Uptown Resident's Team Wins Community Development Competition

When DePaul University student Ian Kos and his MBA classmates did volunteer work in New Orleans last year, they kept hearing the same plea over and over from residents of the city’s hurricane-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward: We need a grocery store.

That grocery store is a step closer to reality, thanks to an urban development case competition won this fall by Kos, fellow DePaul MBA student Kevin Down, and six teammates from the University New Orleans ( UNO ) and Louisiana State University ( LSU ).

"Developing the financial plan was challenging because of the current economic climate, the lack of a business model for a grocery store in the Ninth Ward, and the fact that the proposed store is 40,000 square feet, smaller than traditional stores that range from 40,000 to 140,000 square feet," said Kos, a resident of Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Read all about it here.

Congratulations to Ian and his team on their inspirational achievement!