduled to open by winter of 2006.

            Pledging to emphasize black and Hispanic hiring in the construction, Garner told the Sun-Times, “it is about human capital development – developing jobs and involving the people of the community.”

            Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart, spoke of the project at the Executives’ Club of Chicago at the Hyatt Regency, saying, “I think retail in general and Wal-Mart in particular can play a significant role in the redevelopment of neighborhoods and communities, especially those in transition.”

            Demolition of a long-vacant Helene Curtis shampoo factory at the site is practically complete and, including the construction crews, created about 200 new jobs, said Garner, president of the Chicago Federation of Women Contractors.  The new store will employ about 300 when it opens, more than half of them fulltime.

            Garner started Broadway Consolidated based on what she said is her passion to build a better quality of life for residents affected by her construction projects.  The company, with about $30 million in annual revenue, has worked with Walsh Construction Co. on a Near West Side mixed-income development replacing the ABLA home.

            Recently, Broadway Consolidated assisted in constructing the Comer Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago .

            Garner said she plans to divide the Wal-Mart project into small enough pieces to involve local businesses that often don’t get a chance to participate in huge projects.

Garner’s appointment counters criticism by Chicago alderman that Wal-Mart had no minority-owned companies involved in the project.  The City Council approved the Wal-Mart store in a contentious meeting on April 26, but defeated Wal-Mart’s plan for a second store at the old Ryerson steel plant site on the South Side.

            However, the South Side Wal-Mart is expected to be on the agenda at the council’s Zoning Committee meeting on July 14.

            The Austin project is part of a slow movement by retailers into the West Side, Home Depot has built a store at 1919 N. Cicero .

            Wal-Mart operates 25 Wal-Mart stores, 22 Sam’s Clubs and six Wal-Mart Supercenters in the Chicago region, including northwest Indiana, and 150 stores statewide.

            Wal-Mart’s Scott said Wal-Mart sales-tracking programs showed that shoppers who live in Chicago spent $526.3 million in those suburban stores last year – sales that would have provided a hefty source of revenue for Chicago government.

            Scott sees Chicago as a ripe market, though it will take patience.

            “We could have several stores here when we deserve to,” Scott said.  “If not this year, then next year.  If not next year, then the year after that.  We intend to be here a long time.”

            The Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant is in various stages of seeking to build for is building stores in suburban Addison, Batavia, Crestwood, Country Club Hills, Evergreen Park, Lockport, Mount Greenwood, Niles, Woodstock and Zion.

Seeking to generate support for the South Side store in the City Council, Scott said, Wal-Mart spent $12 billion with Illinois companies last year compared with $18 billion of products and services purchased from Chinese firms.