Tech firms have 'em, so why not give green businesses a tailor-made incubator to encourage sustainable practices? Baum Realty, a Chicago-based brokerage and development company, is working with the city of Chicago to create a specialized destination for just this purpose.
When completed next year, Green Exchange will be the first building in Chicago to be developed, marketed and leased exclusively to green-thinking businesses. At 250,000 square feet (rehabbed from the old Frederick Cooper Lamp Co. building and vacant since 2005), Green Exchange brings a large volume of space to the market. And the location, at the intersection of Diversey and the Kennedy Expressway, makes it eminently accessible for companies operating throughout Chicago. The building is being renovated in hopes of scoring a silver rating with the US Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Core and Shell program, which rewards developers who make sustainable decisions during a building's adaptive reuse.
As described in an article in the Illinois Real Estate Journal, the development plan for Green Exchange will, if acccepted by Chicago, pioneer a new zoning designation for the city: work-live. (Full disclosure: I wrote the linked article as part of my job covering commercial real estate in Chicago. Another story on Green Exchange can be found here.)
Chicago's "live-work" zoning designation is popular for residences like artist's lofts, where the living space doubles as workspace. "Work-live," however, will add a new crinkle to this equation by allowing sustainable companies with valid business licenses install spartan amenities -- kitchenettes, cots, bathrooms, etc -- in their office space, thereby allowing workers at Green Exchange to live in their workspace when necessary.
Among the interested tenants who have signed letters of intent to occupy Green Exchange is Consolidated Printing, a sustainable printing company that won a GreenWorks 2006 award from the city of Chicago for its transformative business practices.
