CHICAGO, IL - Chicago is about to get a whole lot more Whole Foods distribution power. Yesterday, the city’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel helped break ground on a new distribution center that will potentially serve as many as 70 different Whole Foods stores in the Midwest and Canada.

“We are thrilled to begin construction of our new distribution center,” Whole Foods Market Midwest Regional Vice President, Bobby Turner said in a press release. “We’ve grown so much since opening our first Midwest store in Chicago in 1993 and as our growth continues, this distribution center helps us continue our mission of providing access to fresh, healthy foods and supporting the communities where we do business.”

The facility, which is to open in 2018, is said to be able to employ about 150 people, and will be approximately 140,000-square-feet. Chicago provided an $8 million tax increment to bring these jobs to the city, according to local news source ABC7. The new distribution is replacing a former facility in northwest Indiana.

“To be able to say that we actually got a company from Indiana to come here to the city of Chicago is huge,” Chicago’s 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale was quoted as saying.

Whole Foods will be announcing its third quarter earnings report today, the company said, so stay tuned for more updates on the company’s growing presence in the Midwest and beyond.

Whole Foods Market