11 Months on the Market for this Manhattan Building 3-Bedroom: 431 S. Dearborn in the Loop

431 s dearborn

This 3-bedroom in the Manhattan Building at 431 S. Dearborn in the Loop came on the market in June 2015.

The Manhattan Building was built in 1891. It was converted to condos in the late 1990s. It’s a doorman building.

This unit is 1 of only 4 top floor units.

It has south and west views.

It has a split floor plan with hardwood floors in the living room and one of the bedrooms. There is carpet in the other two bedrooms.

The kitchen has white appliances and what look like maple cabinets.

It has the features buyers look for including central air and washer/dryer in the unit. There’s no parking with the building, but in this location, would you need a car?

The blue, red, brown and orange line stops are within a few blocks.

It even has a wood burning fireplace, which is rare for a high rise.

Since June, this has been reduced $24,900 to $325,000 yet it still can’t find a buyer.

Why isn’t this selling?

Is it a deal for the square footage?

Steven Paige at Re/Max has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #1602: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1600 square feet

  • Sold in September 1997 for $224,500
  • Sold in September 1999 for $289,000
  • Originally listed in June 2015 for $349,900
  • Reduced
  • Currently listed at $325,000
  • Assessments of $846 a month (includes doorman, exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
  • Taxes of $3922
  • Central Air
  • Washer/Dryer in the unit
  • No parking
  • Bedroom #1: 16×14
  • Bedroom #2: 16×12
  • Bedroom #3: 12×12

 

 

60 Responses to “11 Months on the Market for this Manhattan Building 3-Bedroom: 431 S. Dearborn in the Loop”

  1. With a little work it would be OK but that area does absolutely nothing for me. No parking is a bummer but not surprising for the locale and price.

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  2. Great picturesque view of the prison, an architectural gem. Are the views protected?

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  3. The location is a poor residential location. It’s boxed between the elevated train, Congress Ave, the jail, and the library. Maybe it works for student housing.

    Anybody know why that area attracts a fair number of street people?

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  4. The cabinets in the kitchen are horribly dated OAK, not maple.

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  5. Great unit for a family at a great price with great access to public trans, schools and parks/open space. I’ve seen small ranches in the suburbs sell for more money than the price of this unit even after factoring in the parking and assessment. What’s the rub? Loud neighbors or something? Water damage being on the top floor?

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  6. “Anybody know why that area attracts a fair number of street people”

    Likely the Men Only Hotel, located across from the prison.

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  7. Laura Louzader on May 25th, 2016 at 8:50 am

    The price seems awfully modest for a 3 bed in this building, and the taxes are low. The location is wonderful- the city pretty much delivers itself to your doorstep in the loop. But the HOA is high, especially if it does not include heat.

    As it is, the unit is sterile and boring, but you could do things with it.

    As homedelete says, there must be some major problem with the unit or the building- for it not to move at this price.

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  8. It’s “Manhattan”

    Why bother with the beds if there will not be any other furnture in the bedrooms.

    I would say it’s priced right given the drab interior.

    I agree that it’s a poor residential location but someome might not mind.

    Jackson and State has had a lot of street people hanging around as far back as I can remember and the Pacific Garden Mission used to be a few blocks away

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  9. If the lobby ironwork is included, I’d be all over it

    Other than that, its pretty depressing

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  10. The listing presentation and photos certainly aren’t helping.

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  11. It’s not depressing it just needs a little personal touch. A little TLC will go a long way to making into a home.

    I’m taking the licensing exam to be a realtor and I’m practicing my sales techniques. I think I’m going to do well.

    I’d also jack up the sq ft from 1,600 to 2,200 because quite frankly this place looks yuuuuuuge

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  12. Diagonal floors!

    Once everything is updated from 1992, it will be pretty nice inside.

    Absolutely a B-/C+ loop location, but that’s reflected in the price, too.

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  13. It’s probably priced a little rich for the building. I’ll bet they’ve had offers but turned them down. Consider that this 4 bed unit at 2000 sq ft and with a terrace sold for $369K: http://lucidrealty.com/homes-for-sale/Chicago_Loop/condos_townhomes/431-S-Dearborn-ST-unit-1104/

    And then 1404, also with 4 beds, and showing 2100 SF sold for $313.5K.

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  14. homedelete- If you can manage to spell the name of the building you’re selling in, you already have a leg up on this realtard

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  15. What’s worse – a view of a prison from a crappy condo you have to pay for or a view from prison of a crappy condo that is paid by the state?

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  16. Luis_Carruthers on May 25th, 2016 at 12:42 pm

    scale of 1-10, how big of deal is no parking? 7?

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  17. !!! !!! !!! SOLD !!! !!! !!!
    PERFECT BAND REHEARSAL SPACE.

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  18. Thanks MJ, I didn’t know about the Men Only Hotel. That block has a decent Mexican restaurant and a couple of dive chicken/fish take-out places. It has all the appearances of a 1960’s bodega street. It’s only a couple of hundred feet from the Manhattan Building.

    Interesting economics at play around the neighborhood.

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  19. I figured it out. These be hard times for condos in the ‘financial’ district. The CSE has been sold off to the Chinese, and death of the open outcry system has moved traders from the floor of the CBOT/CME to offices of various major cities around the world, thus leaving far fewer high flying traders willing to pay top dollar for a vintage condo unit near the trading floors. This is globalization and even century old condo buildings have fallen prey to the global flow of capital.

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  20. HD – It was very interesting reading your comment directly after reading an article about the Fight for 15 protest. Getting replaced by a computer is the likely future of the protesters, but it already happened to the highly paid traders.

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  21. I too read the arrogant comment by the former CEO of McDonalds who said that he’s rather replace the workers with robots than pay them a living wage. He said “It’s dependent on people that have low job skills that have to grow. Well if you can’t get people a reasonable wage, you’re going to get machines to do the work.”

    This guy should be attacked by the peasants yielding pitchforks and torches. Those low wages – which ultimately become profits for the employer – are subsidized by society and the taxpayers. They pay for the low wage earner’s government benefits such as child care (action for kids), health care (medicaid), transportation (subsidized public trans), food (SNAP benefits / free school lunch), and in some cases TANF (cash benefits), and the EIC (earned income credit aka large tax refunds). those low wages have other associated costs such as higher court operation fees to handle the large volume of cases for people who can’t afford to pay their debts, higher insurance premiums for drivers to offset the 25% of uninsured drivers who can’t afford it, etc.

    The winds of politics are changing and TRump/Sanders have shown large swaths of the angry population isn’t going to stand by idly while the profits all flow to the ownership class. This isn’t the 16th century anymore where the local lords can sit around and complain that the restless peasants better stop complaining about the rising price of bread.

    Voters have shown that they’re not going to tolerate this anymore; and there’s serious changes coming on the horizon. These capitalists are delusional if they think that earning billions more in profit is as easy as replacing workers with robots; because somebody is going to have to pay for the social benefits to the disaffected workers and everyone in society is looking directly at these arrogant jerks.

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  22. LOFL

    I cant wait until 97% of law is outsourced

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  23. Homedelete,

    What kills me about that whole discussion is that the majority of the focus is on the result and how you can manipulate the result without addressing the problem upstream. There is only one solution and it’s been like this for millennia so I don’t know why today would be any different: to make top dollar you have to stay relevant and that requires education/ skills. And that’s why the human race’s skill level has been constantly rising. More and more jobs will be automated so the bar is going to keep on rising. Always has and always will.

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  24. I love self service kiosks. And the CEO of McDonald’s knows that there are plenty of people like me. I’ll take self checkout every time at any store. Self check-in at the airport. ATM over bank teller. It’s only a matter of time before every touch screen is turned to face the customer.

    The unskilled labor market has been shrinking for a very long time. The world does not need ditch diggers. The world is using backhoe operators. The skill level bar is certainly rising.

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  25. and yet the unskilled labor pool is multiplying like mad

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  26. Well, the unskilled labor pool needs to step up their game. There are so many programs to help do this. From schooling to financial aide. Even McDonalds you can get promoted up the chain but you do have to have a good attitude, good work ethic, show up on time, etc.

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  27. HD, people talk a good game but the reality of the situation is they vote with their wallets with little consideration to the long term impact. The public loves to talk about they want a living wage, manufacturing should stay in the US, airlines need bigger seats, etc, etc etc…

    Yet time after time, they aren’t willing to actually pay for it. Every business has to deal with this consumer dynamic.

    Fast food jobs were not designed to be a career or raise a family. The fact that many people are trying to do so is really just a symptom of larger societal issues – poor schooling, social and cultural failings, importing unskilled immigrants, etc. When I was a teen, dropping fries was just a way to make a little money to buy a car or get some spending change. Very few called it a career. Nowadays when I go into some of these restaurants, it is nothing but adults working behind the counter. Of course, now all these inner city kids are hanging out on the corner bored out of their minds with nothing to do but get in trouble since there is no where for them to work with minimal skills.

    Fast food operates on razor thin margins. Many of these restaurants would have moved to kiosks and other production increasing technologies years ago. They haven’t because there is a steady supply of willing workers at low wages so the ROI simply wasn’t there. At $15/hr, the numbers start to make sense and many of these people will find themselves out of a job as a result.

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  28. Grocery stores don’t care if you never went to highschool because you were too busy pretending to be a ‘gamer’, neither do warehouse or lawncare jobs. Although if you couldn’t muster up the responsibility just to go to school…

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  29. You can’t muck with economics and not expect repercussions. Raise the minimum wage to $15/ hour and guess what happens? Higher skilled labor sitting on the sidelines suddenly starts to get interested in going to work. Or automation. Or businesses close. Or jobs move overseas. One way or the other the people making today’s minimum wage will lose their jobs.

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  30. I disagree with all of this. The rise of fast casual dining and the $10 burrito shows there is plenty of profit to be made on ‘razor thin’ margins. low wages exist because the Federal Gov. and the state of IL subsidize the rest, like I pointed out above, through the medicaid, state subsidized daycare, SNAP benefits, etc. This isn’t a radical concept, it’s pretty much common knowledge. Unfortunately, a lot of workers would lose these benefits at $15.00 and that still wouldn’t be enough.

    The McDonald’s dollar menu catering to the lowest common denominator and paying the lowest wages possible isn’t sustainable and it’s devouring its own children.

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  31. HD, fast casual concepts are not the same thing as a traditional fast food restaurant. It is like comparing Costco to Wal-Mart. They are catering to a different demographic and have vastly different cost structures. If $15/hr is forced there will be job losses.

    The other issue is that $15/hr would raise wages of all the other employees. The guy who has been loyal and gained some skill who was making $16/hr is now going to demand $20/hr because he is insulted that he is now making only $1/hr more than the new guy with no skills. Unions are pushing for this because it would unilaterally raise union wages that are often indexed to minimum wages.

    Eventually, all this makes it way through the entire supply chain and prices rise. Guess what? The guy who got $15/hr is still just as broke.

    The best way to raise wages is to reduce supply of workers. I’ve often found it amazing that those who support increasing minimum wage also want to increase the immigration of unskilled labor ultimately depressing wages for those they claim to care so much about.

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  32. ” low wages exist because the Federal Gov. and the state of IL subsidize the rest”

    How in the heck is this a McDonald’s subsidy? It goes to the workers. Take it away and McDonald’s doesn’t raise their wages. This is seriously twisted logic, though it’s a very popular narrative.

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  33. “I’ve often found it amazing that those who support increasing minimum wage also want to increase the immigration of unskilled labor”

    Have you not been paying attention, Russ? There’s *always* (in America) been a goofy leftist element that supports all sorts of self-contradictory positions. They occasionally get some traction, usually in times (like these) where there is at least a perception of the aristocracy/peasant economic dichotomy.

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  34. ”low wages exist because the Federal Gov. and the state of IL subsidize the rest”

    How does this apply to teens and young unskilled adults who for many years were the primary earners of low wages? They don’t get, and never got, medicaid, state subsidized daycare, SNAP benefits, etc.

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  35. “teens and young unskilled adults … don’t get, and never got … state subsidized daycare”

    Weeeelll…

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  36. Illinois’ unemployment rate (6.6%) has ticked up while the national rate continues its slow decline.

    http://www.ides.illinois.gov/LMI/Pages/Local_Area_Unemployment_Statistics.aspx

    I think Illinois’ employment trend is a leading indicator of the national situation.

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  37. The teens working low wage jobs were not the ones getting state subsidized daycare. That’s a different segment of society.

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  38. Cook County’s current unemployment rate (6.8%) is a tad higher than the state-wide rate (6.6%).

    https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/ILCOOK1URN

    Note that the recent trough — 5.4% unemployment, Sep 2015 — never got all that close to the prior cyclical lows:

    4.2% unemployment, Oct. 2000.
    4.0% unemployment, Oc. 2004.

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  39. The unemployment rate among Illinois’ African-American is reportely 14%.

    http://abc7chicago.com/politics/illinois-has-highest-unemployment-rate-in-us/1356143/

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  40. Chicago is mandating higher minimum wages.

    Starting July 2015, “The Chicago [minimum] wage will continue to climb, reaching $13 an hour in 2019, a 58 percent increase over five years.”

    http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20141206/ISSUE07/312069992/-13-can-buy-a-lot-of-problems-in-chicago

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  41. “Ald. Robert Fioretti, 2nd, another mayoral challenger, voted for the Emanuel [minimum wage hike] but raised similar questions.

    ‘Emanuel could’ve pushed this legislation earlier, and he could’ve pushed for $15 an hour today,’ Fioretti said, adding, ‘I will continue to fight until Chicago workers get the living wages they deserve.’ ”

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/chi-chicago-minimum-wage-increase-13-20141202-story.html

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  42. “he could’ve pushed for $15 an hour today,’ Fioretti said”

    Did Bob pay all of his campaign workers $15/hour? If not, why not?

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  43. ‘How in the heck is this a McDonald’s subsidy? It goes to the workers. ”

    Because the minimum wage/low skill model of employment flat out doesn’t function unless the workers 1) have somewhere to put their young kids while they work; 2) have access to free or low cost health insurance; and 3) had an additional sources of income such as SNAP or TANF.

    I’m not making this stuff up, it’s not some narrative.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/10/15/studies-link-fast-food-wages-to-public-assistance/

    I mean seriously, why have a minimum wage at all? Just let the government make up the difference!!!!

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  44. But guess who loves SNAP subsidies? Jewel, Mariano’s, Pete’s Walmart, Target, etc.

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  45. “Because the minimum wage/low skill model of employment flat out doesn’t function unless the workers 1) have somewhere to put their young kids while they work; 2) have access to free or low cost health insurance; and 3) had an additional sources of income such as SNAP or TANF.”

    So you just said that McDonald’s can only offer these low wages because these programs exist. If you really believe that then these programs should be eliminated and somehow, magically, wages will go up.

    Of course that’s nonsense. And studies that show the obvious – that low wage workers need public assistance – prove nothing more than that low wage workers need public assistance. How does that assistance benefit McDonald’s? It’s a benefit to the worker, not McDonald’s.

    Yes, if you want people to live better lives than that is the responsibility of government. Why should 5% (or whatever the percentage is) of the companies in this country bear the entire cost of a 25% high school dropout rate? That cost should be borne by the entire country. A minimum wage doesn’t impose any cost on the Citadels or the Facebooks of the country and that’s not right.

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  46. certainly wages will not rise overnight but in due course wages will rise to cover the true costs of what it takes to employ low wage and skilled worker without externalizing costs onto the government. would you take a job if you didn’t make enough to put your two kids in daycare? low wage workers wouldn’t either except that because they are low wage they get free daycare courtesy of the taxpayer. this isn’t a stretch of an argument here, it’s common sense.

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  47. Since daycare is a cost of employment I get that. And actually, I feel like subsidized public transportation also subsidizes low wage employers. It provides a source of cheap labor.

    But not food stamps or subsidized healthcare. Of course, my solution is to eliminate any government subsidy that subsidizes any business, not to raise the minimum wage.

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  48. Maybe if you can’t afford daycare, medical insurance, etc you shouldn’t be having children.

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  49. “Maybe if you can’t afford daycare, medical insurance, etc you shouldn’t be having children.”

    Why are the peasants breeding? can’t we just sterilize them all?

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  50. “Why are the peasants breeding? can’t we just sterilize them all?”

    Three generations of imbeciles are enough.

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  51. HD, the difference is the productive/middle classes actually plan their children in conjunction with their personal finances. You know, discussing your financial situation with your significant other, researching various costs of parenting like daycare, what all the misc kids stuff like car seats costs, and evaluating your current salary / income situation. Once you are comfortable, you then decide to have children.

    The lower classes tend to be a lot more spontaneous in their decision making shall we say with little to no thought about the consequences of said actions…

    The economic reality is that businesses are not in business to pay wages beyond the productive value of the employee. The employee’s personal situation is just that… their personal situation. No one goes to their boss and says can you give me a raise because I want to have kids. Your decision to have children isn’t of any concern to a business.

    Here is an idea. Why doesn’t the progressive living wage crowd get together and put up their own capital to start a fast food chain and run it like they demand of other businesses? Call it McDowells just like in Coming to America. You can then pay the cashiers, fry cooks, and everyone else $20/hr to demonstrate to the rest of the world that it can be done. To top it off, you can pay the CEO only 10x’s the lowest wage employee. You can also have a $2 menu instead of a dollar menu and charge a little more than your closest competitor.

    Don’t talk the talk. Just do it.

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  52. We should treat law practicing guys the same way as they are a huge drain on society

    And the should be sterilized as well.

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  53. so true JohnnyU, so true!

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  54. Luis_Carruthers on May 27th, 2016 at 1:25 pm

    “Yes, if you want people to live better lives than that is the responsibility of government.”

    Why is it the government’s responsibility? You want more money, become more skilled and/or work more. I was unhappy with my earning a few years back and I gave up all the bs that took up my time, worked harder, worked more and it paid off. It is baffling to me how many people expect a handout.

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  55. How abut this- the max social benefits you can receive is if you have no children. The more children you have the less you get.

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  56. “Why doesn’t the progressive living wage crowd get together and put up their own capital to start a … chain and run it like they demand of other businesses?”

    So… Costco.

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  57. Small sample size

    Open a Costco in Englewwod and see how the economics play out. Guessing shrinkage might ge higher tha n their Clyborn location

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  58. JohnnyU is the new racist here! just when HH disappears, JohnnyU shows he’s just as good as negative racial stereotypes as anybody. keep up the good work!! how long before the anti-Semitic comments?

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  59. “Why is it the government’s responsibility? You want more money, become more skilled and/or work more. I was unhappy with my earning a few years back and I gave up all the bs that took up my time, worked harder, worked more and it paid off. It is baffling to me how many people expect a handout.”

    I actually agree with that. I was taking a shortcut in my response. What I meant to say is “if you want people to live better lives regardless of the personal choices that their parents and they made then that is the responsibility of government” That starts with an “if” because that seems to be the goal of raising the minimum wage. If you decide to go down that path I’d rather see the government do it than raise the minimum wage. But of course we can debate what the appropriate goal is.

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  60. “Open a Costco in Englewwod and see how the economics play out. Guessing shrinkage might ge higher tha n their Clyborn location”

    Has the Whole Foods opened out there yet? Hiring hundreds of workers.

    Just checked. Looks like it will open in the fall.

    http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/englewood

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