Forty Acres Fresh Market

Project Description

Serving Chicago’s West Side with fresh produce deliveries since 2018, Forty Acres Fresh Market acquired a former Salvation Army on Chicago Avenue to expand its operations into a full-fledged grocery store. Latent worked with FAFM + West Side Health Authority to design the new grocery store with a featured Bank tenant space.

West Side Health Authority will also act as landlord for PNC Bank, a new tenant prominently featured on the Soul City Corridor in Austin.

Project Details

Date: 2025

Location: Chicago, IL

Area: 12,000 SF

Typology: Adaptive Reuse | Community Grocery

Client: Soul City Chicago

Client: Forty Acres Fresh Market

Client: Westside Health Authority

Partners

Structural - Rockey Structures, MEP - CCJM, Civil - Engage Civil, TGDA - Landscape, Grocery - Storemasters, Grocery - Retail Planit, IFF - Client Representative

Latent elevates the historical references, values + mission of Forty Acres Fresh Market by abstracting them into an iconic representation of 40 acres of crops utilizing inclined Morin Matrix Rainscreen panels by Kingspan to revitalize this adaptive re-use building.

The adaptive reuse of the old Salvation Army building at Waller St + Chicago Ave creates an impetus for continued corridor renewal.

Restoring the historical bowstring trusses.

The exposed structure builds the design narrative inside the grocery store.

The renewed street presence of the grocery store communicates an established sense place.

“From a social infrastructure standpoint, a grocery store is part of the community. That’s community cohesiveness and social cohesion that makes the neighborhood better to live in.”