Walmart Donates Chatham Training Academy To Chicago Urban League A Year After Abruptly Closing (2024)

CHATHAM — A Walmart job training academy that closed last year along with three South Side stores will soon become the new home for a workforce and entrepreneurship center for the Chicago Urban League.

The organization — established in 1916 to promote equity in Black communities through social and economic opportunities — will transform the former Walmart Academy at 8331 S. Stewart Ave. into its second workforce development center. The group’s headquarters is in Grand Boulevard at 4510 S. Michigan Ave.

Walmart closed the training center and four full-service stores, including the neighboring Chatham Supercenter, in April 2023. Company officials cited “poor sales” for the abrupt departure but vowed to work with local leaders to find reuse options for the buildings.

Walmart is donating the 15,000-square-foot facility, furniture and training equipment to the South Side group, said Adonis Clark, regional vice president at Walmart.

The academy was part of the Chatham Supercenter, which included the Walmart Health Center and a Walmart grocery store. The store and health center spaces remain vacant.

Chicago Urban League will pay for the six-figure renovation, helping the group expand its existing job training and entrepreneurship opportunities at the Chatham site, said Karen Freeman-Wilson, president and chief executive officer.

The facility, dubbed the Chicago Urban League Empowerment Center, will also provide programs for housing, youth services, leadership development and advocacy, Freeman-Wilson said.

Donated equipment will allow the league to expand its programs to include dental hygiene, artificial intelligence, electric vehicle infrastructure and more. Local nonprofits will have the opportunity to operate in the redesigned space, Freeman-Wilson said.

The donation will be finalized “once the property is separated from a larger parcel and closing conditions are satisfied,” Chicago Urban League officials said in a news release.

Local officials joined leaders from Walmart and the Chicago Urban League to announce the donation Monday.

“While most folks will see and interpret this as a gift to the league, it is really a gift to the community,” Freeman-Wilson said. “It’s a gift to the community because we understand our commitment and the importance of workforce development and entrepreneurship in our community.”

Walmart released a request for proposals searching for organizations to take over the 15,495-square-foot facility in July, Freeman-Wilson said.The group submitted its proposal that month, and it was accepted late last year, Freeman-Wilson said.

Urban League leaders long had admired Walmart’s training center. When they heard Walmart was closing the academy and would soon search for someone to take over the space, “our antenna went on,” Freeman-Wilson said.

It will cost about $400,000 to redesign the Chatham building with “Urban League Red,” Freeman-Wilson said. A stipulation of Walmart’s request for proposals mandated that the organization that took over the building would cover all renovation costs, Freeman-Wilson said.

If all goes as planned, the Chicago Urban League Empowerment Center will open in December, Freeman-Wilson said.

Walmart “kept its word” by donating the building to a local nonprofit, said Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st), whose ward includes the former Walmart Academy.

“When we talk about this area, we know business decisions are business decisions, and when Walmart had to make a tough decision, I’m so thankful for the Urban League to step up and be a beacon of light to our community,” Mosley said.

But repurposing or redeveloping the Walmart grocery store and health center “is still another thing to accomplish,” Mosley said.

“Walmart is in the driving seat as the owner, but I’ve been having conversations and working to market the site,” Mosley said. “Walmart had a clinic, dentist office and pharmacy — things that are still needed greatly today. That’s what I’m chasing after.”

“The Color of Wealth in Chicago,” a recent study released by the New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, estimated the median net wealth for Black families in the city is $0.

The Chicago Urban League Empowerment Center will be critical to changing that statistic, Freeman-Wilson said.

“It has always been our premise that one of the ways to amass and obtain wealth is … to develop a career that will allow you to stay, invest and invest in those assets that allow you to accumulate wealth,” Freeman-Wilson said. “That’s why this center is so important. The ability for us to do workforce development and entrepreneurship in this building is essential to us writing a new narrative about Black people.”

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