Chicago Sun-Times
July 20, 2007
By Arnold Collins

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It was China's booming economy that spelled lights-out in 2005 for the Frederick Cooper Lamp factory, the iconic Chicago business at Diversey and the Kennedy Expy. But the ill wind that extinguished Cooper ignited an opportunity that a handful of Chicagoans saw and grabbed.

Now the 90-year-old building is well on the way to its new life as the Green Exchange.

When fully occupied, the Green Exchange will host as many as 100 companies active in the burgeoning sustainable-products sector, and provide 400 to 600 "green collar" jobs. These jobs will range from selling electric vehicles to solar panels to green cleaning services paying an hourly wage to six figure salaries.

To date, seven prospective tenants have signed on. In early 2008, the first tenants should be moving in.

What happened at Frederick Cooper Lamp is a case study of what can happen to a landmark building when you mix public interest (jobs) with private motives (profit) and add a dash of social activism.

Four stories tall, the U-shaped building at 2545 W. Diversey occupies the entire block between Rockwell and Maplewood. Standing empty, its future teetered between destruction and renovation for residential or commercial use. Could a quarter-million square feet of factory built in 1913 be saved and serviceable for any productive 21st century use?

Finally, the lamp company sold the building two summers ago to David and Douglas Baum, founders of the Baum Realty and Development Groups. They have long been involved in an essentially green concept: adapting old buildings to new use in neighborhoods needing a jump-start.

Enter by chance, one of Chicago's tenacious advocates of environmental causes: Barry Bursak.

Bursak had earned his green business credentials as an entrepreneur in non-toxic furniture design and the organic food business. He was looking for a location to reopen a furniture store. Ald. Manuel Flores (1st) "knew of a building," the building.

Bursak looked at the factory. For his store, Bursak needed only 15,000 square feet, but he saw a use for the whole thing. It could be renovated "green," using non-toxic, energy-saving materials, as is becoming so prevalent these days. But even better, the building could become a host and connector for Chicago's burgeoning green business sector.

Bursak and Flores contacted the Baum brothers. Even though the building's new owners were developers devoted to adaptive re-use, the concept was a stretch.

"Frankly, I was doubtful," David Baum admitted. "You know, ‘here's a do-gooder but it's not going to make any sense.'

Recipients of a City of Chicago Landmark Award for Preservation Excellence, they had imagined adapting the lamp factory and being environmentally conscious. But they had not imagined that it might be home to exclusively green companies. Bursak set out to convince them it was the right — and a financially viable — thing to do.

"As I talked to him," David Baum said. "I thought it had merit and it could position our building in a unique way that's consistent with something that we believe, promoting green products and services, helping people make a fundamental shift in their purchasing and giving them better alternatives."

The factory's closing was "heartbreaking" for its employees. After the business was sold, an interim developer hoped to convert the factory into condos, but the deal went sour. To community groups and leaders, new jobs trumped any need for more condos in the Diversey neighborhood. Flores had a strong interest in developing the economy and replacing the lost jobs. At one time, Cooper Lamp had employed 200 workers. As many as 100 remained until August 2005.

The Chicago Green Exchange hopes to generate many more jobs as well as incubate new businesses.

Richard and Ginny Kabbe own the hardware store opposite the former Cooper factory. Kabbe's Industrial Supply has been in the family for nearly a century, but with the loss of neighborhood manufacturing, has lost all 150 of its longtime commercial accounts. The Kabbes were excited to hear of plans for revitalizing the building across the street.

Likewise, Sosti Ropaitis, who owns the neighboring Big Cheese restaurant. He has seen more condos but less pedestrian and vehicular traffic on their stretch of Diversey these days. "I'd like to see more traffic in front of my restaurant," Ropaitis said. "Any sort of development will help bring life to the street and if it's environment-friendly, by all means!"

Flores sees a time when "being green" will be the norm, and the successful Green Exchange will be the model: "You install a wind turbine or solar panels on the building," he explained. "You generate energy and maybe use that energy for the neighborhood. Then the wind turbine company takes a space in the Addison Industrial Corridor and manufactures those turbines here — and then sells them from the Green Exchange. Now you're producing high-tech jobs that provide stability in the market and — you're improving the environment. That's how the Green Exchange could work as an incubator."

David Baum hopes the building's visible tower will instill a new mindset in passing motorists. "Right now, as they're coming down the expressway," Baum said, "the [visual cues] are about lottery tickets and Budweiser, which is fine. But we want people to think about different things — about sustainability and alternative products that you can buy and that are also eco-friendly."

Flores agrees. "We have a very unique opportunity here to build on Chicago's already strong reputation as a green city. Take a look at the needs: more jobs, stronger economy, global competition and doing it in a way where we're not harming our environment. That's a winning formula," Flores said.