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Business & Tech

New Tenant Brings 400 Jobs to Mall

Multifaceted operation to offer shoppers a first taste of services Friday.

Wilde & Greene has lined up most of the nearly 400 part-time and full-time employees  and is providing mall shoppers a taste of the offerings Friday before fully opening next week.

The company held job fairs at the Doubletree Hotel in Skokie during the weeks of June 27 and July 5, interviewing a few hundred people each day. About 200 people were hired through the fairs to fill a variety of positions including servers, bartenders, cooks and clerks, according to Wilde & Greene.

“We had expected to have everyone hired by the end of this job fair,” said Marc Simcox, assistant general manager for Wilde & Greene.

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The operation will be the first in the U.S. for Canada-based Richtree Market Restaurants, which has Wilde & Greene taking over the space formerly occupied by Westfield Old Orchard’s food court. Construction began in September and ended Friday.

The space is currently being used for staff training and features a human resources booth where prospective employees can drop in for on-the-spot interviews at the .

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“Generally we’re looking for personality,” Simcox said. “We’re looking for enthusiastic, bubbly people, and we’ll teach them to cook our recipes. Experience is not necessary.”

Wilde & Greene’s 6,000-square-foot rooftop patio is expected to open July 15, offering cocktails, beer, wine, small dishes and live music. The rest of the area will open a week later and feature 18 food stations serving pizza, crepes, pastries and more. The grocery store will offer all organic products.

“We’re very, very excited to have them,” said Shannon Ridgeway, marketing director for Westfield Old Orchard Mall. “We’re looking to put restaurant options into our mall, but also the grocery store to make it a one stop shop for our customers.”

Latoya Marshal said she saw an ad for Wilde and Greene at the shopping center and decided to attend the July 6 job fair in her search for a second job. A single mom, the Glenview resident said she would like the work to help support her three children but was especially interested in a job that would allow her to learn more about organic foods.

“It looks fun,” she said. “You have to have a job that keeps your interest. When you come across something you like, you tend to do a better job.”

Triana Mills of Des Plaines had been looking for a job for a month after finishing an internship at a day-care center and was referred to Wilde & Greene’s job fair by the Youth Job Center in Evanston. She interviewed July 6 and was hired that day to work at the pasta station.

“I thought they would have to call me back,” she said. “When they gave it to me on the spot, I was really happy. It seems like it’s going to be a fun place to be.”

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