A vacant Chicago landmark that began as a sprawling department store in the late 1800s is now being re-envisioned as an urban farming innovation hub that the project's backers say will be the first of its kind.
Local businessman and real estate investor Marc Calabria is working with vertical farming pioneer Farm Zero to create the facility within the wide, eight-story building at 401 S. State St. in Chicago's Loop business district. Calabria bought the vacant office building out of financial distress for $4.2 million last year.
Unlike previous Farm Zero spaces only designed for growing produce, the firm and Calabria now want to convert much of the building into vertical farming racks alongside a health research center and incubator for controlled-environment farming startups, a produce market, restaurants and a rooftop garden featuring solar panels, greenhouses and outdoor dining.
"There are lots of different types of food production that we can co-locate in the building and turn it into an important brain trust," Farm Zero's Russell Steinberg said. The vision for 401 S. State adds a twist to the nationwide trend in recent years of vacant office spaces being converted to new uses, ranging from residential to data storage.
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