A company aiming to make Chicago a national model for urban farming is planting roots next to the city's tallest skyscraper, signing the first of a planned series of long-term leases in downtown office properties.
Farm Zero has leased 9,023 square feet within the 31-story office tower at 125 S. Wacker Drive in the Loop business district, according to CEO Russell Steinberg. That will become the first long-term home for the vertical farming pioneer that plans to soon begin growing produce at commercial scale within the office tower owned by Canadian investor Ivanhoe Cambridge.
Farm Zero's new space sits amid rows of office towers on Wacker Drive. It is across from the city's tallest skyscraper, 110-story Willis Tower. The company's goal is to address inefficiencies in the national food supply chain, where produce often travels thousands of miles to reach cities such as Chicago. A successful expansion by Farm Zero also could provide a lift for landlords of decades-old offices in need of new, nontraditional users of space as remote-work trends persist five years after the onset of COVID-19.
"There will be a series of simultaneous projects happening as a byproduct of the sensibility and importance of this new healthy food utility," Steinberg told CoStar News. "It will kickstart a healthy eating ecosystem."
Read more at CoStar News