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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■ Dorothy Gaters inducted, PAGE 8
Vol. 32 No.28
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July 11, 2018
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austinweeklynews.com
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Also serving Garfield Park
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Meett JJames Cole, M C l page 8
N. Lawndale logistics center breaks ground Developers anticipate 150 new jobs, completion set for 2019 By IGAR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
Rockwell Logistics Center, a “last mile” facility on the northeast corner of North Lawndale, at 2545 W. 24th Street, officially broke ground on June 26. At the time when more people shop online than ever, facilities like this make it easier to deliver packages to customers inside major cities. The developers don’t have the tenants lined up yet, but they believe that the location and local amenities will mean getting tenants won’t be an issue. Ald. Michael Scott (24th), whose ward includes the location, has been supportive of bringing it to the community, advancing an ordinance that will reduce its property taxes, promoting job opportunities online and hosting a construction job hiring fair in Douglas Park. The developers behind the project stated that they are expecting to create 50 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs, and they are touting the area’s “tremendous labor pool” as one of the advantages for potential tenants. Rockwell Logistics Center is being built as a collaboration between Rosemont-based Venture One Real Estate, San Antonio, Texas based USAA Real Estate Company and Rosemont-based Lee & Associates of Illinois real estate services company. As a spring 2017 Development magazine article explains, the issue with distribution See ROCKWELL on page 5
SHANEL ROMAIN/Contributor
SHINING BRIGHT: Bernadette Hicks, the owner of ABC Toon Town in Oak Park, celebrated 20 years in business on Saturday. She has one of the few black-owned daycare providers in Oak Park.
Celebrating 20 years of caring
ABC Toon Town in Oak Park marks a generation of service By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
It takes a village to provide child care. Bernadette Hicks understands that modified adage more intimately than most. She owns and operates the ABC Toon Town child-care center — one of the few African-American-owned child-care provid-
ers in Oak Park, where she currently lives. But her child-care center’s selling point isn’t that it’s black-owned, Hicks said. “We have a mixed community of all races here — Asian, African American, Caucasian,” Hicks said during an interview on July 7, as she and at least 100 other people, including many of her clients, celebrated the center’s 20th year in business (a bounce house was set up for the occasion in the facility’s parking lot). “It’s a nice melting pot and I’m very proud to say that our program is based on quality, so we sell quality — not the fact that we’re
African-American-owned,” she said. The center, Hicks explained, has a silver rating from ExceleRate Illinois, a prominent quality rating system for child-care providers. Hicks noted that her center services about 125 young people, age 6 months to 12 years, in a variety of ways — a nursery, preschool, and before- and after-school programs all take place in the center, which employs around 25 people (herself included). While most of the center’s clients come
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
See ABC TOON TOWN on page 4