CHICAGO -- Chicago’s controversial big-box ordinance has produced its first casualty: Target has pulled out of a 32-acre shopping mall at 119th Street and Marshfield Avenue and will likely cut and run from the North Side’s Wilson Yards project as well, city officials said Wednesday.

Target’s decision to follow through on its threat to avoid Chicago comes just one week after a bitterly divided City Council defied Mayor Richard M. Daley by requiring retailing giants to pay their employees a “living wage” of at least $10 an hour and $3 in benefits by 2010.

At 119th Street and Marshfield Avenue, 34th Ward Alderman Carrie Austin was counting on Target to anchor a development that has already nailed down a $23 million city subsidy.

The 160,000-square-foot Target store planned for 4400 N. Broadway on the 4-acre site of a former CTA rail yard is also in jeopardy, according to Planning and Development Commissioner Lori Healey. That’s why 46th Ward Alderman Helen Shiller was the only alderman who did not cast a vote on the big-box measure.

“No matter how much money these corporations have, each individual store has to operate as a profit center. This can add upwards of $1 million a year to the cost of operating these stores,” Healey said.

Austin was one of only 15 aldermen to vote against the big-box ordinance. She was devastated, but not surprised, when the letter arrived from Target.

“My colleagues are saying, ‘Don’t worry. They’ll come.’ Well, mine just left,” Austin said.

Copyright 2006, Chicago Sun-Times Inc.