The farm-fresh scent of rising greens hits your nostril moments after you get off the elevator on the 18th ground at 30 N. LaSalle St. Taking an elevator to get to a farm could appear far-fetched, but when Russ Steinberg’s enterprise grows as a lot as he hopes, it may develop into commonplace within the Loop — and in different massive cities’ downtown cores.
Steinberg’s startup has been rising meals on the 18th ground of this mid-70s workplace constructing since final July. It’s a small operation at 1,000 sq. ft, form of a child step into indoor farming, but it surely’s about to get a lot larger.
In a climate- and light-controlled enclosure on a former workplace ground, FarmZero grows greens: arugula, crimson cabbage, broccoli leaves, mustard, pea shoots.
A lot of the produce goes into Farm Zero’s “Baller Combine,” which Steinberg instructed WBEZ’s Reset is so excessive in vitamins, “You’d need to eat about 40 salads at a restaurant to even get near the dietary advantages.” Present purchasers embrace a downtown catering agency, Blue Plate and a well being care firm Steinberg wouldn’t establish.
The thousand-square-foot demo has executed so effectively that this summer time FarmZero will open one other plot in a special downtown high-rise, at 125 S. Wacker Drive, and transfer the LaSalle Avenue farm to an area on the nineteenth ground that’s 10 instances bigger. The Wacker Drive farm, within the constructing’s decrease degree, will begin out at about 1,500 sq. ft however has the capability to develop to 9,000.
These would be the first two full-sized steps towards what Steinberg envisions as ultimately turning into 7 million sq. ft of indoor farms in Chicago, concentrated within the downtown neighborhoods the place he hopes to transform whole out of date workplace buildings. FarmZero grows primarily microgreens now however plans on branching out to a wider array of produce, Steinberg mentioned.
The concept, Steinberg mentioned, is “to supply wholesome meals inside the town, nearer to the patron, and to make use of the indoor areas that aren’t getting used” as workplace areas sit empty within the post-COVID world of distant work. On the finish of the primary quarter of 2025, a little bit greater than 29% of the central enterprise district’s workplace house was vacant, based on a report from Colliers.
Interiors of already-built constructions insulated towards climate extremes make good indoor farms, Steinberg mentioned, however the considerable vacancies within the Loop now make them even higher candidates.
The 30 N. LaSalle St. farm is an particularly well timed instance: The half-empty, 44-story constructing is without doubt one of the residential conversions within the metropolis’s La Salle Avenue Reimagined program. The underside 18 flooring will likely be changed into 349 flats, and the remainder will stay places of work and facilities. A type of facilities, on the nineteenth ground, will likely be FarmZero’s 10,000-square-foot set up, its produce accessible to residents and different customers of the constructing.
Think about if the salad you had for dinner had been grown in the identical constructing the place you reside.
FarmZero isn’t alone in trying to flip downtown workplace house into farms.
This month, The Washington Publish reported on indoor farming corporations’ tasks in Houston, Phoenix and Maine. One Phoenix official instructed the Publish that “cities throughout the united statesA. have empty buildings that would flip into meals condominiums.” They foresee these constructions serving to in city meals deserts, areas the place residents have little entry to recent produce.
Steinberg envisions a few of Chicago’s future 7 million sq. ft of indoor farms reaching neighborhood colleges and parks, in addition to locations like Navy Pier and McCormick Place.
Water is vital for any farm to be productive. However in a high-rise, “Everyone you speak to goes to fret about flooding,” Steinberg mentioned. He’s standing in entrance of the answer: a 100-gallon tank that circulates water via the rising cabinets and brings all extra again to the tank.
He has proven the tank to alderpeople, constructing officers, buyers and others, and he mentioned it at all times allays their issues.
Steinberg, 44, beforehand labored in insurance coverage and property planning. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, he started exploring strategies of rising produce indoors in Lakeshore East, the downtown condominium neighborhood the place he, his spouse and their two youngsters reside.
That led to beginning FarmZero, which Steinberg mentioned he self-funded for the primary few years. He later attracted buyers, together with the actual property developer Lee Golub, who lent the 18th-floor house (the following two pays lease) and funding from Illinois’ Division of Commerce and Financial Alternative. FarmZero is now making an attempt to lift $4.2 million.
Building on the demo house began in March 2024, the primary seeds have been planted in July and deliveries to Blue Plate started in October. Since then, the corporate has been harvesting each couple days.
Within the farm room, rows of vegetation develop in trays below synthetic gentle. Their names and rising cycles are written on Publish-It notes — quickly to get replaced with digital readouts, Steinberg mentioned. The tag on a tray of 1 purple sort of mustard inexperienced, Miz America, mentioned it was planted Could 19, uncovered and uncovered to lights Could 22 and could be prepared to reap June 2.
As soon as harvested, “It could possibly be in your desk in an hour,” Steinberg mentioned.
Dennis Rodkin is the residential actual property reporter for Crain’s Chicago Enterprise and Reset’s “What’s That Constructing?” contributor. Observe him @Dennis_Rodkin.
Okay’Von Jackson is the freelance photojournalist for Reset’s “What’s That Constructing?” Observe him @true_chicago.
