The farm-fresh smell of growing vegetables hits your nose moments after you get off the elevator on the 18th floor at 30 N. LaSalle St. Taking an elevator to get to a farm may seem far-fetched, but if Russ Steinberg's business grows as much as he hopes, it could become commonplace in the Loop — and in other big cities' downtown cores.
Steinberg's startup has been growing food on the 18th floor of this mid-70s office building since last July. It's a small operation at 1,000 square feet, sort of a baby step into indoor farming, but it's about to get much bigger.
In a climate- and light-controlled enclosure on a former office floor, FarmZero grows greens: arugula, red cabbage, broccoli leaves, mustard, pea shoots. Much of the produce goes into Farm Zero's "Baller Mix," which Steinberg told WBEZ's Reset is so high in nutrients, "You'd have to eat about 40 salads at a restaurant to even get close to the nutritional benefits." Current clients include a downtown catering firm, Blue Plate and a health care company Steinberg wouldn't identify.
The thousand-square-foot demo has done so well that this summer FarmZero will open another plot in a different downtown high-rise, at 125 S. Wacker Drive, and move the LaSalle Street farm to a space on the 19th floor that is 10 times larger. The Wacker Drive farm, in the building's lower level, will start out at about 1,500 square feet but has the capacity to grow to 9,000.
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