Crain's Chicago Business, April 29, 2024

This Fulton Market developer is betting big on Michigan City

Sterling Bay co-founder Scott Goodman will soon break ground on a 14-story, 680,000-square-foot, $280 million luxury condo, hotel and retail complex on an empty lakefront lot | By Jan Parr

For some 25 years until 2021, Sterling Bay co-founder Scott Goodman had a vacation home in Michiana, near the Indiana and Michigan border.

“We would drive though Michigan City and wonder, ‘Why isn’t this a suburb of Chicago the way it should be?’ ”

en several things happened. e South Shore train line added a second track that will cut the

ride to Chicago from Michigan City by at least 30 minutes. en the pandemic made remote work routine. e local power plant, perched on valuable lakefront land, is slated for decommissioning. O cials announced they are closing the local jail. Suddenly Michigan City was looking like it could become a suburb of Chicago.

CVS’ cost-cutting impacts Humira’s market share

The blockbuster drug managed to hang on to most of its market in the rst year of biosimilar competition, but the tide appears to be turning

Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie managed to hang on to most of the immunosuppressive drug market in the rst year its multiuse drug Humira faced biosimilar competition, but the tide appears to be turning as CVS’ pharmacy bene t manager replaces Humira on its formulary list.

A new report from investment banking advisory rm Evercore ISI shows Humira is losing its hold on the market for the immunosuppressive drug adalimumab (for which Humira is a brand name) as lower-cost Humira biosimilars accounted for 36% of all new U.S. adalimumab prescriptions in the week ending April 5, up from just 5% the week before. e swift development stems from changes CVS Health, the vertically integrated pharmacy, health care and insurance company, made to its pharmacy bene t manager, or PBM, formulary, which plays a signi cant role in which drugs are available to many Americans.

As of April 1, CVS’ Caremark unit replaced Humira with biosimilar Hyrimoz on its major national commercial template formularies, which covers around

30 million patients. In just a week, the change led to an “explosion” of new Hyrimoz prescriptions, Evercore ISI analysts wrote in the April 15 report.

New Hyrimoz prescriptions grew from just 643 in the week ending March 29 to nearly 8,300 during the rst week of April, accounting for about 93% of all new Humira biosimilar prescriptions.

“We expect the faster adoption to continue,” the analysts wrote.

Humira, which once represented as much as 30% of AbbVie’s revenue, now faces nine biosimilars.

Humira and its competitors treat rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis and other conditions.

Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS is giving preferential treatment to Hyrimoz, in part, because it coowns the drug. Last year, CVS Health created Cordavis, a wholly owned subsidiary that works directly with manufacturers to commercialize and co-produce

Grif n’s move to Miami leaves Chicago with a philanthropic hole

It remains to be seen if the spigot here has been shut off and, if so, who will ll the void

Ken Gri n’s move to relocate his hedge fund rm Citadel to Miami has been a big loss for Chicago’s business community — but his departure has also left a hole in the city’s philanthropic sector.

While his giving in Illinois to-

tals more than $650 million, including the $130 million he donated to 40 Chicago organizations as he departed for Miami, Grifn’s philanthropic priorities and donations appear to have now shifted to Florida, where his donations now total over $300 million, with the majority of them

AGRICULTURE

Farmers have clamored for the Right to Repair for years. It’s getting little traction in Illinois.

landing since his move in 2022.

With his philanthropic focus now centered around his new home in Florida, it remains to be seen if the Chicago spigot has been shut o and, if so, who will ll the void.

“When a donor of (Gri n’s) scale leaves, there is no doubt a big

hole that is created by their absence,” said Michael Moody, a professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. “Both in terms of money and leadership.”

e scale of Gri n’s Illinois

These leaders in sustainability aim to help make our world greener. PAGE 13

Katherine Davis

An architect’s rendering of the SoLa complex planned for the Michigan City lakefront. YAB DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS

Brandon Dupré

Ken Grif n BLOOMBERG

See ABBVIE on Page 24

See MICHIGAN CITY on Page 27

See GRIFFIN on Page 27

Farmers have clamored for the Right to Repair for years. It’s getting little traction in John Deere’s home state.

The American Farm Bureau Federation agreed not to support any federal or state legislation in exchange for consumer repair diagnostics. But R2R advocates say the tools fall short. |

By Jennifer Bamberg, Investigate Midwest

During the 2023 harvest season, one of Jake Lieb’s tractors quit working. A week later, his combine stopped working, too. Both were new — and he was locked out from making any repairs himself because of software restrictions embedded in the machines.

Instead, a technician from John Deere was dispatched to diagnose and repair the problems. While waiting for the technician to come out, Lieb red up a 20-year-old tractor he hadn’t used for harvesting in years. Crops are vulnerable to the weather, and had he not, Lieb could have lost at least a day of harvest. Some of the crop might have dropped to the ground, rendering it unsalvageable, potentially costing him thousands of dollars.

“Meanwhile,” Lieb said, “we’ve got over a million dollars of equipment in the eld, inoperable.”

When the technician from John Deere arrived at his farm in central Illinois, it took about 30 minutes total to plug in a diagnostic tool, see which sensor was bad, unscrew it, replace it and close everything up in the combine.

“If I knew what sensor was bad in that combine, I could have had it xed in ve minutes,” Lieb said. “But if you don’t have the software, it’s impossible to know what’s wrong.”

For more than a decade, farmers like Lieb haven’t been able to x their high-tech equipment.

Until recently, manufacturer restrictions meant only companyauthorized representatives could own and use diagnostic tools, and make xes when needed.

In March 2023, in an attempt to address farmers’ frustrations, the American Farm Bureau Federation signed a memorandum of understanding with John Deere and four other farm equipment manufacturers. e farm bureau called it a “private-sector solution to the right to repair issue.”

In the agreement, Deere, Kubota, Case New Holland, AGCO, and CLAAS of America promised to give farmers and independent repair shops access to customer diagnostic tools. In exchange, the farm bureau agreed not to support any federal or state repair legislation.

However, advocates for repair legislation say that the nonbinding agreement and the customer versions of tools provided by the companies fall short of needed protections that legislation would ensure. ese same advocates are supporting bills across the country, including one introduced this year in the Illinois Senate.

e Illinois bill (SB2669) proposes to establish an agricultural

equipment bill of rights. It would require manufacturers to make software, rmware and all other tools needed to repair machines accessible to independent repair shops and owners throughout the state at a reasonable cost.

e bill directly addresses the MOU, and says that agricultural equipment owners are entitled to any tools or software not covered by the MOU. e bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy), declined to comment after multiple attempts by email and in person to reach her. Deere and the other farm equipment manufacturers also did not return multiple requests for comment.

e bill is languishing at the statehouse. According to a spokesperson from the Illinois Corn Growers Association in an email to Investigate Midwest, there’s no chance the bill will pass this year.

The cost of repair

e demand for new tractors and combines ebbs and ows, but a consistent source of pro t growth for John Deere is the sale of parts and services. Despite a 19% drop in sales of new ag equipment sales from between 2013 and 2019, supply chain disruptions and food system upheaval in 2020, and a monthlong labor strike of 10,000 workers across ve states in 2021, Deere’s pro ts swelled the past three years, totaling a nearly 270% increase from 2020, according to the company’s SEC lings.

According to Bloomberg, the sale of parts helped buoy the company’s portfolio — parts sales grew by 22% between 2013 to 2019.

While Lieb’s fth-generation family farm operates on annual tractor trade-ins so his machines stay on a warranty, which includes free parts and services, he’s in the minority. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only 20% of farmers in the U.S. regularly buy new machines.  e rest hold on to their equipment for longer periods of time or buy second-hand machines, which come with limited warranties or none at all, making repair restrictions more consequential.

Equipment made before 2014 doesn’t have as much complicated software, and there are more repair workarounds. Still, the costs of repairing older machines add up.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of parts and labor, for ag equipment of all ages, has nearly doubled in the past two decades and spiked 41% since 2020. (Farm machinery is grouped together with construction and mining equipment by the bureau.)

In 2023, Kevin O’Reilly, then with the Public Interest Research

Group, conducted a study of the cost of repairs directly tied to downtime and repair restrictions imposed by equipment manufacturers. He found that farmers lost an average of $3,348 per year to repair downtime.

e study of 53 farmers in 14 states estimated that if every farmer in the country faced similar losses, repair restrictions placed on them would cost U.S. farmers more than $3 billion a year.

“Even with our older machines — the stu without software,” said one farmer in the study, “we were paying more because we were running up the hour counts. When stu gets old, it breaks down more often.”

Curbing pollution leads to digital transformation

In the mid-1990s, the Environmental Protection Agency introduced emissions standards for agriculture diesel equipment as part of a growing e ort to curb air pollution. e agency gave manufacturers nearly two decades to meet certain benchmarks in a set of four tiers, each with increasingly stringent regulations. e nal set of standards rolled out in 2014.

To meet those emissions standards, complex computers were installed in agricultural machinery, which manage a wide range of functions and systems in the machines. is, in part, led to a technological revolution in farm equipment manufacturing, and

See FARMERS on Page 23

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Jake Lieb with his John Deere equipment at his farm near Monticello, Illinois. | DARRELL HOEMANN, INVESTIGATE MIDWEST

In “Chicago’s Best New Private Dining Rooms” featured in the April 22 issue, Gemini’s capacity for a reception should have said 200. Correction

How Barnes & Noble could turn the tide for a retail corridor

The strip of Damen Avenue that stretches between Bucktown and Wicker Park has suffered in the last few years from a high number of vacancies and a shifting identity | By Ally

Marotti

After a tumultuous few years of high vacancy rates and a shifting retail identity, a strip of Damen Avenue that stretches between Bucktown and Wicker Park could start to recover this year.

The retail vacancy rate on Damen between Willow Street and North Avenue increased to almost 24% in 2023, up from 19.7% in 2022, according to an analysis from Stone Real Estate. It marked the highest vacancy rate the street had experienced in the seven years of the survey, save for 2020, when COVID shuttered many stores. Though retailers did open on Damen last year, it wasn’t enough to offset the losses. However, Barnes & Noble is looking

See RETAIL on Page 26

Though

the bookstore chain does serve families, it can draw a different shopper than a vet or dentist might. That could impact the street’s leasing trajectory.

With baby formula lawsuits looming, Abbott’s CEO lays out a game plan

Robert Ford told investors the cases will start this summer

Katherine Davis

Following an Illinois jury ordering Reckitt Benckiser Group to pay $60 million in damages over allegations that its infant formula led to the death of a premature baby, Abbott Laboratories CEO Robert Ford defended his company’s products as similar cases loom against the company.

The verdict, which came last month from a jury in a St. Clair County court, ruled that Reckitt owed damages to a plaintiff for failing to warn her about the risks of necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC, in its cow-milkbased Enfamil formula. Reckitt has said it plans to appeal the verdict.

The decision sent Reckitt shares spiraling down 15% to the lowest level in 10 years. Meanwhile, North Chicagobased Abbott’s stock also fell in response to the ruling — by as much as 5.5% — as it faces hundreds of similar cases, many of which name the company as a defendant alongside Reckitt.

Ford told investors on April 17 that Abbott will begin facing the lawsuits in July.

Lawsuits allege that Mead and Abbott knowingly advertised and sold cow-milk-based baby formulas that can cause NEC when fed to premature babies. The suits point to research

indicating that premature babies are unable to digest cow’s milk and instead should only be fed human milk. The disease, which harms bowels, targets mostly premature newborns and has a fatality rate of as much as 40%, according to researchers.

Abbott’s

attorneys have denied claims that its pediatric formulas used in hospital settings and administered by health care professionals

have adverse effects on premature infants.

Abbott’s attorneys have denied claims that its pediatric formulas used in hospital settings and administered by health care professionals have adverse effects on premature infants. In an investor call on April 17, Ford defended Abbott’s products, saying, “These litigation cases — they’re really seeking to advance a theory promoted by plaintiff lawyers that distorts the science.”

“For decades, we’ve provided specialized nutrition products that help doctors,” Ford said. “The medical community —

See ABBOTT on Page 26

Pullback in warehouse-building keeps vacancy in check

For the rst time in nearly three years, local industrial projects underway with tenants lined up are outpacing developments kicked off on spec

Danny Ecker

Warehouse builders appear to be doing something that real estate developers aren’t known for after a few years of a hot market: getting out of their own way.

Despite fears of a possible vacancy problem from a record year for industrial real estate development, the share of available warehouse space in the Chicago area only inched up during the rst quarter to 5.29% from 5.25% at the end of 2023, according to data from real estate services rm Colliers. e industrial va-

cancy rate is up from a record-low 4.5% in late 2022 after ve straight quarters of increases, though it continues to hover at one of the lowest levels it has been in the past 25 years.

e numbers likely quell any worries that industrial property owners may have had about a possible glut throttling the wildly strong negotiating leverage they’ve had with tenants over the past few years. Retailers clamoring for space to store and distribute goods bought online during the COVID-19 pandemic pushed industrial vacancy to historic lows

and fueled a development frenzy:

More than 40 million square feet of warehouses were completed in the Chicago area in 2023, smashing the 31.4 million-square-foot record set the year before. e development tear punctuated a historic multiyear run that turned the once-boring industrial real estate sector into one of the few bright spots of the commercial property world.

Last year’s supply surge coincided with a slowdown in demand as companies cautiously

See WAREHOUSES on Page 26

JOHN R. BOEHM

As Vocalo preps to go off the air, some staffers lament what could have been

While explaining plans to take a radio station designed to appeal to Black and Brown audiences off the air, management at Chicago Public Media cited low audience numbers. Staffers, however, see it differently.

Corli Jay

While explaining plans to take Vocalo Radio o the air by May 1, Chicago Public Media management cited the station’s low audience numbers. Sta ers, however, see it di erently.

“I’m not surprised because they told me a year ago that they were looking into stopping the broadcast,” said Ayana Contreras, former content director, host and founding member of Vocalo, who acknowledges that the audience hasn’t been large — but she believes that is, in part, because management never made the edgling, experimental station a high priority.

Contreras says she left the station in November after hearing from leadership at Chicago Public Media that Vocalo would soon be terminated, conversations that she says started to become serious last May. “At that time, I suggested that that was a bad idea,” she recalls. “ ere would be outcry and people would really care about it, and they did not think what I was saying was true.”

Her apprehensions became real earlier this month, when Chicago Public Media — the nonpro t parent of National Public Radio a liate WBEZ-FM/91.5 as well as the Chicago Sun-Times — announced it would eliminate WBEZ’s podcast unit and take Vocalo o the air, a move that resulted in a total of 14 layo s across both the radio station and the Sun-Times.

As Contreras tells it, Vocalo — founded in 2007 to shine a light on Chicago’s local music scene and reach mainly Black and Brown audiences — was thought to be on the chopping block nearly every year of its existence, except when corporate sponsors pledged commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion e orts.

“Basically, every single year . . . except 2020 and 2021. ose are the only years where it felt like we

had goodwill from the (Chicago Public Media) board. And a couple of other years where we got really good grant funding. en we were pretty safe,” Contreras says. “But every other time, there was sort of an acrimonious relationship with Vocalo.”

Jill Hopkins, former morning host on Vocalo, echoes Contreras’ sentiments.

“We were not given the nancial or human resources to e ectively manage a full-time station,” says Hopkins via email. “I personally was running (the station) 2-4 hours daily — depending on the program — without a producer or editor for the last year and a half I was on the air.”

Frequently left out

Hopkins says Vocalo was frequently left out of promotional materials and would not be mentioned during the fundraising galas she hosted. “I would just improvise ways to mention them to our high-level members, both on and o stage,” she says.

Chicago Public Media said in

its statement on the cuts that Vocalo’s audience had not grown, “reaching just 11,000 listeners weekly, with the broadcast station running at a signi cantnancial loss for many years.”

In an emailed statement to Crain’s, Chicago Public Media’s outgoing CEO, Matt Moog, says, “Vocalo has been a priority for Chicago Public Media for over 17 years. We have invested $20 million over nearly two decades and increased funding by 25%-plus over the last two years.”

In the statement, Moog also says, “ e Vocalo team experimented with many di erent programming formats, marketing, and fundraising campaigns. Unfortunately, the radio audience never reached a sustainable level, and revenue did not grow to cover expenses. e radio audience has fallen by 50% in recent years, while the digital audience has grown by more than 50%.”

Pew Research Center data shows “the top 20 NPR-a liated public radio stations (by listenership) had on average a total

weekly listenership of about 8 million in 2022.” Recent Nielsen ratings show WBEZ as No. 18 in the Chicago-area radio market with a rating of 2.1. Vocalo is not re ected in the ratings as it does not maintain a high enough weekly listenership to be measured.

Not a priority

Contreras points to Vocalo’snancial statements as evidence that the sister station to WBEZ was not a priority for management. e organization’s most recent tax forms show expenses related to Vocalo of $608,786 for scal year 2023, ending in June.

e revenue slot was left blank, while the revenue for WBEZ broadcasts was reported as $1.6 million, with $18.6 million in expenses.

Contreras says her question for station management is, “What pathways did (Chicago Public Media) use to attempt to get revenue beyond foundation dollars?”

In his statement, Moog says

the station had its own budget and the organization made various attempts “to generate revenue from donors, members, and sponsors.” He adds that the station lost $2 million over the last five years and is expecting expenses of $650,000 this year with a “forecasted” $150,000 in revenue.

ere was no answer as to what the company plans to do with the 91.1 radio frequency occupied by Vocalo on the FM dial. ough its radio broadcast will end next month, Vocalo will continue with its digital presence and retain the operation of its newsletter, “ e Goods.” Chicago Public Media said Vocalo reaches an audience of over 100,000, which is in line with its digital e orts. e Vocalo sta remaining will work with teams at WBEZ and the SunTimes.

Employees at the station are currently petitioning to save the station by collecting letters to send to the board with a prepared template.

Contreras believes Vocalo’s future is dependent on it gaining nancial independence. Moog apparently agrees. “We are also open to talking to community members who have reached out to nd a way to save the radio broadcast and potentially operate Vocalo as an independent entity. We estimate any interested parties will need to raise millions of dollars to support Vocalo for the next several years,” he wrote. “ at’s why I’m actually pushing for — if they are able to convince the board to revisit the Vocalo situation — that they ask for scal independence,” Contreras says. “Even though it’s a very hard fundraising climate, I think their best chance for survival is getting enough funds to have their own underwriting and have their own grant writer, to have their own person working on major donors and stu like that.”

Beam Suntory has new head of North America operations

Carlo Coppola, president of whiskey and tequila, succeeds Jessica Spence

Alcoholic beverage company Beam Suntory has appointed a new president of its North American operations.

Carlo Coppola succeeds Jessica Spence, who joined the company in 2019 and was named president of North America operations in 2023. Beam Suntory said Spence is pursuing “other opportunities outside the company.”

Coppola’s appointment begins April 29. “With a career spanning across U.S. commercial, nance and global brands over the past 20-plus years, Carlo brings strong commercial acumen, in-depth customer and consumer knowledge, and deep understanding and passion for our brands and people to our largest market,” Greg Hughes, president and CEO of Beam Suntory, said in a statement. “We are grateful to Jessica

for all she has done to help transform and build Beam Suntory during this critical period of growth and wish her well in her next endeavor.”

Coppola has been with the company for 16 years, according to his LinkedIn pro le. He served most recently as president of whiskey and tequila for the company, overseeing bourbon brands Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark, according to Beam Suntory.

“I’m looking forward to returning to the North America market team,” Coppola said in the statement. “We have a strong foundation in place and we are only just getting started on realizing the full potential of our portfolio in this region.”

Beam Suntory has its North American headquarters in Chicago. e company is a subsidiary of Japan-based Suntory Holdings’ portfolio that includes whiskies, bourbons and Scotch brands.

Corli Jay

Duo with deep Chicago ties to open a restaurant in New Buffalo

Michigan native James Galbraith apprenticed at hotspots like Blackbird, Boka, Duck Duck Goat, Elske and S.K.Y.

Jack Grieve

Growing up in the small city of Benton Harbor, Mich., with aspirations of becoming a chef, James Galbraith dreamed of one day making it to Chicago. “I wanted to prove to myself that I had the chops to work in the best restaurants,” he said of the big-city appeal.

Prove himself in the city he did. Galbraith spent years apprenticing in heavyweight Chicago kitchens like Duck Duck Goat, Boka, S.K.Y., Elske, Blackbird, Intro and more.

Con dent in his culinary skills, Galbraith eventually returned to Southwest Michigan and, in 2019, joined forces with his sister to open Houndstooth, a New American restaurant in their Berrien County hometown. e spot became a huge success, and Galbraith went on to open a second Benton Harbor restaurant, Anemel, in 2022.

Now, Galbraith is gearing up for yet another Southwest Michigan spot, this time about 30 miles south in the Lake Michigan

shoreline town of New Bu alo.

e restaurant is expected to open by the end of the summer. It will operate under the name PostBoy, an homage to the town’s founder, Wessel D. Whittaker, and his boat, Post Boy.

e venture is a partnership between Galbraith and developer Ben Holland. Growing up in Chicago, Holland spent many childhood summers at his family’s vacation home in New Bu alo. “It’s kind of my special place,” he said of the town. “ is is my dream project. I’ve had a folder on this project since I was 18 years old, and I just turned 38.”

PostBoy is slated for 207 N. Whittaker St., directly across the street from the New Bu alo Amtrak station.

e 10,000-squarefoot space was previously occupied by a Subway and Keller Williams Realty o ce. Holland said the total development costs, including acquiring the property, totaled about $5 million.

e lot is undergoing a “dramatic transformation,” though the existing building will serve as

the main dining room. Included in the transformation is a roughly 2,400-square-foot addition for back-of-house operations, as well as building out an outdoor patio.

As for the menu itself, Gal-

braith did not reveal much. He described the concept as “chefdriven,” blending “intention” with “fun” while also o ering dishes that are approachable. “We’re aiming to present some-

thing ambitious that could rival what you’d nd in any of the big food cities,” he said, adding that the goal is to “expand the radius of culinary outside of these large metro areas.”

Hewn Bread to open new location on the North Shore

The highly acclaimed women-owned bakery, based in Evanston, is expanding to a third storefront in Winnetka this fall

All baking at Hewn Bread begins at the bakery’s agship storefront in Evanston. At about 6 a.m. ve days a week, sta deliver a curated selection of menu items from the central kitchen to a Hewn outpost in Libertyville. Hewn’s delivery team will soon have an additional stop to make along the way. e highly acclaimed women-owned bakery plans to open a third North Shore location in the fall, slated for Winnetka.

At about 700 square feet, the space — located at 964 1/2 Green Bay Road — will be Hewn’s smallest storefront yet. “ e idea is to distill down the essence of what we are and who we are,” said Ellen King, a co-owner and director of baking operations.

e Hewn name is a regular on “best bakery” lists. Food & Wine magazine declared the Evanston shop one of the 100 best bakeries

in America in 2020. Two years later, the magazine reiterated its praise, listing the bakery’s bread as the best in Illinois. Similarly, rillist recognized Hewn as one of the “absolute best bakeries in Chicago” in 2021.

Some Chicagaons may have sampled Hewn’s bread without even knowing it. e bakery was once a distribution partner of Sweetgreen, though that ended in 2022 when Hewn pivoted to focus more on in-house sales.

Hewn credits the village of Winnetka itself for enticing the bakery to target the North Shore suburb for expansion. “We looked at other communities, but Winnetka was the one that kept reaching out,” King said. “ em approaching us is what made us decide to go there. We feel like we’re welcomed.”

King, who was named one of Crain’s Notable Entrepreneurs in 2019, describes Hewn as a “rustic bakery” that specializes in madefrom-scratch breads, pastries and sandwiches. Hewn prioritizes locally sourced ingredients, with most of its grains coming from farms in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Even aspects of the bakery’s interior designs are sourced locally. Horigan Urban Forest Products, which salvages wood from trees that are taken down throughout northern Illinois, provided many of Hewn’s counters and shelves, for example.

King founded the bakery along with co-owner and Director of Business Operations Julie Matthei in 2013. Hewn moved from its original location on Dempster Street in Evanston to its current shop at 1733 Central St. just weeks before the pandemic. e outpost at 348 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Libertyville opened in 2023.

Jack Grieve

James Galbraith, left, grew up in West Michigan with dreams of working as a chef in Chicago. Ben Holland, right, grew up in Chicago and spent his summers visiting New Buffalo. GABRIELLE SUKICH VIA POSTBOY

A rendering of PostBoy. | SRDJAN JOSIPOVIC VIA POSTBOY

Hewn Bread currently operates in Evanston and Libertyville, pictured above.| SIEGE FOOD PHOTO

Oak Street Health to open clinics at retail pharmacies

CVS plans to add 50 to 60 of the spaces this year, even as archrival Walgreens trims its sails

Caroline Hudson, Modern Healthcare

CVS Health is opening Oak Street Health primary care clinics at its retail pharmacy stores — a move that hasn’t always worked out for competitors.

CVS acquired Chicago-based primary care provider Oak Street in May for $10.6 billion and announced plans to add 50 to 60 Oak Street clinics in 2024. Most of those clinics are expected to be standalone locations, including some located in closed CVS stores. But CVS also is piloting a setup that replaces much of the retail space in existing stores with clinics.

e company added Oak Street clinics at two stores in December, in Houston and Garland, Texas. It has applied for building permits to open two more at stores in Jacksonville, Florida, a spokesperson said. e spokesperson did not say how many of the new clinics will follow the co-located model.

“ is is not some new model that we hope will work right and we’re going to expand very quickly. is is a model that we know works because we’ve been doing this for over 10 years,” said Mike Pykosz, Oak Street co-founder and president of healthcare delivery at CVS.

CVS, like its competitors Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger and Amazon, looks to take market share in healthcare services.  e retailers, largely relying on strong brand recognition, are challenging traditional models of care and touting their own services as the faster, cheaper and more consumer-centric option. e e orts have brought mixed results.

Walgreens-backed VillageMD, also a primary care provider, rapidly expanded its clinical footprint after receiving a $5.2 billion investment from the retail pharmacy chain in 2021. In recent months, however, VillageMD has closed about 150 clinics in several states as Walgreens implements a larger $1 billion costcutting initiative.

Walmart Health expanding

Walmart Health is still expanding its clinical footprint overall, but it will open fewer locations in 2024 than initially planned.

Industry watchers say CVS may need to bring something di erent to the table to make its clinic expansion viable.

“When you see a close competitor fail at a new line of business but you push on, you must think that it’s an attractive line of business and your competitor just didn’t execute well. What’s tricky is that maybe your competitor in fact did execute poorly, but what you don’t know is maybe it’s still a bad idea,” said Erik Gordon, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Pykosz said CVS’ plan to use retail space at existing stores for

clinics makes sense in some cases because the stores are typically large and in prime locations that o er visibility.

Oak Street, founded in 2012, operates about 200 locations across 25 states, many of them in strip malls. Its clinics, geared toward seniors on Medicare plans, tend to be about 10,000 square feet to accommodate primary care and additional services such as exercise classes, educational programs and behavioral health specialists, Pykosz said.

“We don’t want to be in big medical o ce buildings because those tend to be hard to get to,” Pykosz said. “ ey tend to be intimidating. ey tend not to be located in the communities where patients live.”

Most of the Oak Street clinic openings slated for 2024 will likely be in the year’s second half, he said.

CVS also is piloting a reversed model that carves out a small space in existing Oak Street clinics for pharmacy operations, Pykosz added.

e goal is to build on a key CVS strategy for care integration in which it handles multiple aspects of a patient’s healthcare experience, from a doctor’s visit to insurance to prescriptions.

CVS stores have faced less retail demand and sta ng constraints in recent years, forcing the company to shutter hundreds of locations. e company operates more than 9,000 retail pharmacies, in addition to about 1,000 MinuteClinic sites, which are instore walk-in clinics separate from Oak Street and tailored to younger patients.

CVS dabbled in clinical trials for a few years, and it bought home care company Signify Health for about $8 billion last year. CVS acquired insurer Aetna in a $69 million deal in 2018. Its Caremark division operates as a pharmacy bene t manager.

“CVS is a very large business with multiple components,” Pykosz said. “My hope coming in was we nd these opportunities to take our model to the next level for our patients and make more of an impact.”

CVS’ expansive retail footprint is underused and adding Oak Street clinics is a natural extension of the company’s integration strategy, but the company will have to be careful with how it implements the co-located model, Julie Utterback, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said in an email.

Gordon at the University of Michigan said the co-location strategy seems solid in theory, but renovating a space for a primary care clinic is an expensive proposition compared with carving out a small space in the back of a store for vaccinations.

Drugstores can bene t from customers coming in regularly to pick up prescriptions and then buying retail products. Primary

care patients, however, don’t visit as frequently for doctor’s appointments and going to a drugstore to see a doctor may not be any more convenient than seeing a doctor at a local medical o ce building, Gordon said.

Walgreens shifting focus

Walgreens executives say they remain are con dent in the VillageMD investment, although the focus has shifted away from ex-

pansion and more toward ramping up pro tability in VillageMD’s strongest markets.

CVS may have a di erent experience. Its expansion plan for Oak Street has a slower pace than what Walgreens tried, said Jack Slevin, vice president of healthcare services equity research at Je eries.

CVS’ model is dedicating a lot of space to the Oak Street clinics and pharmacy operations, which would allow for more patient vol-

ume, he said.

“[CVS is] giving them enough space that it feels like a true Oak Street location,” Slevin said. “If you look at the Walgreens strategy on the square footage side, it was very much more bolting on a smaller Village practice to a Walgreens store that was going to look very much the same.”

Caroline Hudson writes for Crain’s sister publication Modern Healthcare.

CVS acquired Chicago-based primary care provider Oak Street in May for $10.6 billion. | BLOOMBERG

WPP, Charles Schwab look to of oad more of ce space

Two sublease listings are a painful reminder for landlords that some big downtown tenants are still trying to gure out their post-COVID workspace needs in a market where vacancy recently topped 25% for the rst time |

By Danny Ecker

Two anchor tenants of downtown office buildings are looking to get rid of nearly 150,000 square feet of workspace combined, a sign the space-shedding movement shaping the local office market isn’t done giving landlords fits.

In one of two new sublease listings to hit the market this month, advertising giant WPP has tapped brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle to help it find a taker for nearly 80,000 square feet it occupies at 333 N. Green St. in the Fulton Market District, according to a marketing flyer. The offices on the 13th and 14th floors of the 19-story building account for about 31% of the roughly 253,000 square feet WPP leases in the building on a deal that runs through March 2035.

Separately, financial services company Charles Schwab has hired real estate firm Cresa to sublease nearly 67,000 square feet across four floors at 150 S. Wacker Drive, according to a flyer. That offering is about 45% of Charles Schwab’s footprint in the 32-story building, where it is the largest tenant, according to real estate information company CoStar Group. The Charles Schwab lease runs through the end of 2027, the flyer said.

A herd of companies have sought to shed unwanted workspace on the sublease market over the past few years as the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged the remote work movement. The amount of downtown office space available for sublease at the end of 2023 hit a record-high 8.2 million square feet, according to brokerage CBRE, dwarfing the 3.3 million square feet that was available when the public health crisis began.

the space from mobile payment giant PayPal.

e biggest needle-mover: Nonpro t university e Chicago School last month bought the vacant 233,000-square-foot former Tyson Foods o ce building at 400 S. Je erson St., which Tyson had been trying to sublease.

Clouded outlook

CBRE data shows the amount of downtown office space available for sublease fell to 7.9 million square feet at the end of March.

The new offerings from WPP and Charles Schwab, however, are a painful reminder for landlords that some large downtown office tenants are still trying to figure out their postCOVID workspace needs. That clouds the outlook for already-

The biggest needle-mover: Nonpro t university The Chicago School last month bought the vacant 233,000-square-foot former Tyson Foods of ce building at 400 S. Jefferson St., which Tyson had been trying to sublease.

Yet the sublease inventory appears to have plateaued in recent months, with some companies signing up to occupy available space and other listings being taken off the market. Atlanta-based employee benefits consulting company OneDigital recently subleased more than 100,000 square feet at Willis Tower from the skyscraper’s eponymous tenant. Grubhub last month was closing in on a deal for about 90,000 square feet at the Merchandise Mart, where it would relocate its headquarters and sublease

weakened office demand in a market where vacancy recently topped 25% for the first time ever.

WPP’s listing comes a few years after the London-based company subleased one of the oors to short-form video app company TikTok, which planted its ag in Fulton Market with a plan to go on a hiring spree in Chicago. Sources familiar with the new WPP o ering said TikTok is now in the market again for about half as much space, and could reach a deal to shrink to about half of the oor it occu-

pies in the Green Street building.

But TikTok may also move out entirely, prompting WPP to offer both floors for sublease, sources said. Spokesmen for WPP and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

The two floors combined include 582 workstations and 21 conference rooms, according to the flyer, which plays up the amenities offered in the building and the trendy Fulton Market corridor.

WPP signed a lease in 2017 to anchor a new office building at 333 N. Green St. from Chicago developer Sterling Bay. The building today is roughly 90% leased, according to CoStar Group.

Daunting challenge

On Wacker Drive, Charles Schwab is looking to shed space that is split among the second, 10th, 11th and 15th floors in its longtime main Chicago office.

In a statement to Crain’s, a Charles Schwab spokesman said Chicago “remains an important Schwab employment center, and we expect to contin -

venture of billionaire former Coca-Cola bottling mogul Marvin Herb.

The sublease listing comes less than a year after the complex’s second-largest tenant, private credit firm Golub Capital, listed its roughly 75,000square-foot office at 150 S. Wacker for sublease. That deal is slated to expire in November 2028.

The Charles Schwab offering means Herb’s two largest tenants are seeking significant reductions to their footprints, signaling that his venture may have a daunting leasing challenge ahead. The properties were a combined 75% leased at the end of last year, according to CoStar data tied to a mortgage Herb took out on the property in early 2023.

That 10-year mortgage put the towers on more stable financial footing amid a financial storm that has been brutal for most office building owners. Rising interest rates and falling office property values set off a wave of foreclosure lawsuits and a slew of landlords seeking to surrender properties to their lenders to avoid a lengthy trip through the foreclosure process.

ue employing local talent to support our clients and maintain our special culture of stewardship within the Chicagoland community.”

The statement added that the company informed employees last year about plans to downsize its office footprint at 150 S. Wacker and at 600 W. Chicago Ave., where it inherited space from TD Ameritrade after acquiring the company in 2020.

Charles Schwab recently listed nearly 68,000 square feet for sublease at 600 W. Chicago, the building well known as the former headquarters for Groupon.

Charles Schwab will continue to occupy four floors at 150 S. Wacker and a portion of one floor at 600 W. Chicago “for employees who work in the office, either in assigned or reservation-based space workspaces,” the statement said.

With more than 145,000 square feet, the Westlake, Texas-based company is the largest tenant in the neighboring o ce properties at 100 and 150 S. Wacker, which total 1.2 million square feet and have been owned since 2003 by a

Still, re nancing the Wacker Drive buildings was costly for Herb, who was facing a May 2023 deadline to pay o a $140 million loan borrowed against the property a decade earlier. With a $128 million outstanding balance on that loan and associated costs, Herb had to put up roughly $36 million in new equity to re nance, according to a prospectus on the new mortgage. A $65 million portion of that new debt was packaged with other loans and sold o to commercial mortgage-backed securities investors, making much of the properties’ nancial information publicly available. e buildings generated $16.2 million in net operating income in 2023, according to CoStar loan data.

A spokeswoman for the Wacker Drive buildings did not immediately provide a statement on the sublease.

Herb was the owner, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Chicago, which he sold in 2001 to CocaCola Enterprises for $1.4 billion. At the time of the Wacker Drive refinancing last year, he owned approximately 3.8 million square feet of commercial real estate in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas, according to the prospectus.

JLL’s David Miller and Stefan Ivanisevic are marketing WPP’s space for sublease. Cresa brokers Evan Hill, Jake Wright, Emmary Stuligross and Allen Rogoway are marketing both Charles Schwab offices.

333 N. Green St., center | COSTAR GROUP

150 S. Wacker Drive, center. | COSTAR GROUP

Renovation begins on the House of Tomorrow

A rare look inside shows there’s a long road ahead for the nation’s rst glass house, now located

It’s been a long time coming, but restoration of the nation’s rst glass home, the House of Tomorrow on the shores of Lake Michigan in Indiana Dunes National Park, has nally begun.

Local and state politicians, along with o cials from Indiana Dunes National Park and Indiana Landmarks, gathered in Beverly Shores, Ind., April 12 to mark the beginning of a $4 million exterior restoration.

e pioneering home, a round structure designed by George Fred Keck for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and then moved by barge across Lake Michigan to Beverly Shores, has been an eyesore for decades, its windows boarded up, its interior partially exposed to the elements and in need of a complete overhaul.

Keck designed the house as a futuristic dwelling with oor-toceiling glass walls, central air conditioning, an innovative open oor plan, the rst General Electric dishwasher, an “iceless” refrigerator, an attached garage with a door that opened at the push of a button, and an attached hangar for the family airplane. It was considered a pioneer in modern housing solar design.

Structural repair — led by Berglund Construction of Chesterton, Ind. — will include strengthening the home’s innovative spoke-andwheel steel structural system and repair and replacement of the concrete oor. Chicago-based bKL Architecture drew up plans for the renovation.

Triple-glazed windows will be used to re-create oor-to-ceiling glass walls on the second and third oors. e home sits on a dune

across the road from Lake Michigan, sited for expansive views.

Original exterior railings surrounding the terraces will be restored and reinstalled, as will stairs lost over the decades to deterioration.

Local and state o cials made remarks on the home’s rst oor as they dodged raindrops coming from the damaged ceiling above.

Media and visitors toured the upper two oors, which showed how far the home has to go to become whole again.

Exterior renovation is expected to be complete by summer 2025, the 90th anniversary of the relocation of the house to its current location.

But when the home will be fully restored with period-appropriate interiors is another question, since government funds will cover only the exterior.

Little remains of the original interior. Students from the LaPorte County Career & Technical Education Center in Michigan City worked with a preservation trades expert to repair the house’s original metal kitchen cabinets, which were removed from the home.

Some remaining interior features, such as original Carrera glass wall

AbbVie injectables deal with French biotech could be worth $1.9B

A product candidate has already been selected, with formulation activity currently underway

Jon Asplund

French biopharmaceutical company Medincell has entered a co-development and licensing agreement with AbbVie to develop a set of innovative injectable therapies.

Medincell will receive $35 million upfront and be eligible for up to $1.9 billion in development and commercial milestone payments for co-developing up to six long-acting injectables with North Chicago-based AbbVie.

e deal will combine AbbVie's clinical development and commercial expertise with Medincell's cutting-edge, long-acting injectable technology, the Montpellier, France-based company said in a press release.

A product candidate is already selected, with formulation activity underway, the release said.

Medincell will conduct formulation activities and preclinical studies, while AbbVie will nance and conduct the clinical development for each program and will be responsible for regulatory approval, manufacturing and commercialization, the release said.

“Our business development is accelerating following FDA approval of our rst product,” Sébastien Enault, Medincell’s chief business o cer, said in the release.

In addition to the upfront and milestone payments, the release said Medincell may be “eligible to receive mid-single to low-doubledigit royalties on net sales.”

cladding, metal baseboards and parquet oor and walls, will be salvaged and stored for renovation, says Todd Zeiger, director of the North Regional O ce of Indiana Landmarks.

A visitor would be forgiven for not noticing those features, as it was prudent to watch one’s step lest a foot go through badly deteriorated oors.

e interior restoration, along with site preparation such as installing septic and utility lines, will run about $1.5 million, Zeiger says. But who will do that renovation is a big question mark.

e Century of Progress homes in Beverly Shores were in private hands until the land they occupied became part of the Indiana Dunes National Park in the 1960s and 1970s.

Four of them were saved by individuals who were given free leases in exchange for bearing the cost of restoring and maintaining them. One, the pink Florida House, is

available as a 52-year sublease for $2.5 million.

e House of Tomorrow, however, has proved too tough a nut for any one person to crack. It’s been vacant since 1999.

It’s not been decided whether Indiana Landmarks will follow the same individual lease model with the House of Tomorrow. “ ere are too many unknowns right now,” Zeiger says. “We will be making plans for use and interior restoration over the next year.”

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger has called the House of Tomorrow, which predated Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Philip Johnson’s Glass House by many years, “one of the true early monuments of American modernism.”

e National Trust for Historic Preservation designated the House of Tomorrow a National Treasure in 2016, a distinction that helped Indiana Landmarks get the federal funds.

in Indiana Dunes National Park

The House of Tomorrow as it looks now | PHOTOS BY JAN PARR

The House of Tomorrow at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair

Bear down on the details, Chicago Bears

Architectural renderings are something of an artistic subgenre all their own, unfailingly painting, with photorealistic delity, a world of shiny, unblemished structures populated by shiny, unblemished people, scenes so tantalizing that it’s easy to want to make them real.

e renderings the Chicago Bears and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson unveiled to much ballyhoo on April 24 were paragons of the form, showcasing a vision of a re-imagined lakefront campus complete with Soldier Field’s iconic colonnades standing sentry over a green stretch of public sports elds and crowned by a Roombashaped dome just to the south of the current arena.

And yet, for every breathtaking detail highlighted in the multimedia presentation touting the plan — redesigned bike lanes, a walking path among the old stadium’s columns, a skating rink — there remained an equal number of hard questions left unanswered. Which is why, despite the allure of the plan itself, the Bears and the mayor are encountering a chillier reception for their pitch than they perhaps expected.

Yes, a xed-roof stadium would allow the city to bid for revenue-generating events such as the Super Bowl, college football and basketball championships, as well as additional concerts. But among the facets left unexplored is who would reap the lion’s share of the revenue from the expanded programming.

As Crain’s Justin Laurence reports, the

PERSONAL VIEW

stadium would cost $3.2 billion and would be constructed through a $2.3 billion commitment from the team and a loan from the NFL, along with $900 million in public subsidies through bonds issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. e team also is seeking $325 million in publicly funded upfront infrastructure costs and suggests the city or state nd another $1.2 billion to make the Museum Campus improvements showcased in the pitch, including converting Soldier Field to 14 acres of multisport parkland.

Unlike the Bears’ current lease agreement with the Chicago Park District to play at Soldier Field, the potential terms for the new stadium would grant the team a hoard of new revenue, including from stadium naming rights and from other events at the stadium beyond Bears home games, according to sources familiar with the team’s discussions with city o cials.

During an April 25 interview with Crain’s,

Bears executives said key pieces to the deal the team is trying to land with city and state o cials are either being negotiated or haven’t been broached, including the terms of the Bears’ revenue sharing and lease agreement with the park district. “We have not reached that point of saying, ‘What is the proper amount of rent and what is the (revenue share) split, how many events are there, who gets what?’ We have not reached that point,” Bears CEO Kevin Warren acknowledged.

One other question the Johnson administration has yet to answer, despite the mayor’s wholehearted embrace: Where would the city get the money to fund the transportation and lakefront improvements suggested in the plan?

Another head-scratcher: How will the borrowing plan the team is proposing to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority be structured?

e Bears propose to re nance the authority’s current $630 million in outstanding debt — largely tied to the 2003 renovations to Soldier Field — while delivering $900 million in stadium subsidies and a new reserve fund of at least $150 million to cover annual debt service in down years. e plan would require state approval to extend ISFA’s lifespan beyond 2033 and continue dedicating a 2% tax on Chicago hotel stays for 40 years to cover the annual payments. Meanwhile, ISFA is facing ballooning annual payments through 2032 — with the city likely on the hook for tens of millions as well, because of the backloaded structure of the bonds issued to renovate Soldier Field.

Neither the Bears nor the city say they are prepared to provide an estimate of how much it would cost taxpayers to nance the 40-year life of the bonds.

ese are all important blanks that ought to be lled in before lawmakers at City Hall or in Spring eld get behind this proposal.

Not that anyone in the state capital seems in a big hurry to buy what Warren and Johnson are selling. e signals coming from the governor as well as the majority leaders in the Senate and the House have been decidedly cool. While Johnson led the cheerleading at the unveiling, Gov. J.B. Pritzker maintained his more-than-arm’s-length distance, going so far as to say, on the day after the big reveal, that many aspects of the plan are “probably non-starters,” adding: “ e priorities of the people of Illinois are not building stadiums, right?”

Keep the White Sox in Bridgeport and remedy a legacy of neglect

The Chicago White Sox’s potential exit from their 35th Street stadium isn’t just a sports headline, it’s another unfortunate chapter in Chicago’s history of urban disinvestment and systemic neglect. is narrative has shaped American cities for almost a century. As a result, underserved communities are still playing catchup, especially those on the South Side. e exclusionary government-mandated tactics that instigated and sustained urban inequities are rooted in the National Housing Act of 1934, which laid the groundwork for redlining. Myriad federal and local planning policies driving segregation followed. e impact has been especially poignant around Guaranteed Rate Field, which is sited on the easternmost edge of Bridgeport but adjacent to Armour Square and Douglas four blocks farther east — the two underserved Chicago community areas where Bronzeville took root in the 1920s.  In their own way, all these communities have been poster children for exclusionary planning policies since the 1950s. In Bronzeville, the Illinois Institute of Technology — now Illinois Tech and best known

for its a liation with visinary architect Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe — demolished thousands of Black middle-class residential buildings to build its campus, including the celebrated Mecca Flats, so the Mies-designed Crown Hall could be built in 1952. In 1961, construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway separated Bridgeport from Bronzeville. It was designed to run through Bridgeport, but its most famous resident, the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, had it rerouted eight blocks east to edge Armour Square. is segregated Bridgeport and the ballpark from Bronzeville, deepening fragmentation and disinvestment on the South Side.

By moving out of Bridgeport rather than staying in this community with plenty of potential to shine, the White Sox would be continuing a 90-year pattern of disinvestment in Chicago’s underserved South Side. Moreover, it would impact three diverse, vibrant neighborhoods that coalesce within blocks of Guaranteed Rate Field — Bridgeport, Bronzeville and Chinatown — and could bene t from renewed community cohesion and a redeveloped White Sox stadium. ere are plenty of reasons to focus on

bee ng up Bridgeport. First and foremost is the team’s $1 billion ask for public money and the harsh reality that the bonds thatnanced the team’s current home are not yet paid o , making nancing of that magnitude a long shot. Plus, the 70 acres of parking surrounding Guaranteed Rate Field are ripe for development. With astute planning, that land can spur economic development that would spill over into Bronzeville and Chinatown. With incredible access by public and private transportation options, the stadium’s site is ideal, too. Finally, channeling public funds into housing, parks, retail, hospitality and cultural o erings isn’t just wise. It’s a bold rebuttal to a legacy of neglect.

But this isn’t just about giving an old stadium a face-lift. It’s about seizing a singular opportunity to transform a huge and relatively stagnant swath of the South Side into a vibrant community. Public-private partnerships can spark true revitalization and be done sustainably to ensure gentri cation doesn’t displace current residents, a concept being authenticated by two Chicago communities-in-progress: Bronzeville Lakefront and Woodlawn Central.

e bene ts of keeping the Sox stadium in Bridgeport would be transformative. Building in the capacity to host additional sports teams and cultural events ensures the facility sheds its single-use skin and becomes a multipurpose facility to drive economic

growth and community engagement.

Envision a stadium that doesn’t just hibernate o -season but thrives with yearround programming, turning a seasonal venue into a cornerstone of community and economic resilience. Imagine an attached youth sports complex that not only nurtures the next generation of athletes, but also serves as a revenue generator that helpsnance the project through bonds. Picture large-scale events like concerts and festivals drawing crowds and spotlighting the South Side as the cultural epicenter that it is.

Moreover, the kind of transformation this opportunity o ers will allow for innovative uses of urban space, such as decking over the Dan Ryan Expressway to create an urban park that can mitigate the freeway’s barrier e ect, create an urban oasis and improve air quality. is would serve as a bold step forward in urban design and demonstrate how infrastructure can be re-imagined to serve community and environmental needs.

is option challenges us to re-imagine our cities not as collections of isolated districts, but as tapestries of interconnected communities. e White Sox’s stadium is a gem waiting to be polished and linked to its already burgeoning next-door neighbors.

Most signi cantly, it will spur a new 35th Street district that o ers a blueprint for urban development that prioritizes diversity, resilience and inclusivity.

Quintin E. Primo III is founder and executive chairman and Joel Putnam is chief design o cer of Capri Investment Group.

An architect’s rendering of the Chicago Bears’ proposed lakefront stadium. MANICA

For safer schools, CPS must remove the police

TCharles Tocci is an associate professor of education at Loyola University Chicago, a former CPS high school teacher and the parent of four CPS students.

he recent shootings outside of Innovations High School downtown, Senn High School on the North Side and CICS Loomis-Longwood on the South Side bring new urgency to the work of keeping our students safe. Families place their faith in schools to protect and nurture their children, but the practice of assigning police to schools has the opposite e ect. It’s high time that Chicago Public Schools ends its School Resource O cer program. e School Resource O cer  — or SRO — program allows CPS high schools to choose to have zero, one or two Chicago Police Department ocers stationed full time in their building at the district’s expense. Chicago has been assigning police to schools for 58 years, and the practice surged nationally after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, with approximately 50,000 ofcers assigned across nearly half of U.S. public schools.

While the growth of SRO programs has been fueled by security fear and by federal grants to municipalities, research shows that SROs actually do more harm than good.

Peer-reviewed studies show that SROs do not prevent crime or lower crime rates in schools, but they do increase the number of students suspended and expelled. In the case of school shootings, police in schools have no demonstrable e ect on the likelihood of a shooting occurring or limiting its severity. And SROs do not prevent violence against students around schools like the murders near Innovations, Senn and CICS LoomisLongwood.

SROs also have a signi cant negative impact on many students. Black youth experience the worst of this. In schools with police o cers, Black students have higher suspension and expulsion rates and are more likely to get arrested than white and Latino peers, often for subjective charges such as “disturbing the peace.” ese disparities are driven by a belief held by many SROs that Black students present a threat to school safety, whereas white students need to be protected from external dangers.

Students with disabilities are also inordinately harmed by the presence of police in schools, with higher rates of suspension, expulsion and referral to law enforcement relative to their peers. e net e ect is to entangle more Black youth and students with

disabilities in the court and prison systems instead of providing the supports necessary for their success. For instance, CPS employs one social worker for approximately every 518 students, more than double the recommended rate.

In short, the SRO program does not make schools safer, hurts many of its most vulnerable students and fails to keep youth safe during their commutes. ere is also great cost uncertainty for a program criticized by youth-led organizations as “incongruent with the educa-

tional environment.” After decades of multimillion-dollar contracts with the Chicago Police Department, CPS has not actually paid for their SROs the past three years. But it is not clear if that arrangement will continue or how costs for ocers will be allocated.

A proposed bill in Spring eld to continue to allow individual schools to decide the fate of their SRO programs does not solve any of these basic problems. Rather, Mayor Johnson and the Board of Education are right in their efforts to end the SRO program and

reinvest resources into whole school safety plans, which are built around practices shown to improve safety, such as restorative justice, wraparound social services and Safe Passage.

Systemic problems require systemic solutions. Research evidence and the past six decades of experience tells us that SROs are part of the problem. We will only realize student safety through well-resourced communities working in partnership with fully funded schools to meet the needs of our youth.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

ARCHITECTURE

OKW Architects, Chicago

BANKING / FINANCE

Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, Chicago

CONSTRUCTION

Mosaic Construction, Northbrook

LAW

Known for her high standards for excellence, analytical mind, and one-of-a-kind personality, Cole Gagnon AIA has been promoted to president of OKW after more than twelve years at our rm. Andy Koglin AIA, who has held the position since 1999, will remain at OKW as a principal. As president, Cole will collaborate with her fellow partners, Andy, Jon Talty AIA (CEO), and Katie Lambert AIA (Design Director), to uphold OKW’s reputation for client service and chart our course into the future.

ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN

Lamar Johnson Collaborative, Chicago

Amalgamated Bank of Chicago is proud to highlight the promotion of Chynise Cunningham to Senior Vice President, Human Resources.

Chynise joined ABOC in 2022 as Vice President, HR Management. When she was promoted to her new role in 2023, she became the youngest Black female in the Bank’s senior leadership team and now oversees all HR functions. Since joining ABOC, Chynise has served as a valued and effective coach, as well as a leader whose HR perspectives support the Bank’s growth.

Lamar Johnson Collaborative (LJC) welcomes Sean Brown as Principal and Life Science Market Leader. A 25-year life science and AEC Industry veteran, his expertise spans a broad range of disciplines, including engineering, project development and delivery, regulatory strategy, and validation for manufacturing, cleanroom, and lab operations construction. He received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Univ. of MA and studied Business Process Management at Univ. of Warwick. LJC has promoted Mary Sturgeon AIA, LEED AP to Principal. She has successfully led technically complex projects with her experience in life science, cGMP facility design, and advanced manufacturing. She holds a Master of Architecture from The Univ. of TX at Austin.

BANKING

Associated Bank, Chicago

BANKING / FINANCE

J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Winnetka

Keith Rolland has joined J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Winnetka as Executive Director and Banker. He serves as a source of trusted guidance to navigate sophisticated nancial decisions that help them take actions toward desired outcomes. Most recently, Keith joins the rm from Charles Schwab.

BANKING / FINANCE

J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Chicago

John Smallwood has joined J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Chicago as Vice President and Banker.

Associated Bank’s commercial banking team in Chicago welcomes Jennifer Kentos as senior vice president, relationship manager. A Chicago native, she has more than 18 years of commercial banking experience. Most recently, Kentos was senior vice president, global treasury specialist and relationship manager at Citibank after several years at PNC Bank. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Illinois Wesleyan University and an MBA from Saint Louis University.

To order frames or plaques of profiles contact Lauren Melesio at lmelesio@crain.com

John understands that individuals seek an advisor who understands their speci c stories, and partners with clients individually to learn the impacts they would like their wealth to have. John joins the rm from Fidelity.

CONSTRUCTION

Clayco, Chicago

Clayco welcomes Veena Kumar as Director of Scheduling & Planning, working out of Clayco’s Chicago headquarters.

Veena brings more than 25 years of experience leading planning, scheduling and performance measurement for development and construction projects.  In her new role, Veena will oversee the strategic planning and scheduling of construction projects, ensuring ef cient coordination and timely execution.

Mosaic Construction is pleased to welcome KC Downer to its growing team as a Sales Executive. Downer will build business relationships with real estate developers and owners to identify new project opportunities. Downer brings 18+ years of experience with multi-million-dollar real estate portfolios in facility management, design-build, general contracting and sales. He specializes in delivering construction projects in the commercial, multifamily and cannabis sectors.

DESIGN / CONSTRUCTION

GI Stone, Chicago

Jennifer Gee joins GI Stone as director of special projects, a key role in the rm’s growing body of institutional work. During her more than two decades in the industry, Gee has managed a variety of projects, including interior renovations, hospitality, commercial construction, and adaptive reuse, most recently as project manager at McHugh Construction. She holds a Master of Project Management degree from DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management.

DESIGN / CONSTRUCTION

GI Stone, Chicago

GI Stone welcomes Cathy Scratch as director for the rm’s new luxury residential design practice. Scratch brings 30-plus years of experience in leadership, business development, project management and client service, including a multi-year tenure with Material Bespoke Stone + Tile, most recently as the executive director of sales. She will helm several prominent GI Stone residential projects in New Buffalo, MI; Hinsdale; and on Chicago’s North Shore.

LAW FIRM

Cavanagh Sorich Law Group, Chicago

Cavanagh Law Group, a Chicago based personal injury and medical malpractice law rm promoted Michael J. Sorich to a named partner at the rm. The law rm will now be known as Cavanagh Sorich Law Group. Sorich, age 45, joined the rm in 2016 after working 13 years at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s of ce. He has obtained more than $100 million in verdicts and settlements for clients.

Clifford Law Of ces, Chicago John V. Kalantzis has been named partner at Clifford Law Of ces. He joined the rm in 2019. Kalantzis attended Northwestern University (BA) and Notre Dame Law School (JD). He is involved in many complex personal injury and wrongful death cases at the rm including the pending litigation in federal district court against Boeing in the crash of a 737 MAX8 in Ethiopia that killed all 157 on board from 35 countries. The rm represents nearly 70 victims on that plane. Kalantzis a member of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) Assembly where he also serves on the Tort Law Section Council and the Bar Elections Supervision Committee. He serves on the Judicial Evaluation Committee of the Chicago Bar  and of the Hellenic Bar Association.

REAL ESTATE

Cullinan Properties, a leading national provider of real estate services specializing in commercial and mixeduse developments and acquisitions, announced the appointment of Michael Gold as President for the company.  Michael most recently served as the Chief Operating Of cer for Pine Tree, a national shopping center owner and operator. where he oversaw a diverse portfolio spanning seven states and played a pivotal role in shaping long-term strategies and operational directives.

REAL ESTATE

ML Realty Partners, Itasca

ML Realty Partners has promoted Ben Salomone to Senior Asset Manager. Ben has been a key part of the growing success at ML Realty Partners since joining the rm in 2018. He will oversee all day-to-day asset operations and third-party property management for ML Realty Partners in both Chicagoland and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. Salomone holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University Bloomington.

Brown Sturgeon

Cullinan Properties, Peoria

NOTABLE LEADERS IN SUSTAINABILITY

Our latest Notable Leaders in Sustainability work in organizations of all sizes, from multibillion-dollar multinationals to local nonpro ts, in sectors involving construction and deconstruction; agriculture and composting; energy, landscaping, nance and more — all with the aim to help make our world greener.

METHODOLOGY: The individuals featured did not pay to be included. Their pro les were written from the nomination materials submitted. This list is not comprehensive. It includes only individuals for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after a review by editors. To qualify for the list, nominees must serve in a senior leadership role or lead sustainability initiatives at an organization and make a measurable impact on the environment through their efforts. They must live and work in the Chicago area and demonstrate leadership through involvement in professional organizations and civic and community initiatives. Crain’s Chicago Business’ Notables feature is handled by Assistant Managing Editor Ann R. Weiler. For questions, please email ChicagoRecognitions@crain. com.

Mohammad Abbasi

Lead consultant, WSP

Scope of work: As WSP’s national healthy building service lead, Mohammad Abbasi manages decarbonization and net-zero road map accounts to help companies achieve their sustainability goals and supports architects establishing an integrative design process.

Biggest professional win: Abbasi worked on the rst net-zero McDonald’s, an 8,024-square-foot restaurant in Orlando, Fla., that was the rst quick-service restaurant designed to be net-zero energy in the U.S.

Other contributions: Abbasi led the development of the EDI mentorship program with Illinois Green Alliance, recruiting mentors and collaborating to develop materials to guide them. The program helps students and early-career professionals underrepresented in the green building industry launch their careers in renewable energy policy, architecture and engineering.

Annalise Dum

Vice president of sustainability, JLL

Scope of work: Annalise Dum collaborates with clients to align their real estate with ESG goals through strategic planning and project implementation (i.e., green building certi cations).

Biggest professional win: Dum was also named JLL’s North America sustainable buildings practice lead in January following outstanding performance leading complex, strategic projects, including certi cation for more than 25 million square feet, the majority located in Chicago. Last year she landed a $2.4 million project in which JLL contributes to carbon-free assessments for nearly 400 school districts in Illinois.

Other contributions: Dum is the 2024 chair of the Illinois Green Alliance board and has served in advisory roles for the U.S. Green Building Council and the International WELL Building Institute.

Haven Allen

CEO and co-founder, mHUB

Scope of work: Since cofounding mHUB in 2017, Haven Allen — also managing partner of mHUB Ventures — has grown mHUB to a team of 33. Allen was instrumental in securing a $50 million package to relocate mHUB and expand Illinois’ capacity for driving early-stage products toward commercialization, particularly in clean energy and sustainable manufacturing.

Biggest professional win: Allen rallied institutions, community organizations and industry to form the Clean Tech Economy Coalition in 2021, a statewide planning effort that identi ed clean energy technology as a priority for the region.

Other contributions: Allen is on boards including Next Ion and Carbon SeaQuest; a member of the advisory council for chain reaction innovations at Argonne National Laboratory; and a committee member of P33.

Jennifer Dunn

Professor of chemical and biological engineering, Northwestern University Scope of work: Jennifer Dunn evaluates the sustainability of emerging technologies including electric vehicle batteries, green hydrogen, biofuels and chemicals made from carbon capture, and trains students as future researchers and business leaders.

Biggest professional win: Dunn was named chief decarbonization of cer of the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, or MachH2, one of seven U.S. hubs that President Biden announced last fall. She oversees efforts to demonstrate the bene ts of the hub’s technology to reduce greenhouse-gas and air pollutant emissions.

Other contributions: As a faculty af liate of the Center for Native American & Indigenous Research, Dunn studies the effects of mining with Indigenous communities and leads a National Science Foundation-funded program to develop sustainable international minerals supply chains.

Kevin Augustyn Senior vice president, Morningstar DBRS

Scope of work: Kevin Augustyn leads the Morningstar DBRS CMBS group’s initiatives addressing integration of ESG considerations and the credit ratings process.

Biggest professional win: The development and implementation of a credit ratings process for Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy loans, a vital commercial real estate funding source for energy-ef ciency projects. Morningstar DBRS is the market leader in providing ratings for these transactions and has rated in excess of $1 billion in transactions, with major growth in 2022 and 2023 through Augustyn’s efforts.

Other contributions: Augustyn is a member of the Urban Land Institute and serves on the institute’s Chicago Climate Initiative Task Force, which is developing a climate response and decarbonization strategy for the city.

Cody Ferrantino

Program manager, sustainability and impact, Home Chef

Scope of work: Cody Ferrantino leads sustainability-related initiatives across Home Chef’s e-commerce and retail business, including implementing waste reduction strategies across its four national facilities, overseeing donation programs, monitoring waste streams and partnering with vendors to divert waste from land lls.

Biggest professional win: In just 18 months at Home Chef, Ferrantino launched a program enabling organic waste recycling, expanding cardboard and plastic recycling and kicking off new food donation programs. To date, Home Chef has diverted 150 tons of food from land lls via donations, and the new composting program has diverted 35 tons of food.

Other contributions: Ferrantino has volunteered with Kesem, an organization that supports children whose parents have or had cancer, since 2011.

Rodrigo d’Escoto Jr. Founder and CEO, Re ection Window + Wall

Scope of work: Rodrigo d’Escoto Jr.’s company designs, supplies and installs high-rise facades, including at 1 S. Halsted, Northeastern University and 300 N. Michigan. Re ection Window + Wall has more than 300 employees and $232 million in revenue.

Biggest professional win: D’Escoto found aluminum suppliers using solar, natural gas and hydroelectric power, reducing carbon aluminum emissions by 90%. He’s been awarded U.S. patents on technology making windows adaptable to weather conditions and future facades carbon negative. Re ection Window + Wall facades can create their own energy as a renewable source and use less energy.

Other contributions: D’Escoto is on the development committee for St. Ignatius College Prep and provided tuition support and internships for Cristo Rey High School.

Adam Flickinger

Planning director, Friends of the Chicago River Scope of work: Adam Flickinger implements Friends’ strategic vision for the Chicago-Calumet River system including conservation land-use practices and equity-focused community planning strategies.

Biggest professional win: Flickinger helped unite 27 public and private partners to launch the Greater Chicago Watershed Alliance, which advances the use of natural solutions to improve community and ecological health. He also led Friends’ role in developing the Natural Solutions Tool, used to identify where green infrastructure projects are needed. The tool helped Friends secure over $800,000 in grants and won Chicago Innovation and Chicago Wilderness Alliance awards.

Other contributions: Flickinger was an adviser on former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s community advisory council for The 78 development and participated in the Central Area Plan.

Mike Goffman

Founder, Recyclean

Scope of work: Mike Goffman leads Recyclean, which handles commercial and residential renovation and teardown projects. Recyclean specializes in a process called deconstruction, in which used building materials, xtures and fur niture are removed, recycled and donated, enabling property owners to generate signi cant tax savings from their donations.

Biggest professional win: Since January 2018, under Goffman’s leadership, Recyclean has kept millions of pounds of materials out of the waste stream from projects nationwide. Goffman also created the world’s rst recycling app for deconstruction and construction companies to help them manage the recycling of building materials.

Other contributions: Many of Recyclean’s salvageable items from deconstruction are donated to 501(c)3 organizations that offer those items back to the community.

Stacey Libra

Co-founder and principal landscape architect, Indigo Ecological Design

Scope of work: Stacey Libra has spent eight of her 14 years practicing landscape architecture focusing on restoring native plant communities and integrating green infrastructure and other nature-based solutions.

Biggest professional win: Libra was brought into the ecological master planning process in 2019 for Generation Park, a 4,000acre mixed-use development in Houston, and continues to work on the project, which has included planning and construction oversight of 100 acres of large-scale green infrastructure and park space seeded with native species.

Other contributions: Libra is president-elect of the Illinois chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and chairs the planning committee for the Great Lakes Region Climate Action Seminar.

Alaina Harkness

Executive director, Current Scope of work: Alaina Harkness built a coalition of 50 partners across six states working to deliver an inclusive and circular blue economy for the Great Lakes region. Under her leadership, Current launched the rst inclusive blue economy blueprint and supported the commercialization of more than a dozen water startups.

Biggest professional win: Harkness is principal investigator and CEO of the National Science Foundation Great Lakes Water Innovation Engine. In January it was awarded up to $160 million, the foundation’s largest-ever investment in innovation and workforce development.

Other contributions: Harkness is on the board of Urban Initiatives, a Chicago-based youth development organization, and has served as a board member of Margaret’s Village, which provides transitional housing for women and children.

Director of sustainability, Leopardo Construction

Scope of work: Patty Lloyd leads Leopardo’s corporate sustainability and ESG programs. Her work includes more than 50 projects involving rating systems like LEED, the WELL Building Standard, Enterprise Green Communities, the National Green Building Standard and Green Globes.

Biggest professional win: Lloyd holds three professional credentials, including LEED Fellow, Living Future Accredited Professional and WELL Accredited Professional. She has twice ear ned recognition from Illinois Green Alliance for service.

Other contributions: Lloyd co-chairs Leopardo’s Helping Hands committee, which leads the company’s volunteer efforts. She’s an at-large director on the AIA-Illinois board, chairs the U.S. Green Building Council design and construction consensus committee and volunteers with the Illinois Green Alliance.

Eric Heineman

CEO, Windfree Solar

Scope of work: Under Eric Heineman’s leadership, Windfree Solar has grown from $1 million in sales in 2018 to $10 million in 2023, expanding from seven to 23 employees.

Clients include Guinness Open Gate Brewery and Turano Baking.

Biggest professional win: Heineman advocates for people living in Chicago’s most airpolluted neighborhoods and the state’s environmental justice zones, securing grants from the Illinois Solar For All program for 13 projects for nonpro ts and low-income properties.

Other contributions: As then-Gov. Pat Quinn’s sustainability director (2009-15), Heineman helped lay the groundwork for Illinois’ solar policy and practices. Today he’s a member of the Illinois Environmental Council and contributes to the Illinois Green Alliance and the Illinois Solar Energy Association.

J. Vern Long

CEO, World Coffee Research

Scope of work: J. Vern Long leads World Coffee Research, a global nonpro t with over 170 member companies, including some of the world’s largest coffee sellers. WCR’s staff in 17 countries lead coffee variety development and quality assurance partnerships, addressing coffee’s lack of climate-resilient varieties.

Biggest professional win: Under Long’s leadership, WCR launched the rst global coffee variety development program in over 50 years, to ensure coffee production continues despite climate challenges. In seven years, WCR’s global breeding initiative will double the number of climate-resilient coffee varieties worldwide.

Other contributions: Long serves as a community co-leader of Shalem, an af nity group for families of color at Temple Sholom, and served on the search committee for the Temple Sholom director of education.

Susan Heinking

Senior vice president, Pepper Construction

Scope of work: As senior vice president of high performance and sustainable construction, Susan Heinking manages over $1 billion in work with sustainable components. She also leads Pepper’s inaugural ESG program.

Biggest professional win: Under Heinking’s guidance, Pepper’s Drawdown program has impacted 263 buildings and 129.6 million people; avoided 38 million tons of CO2; saved 177 million gallons of water; and generated 188,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy. The program was a 2023 Chicago Innovation Awards nalist.

Other contributions: Heinking was appointed to the Illinois Energy Code Advisory Council, where she draws on her background as an energy-ef ciency advocate with expertise in commercial buildings to represent the viewpoints of the construction industry.

Linda Mallers

President and CEO, MaetaData Scope of work: Linda Mallers developed an AI platform used by hospital systems, corporate dining facilities and schools — including Chicago Public Schools — that measures 85-plus sustainability attributes.

Biggest professional win: More than 7,000 institutional users access what’s now the industry’s largest data source for sustainable food service supply chain analytics. In January, MaetaData received a patent for Mallers’ original design maintaining source identi cation through multiple chains of custody in food service supply. She designed a new system to measure emissions in food purchasing and production.

Other contributions: Mallers’ company sourced local foods for CPS with visits to schools featuring local farmers, and won the Chicago Community Trust’s Food To Market Challenge to bring local produce boxes to underserved Chicago communities.

Lauren Kaszuba

Chief operating of cer, WasteNot Compost

Scope of work: Lauren Kaszuba, who co-founded WasteNot Compost in 2015, manages business operations and the over 8,000 homes and 400 businesses and organizations that receive the rm’s zero-emissions compost collection service.

Biggest professional win: In 2023, she led efforts to develop exclusive franchise agreements with the municipalities of Lake Forest, Riverside and Morton Grove. She also led efforts to partner with Oak Park School District 97 to provide compost collection service for 12 schools, as well as a partnership with Cook County for county facilities.

Other contributions: Kaszuba is a member of the Illinois Green Alliance and Illinois Food Scrap & Composting Coalition. She also leads efforts to donate nished compost to dozens of local community gardens.

Shanu Mathew

Senior vice president, Lazard Asset Management

Scope of work: Shanu Mathew co-manages a $500 million sustainability mutual fund, researches investment opportunities aligned with a sustainable society, analyzes corporate climate ambitions and leads environmental-focused engagements with companies.

Biggest professional win: Mathew also leads climate and net-zero research for a broader $40 billion-plus U.S. equity platform at Lazard, helping direct the team’s attention, focus and efforts toward investing at the forefront of sustainability and climate.

Other contributions: Mathew has served as an adviser-mentor to several local clean-tech accelerators; he’s been a member of the investment committee of Evergreen Climate Innovations, which provides capital and support to earlystage startups focused on climate solutions.

Patty Lloyd

Michelle McClendon

Senior project executive and public sector market leader, Gilbane Building

Scope of work: Michelle McClendon focuses on building sustainably for the education and public market sectors.

Biggest professional win: McClendon implemented signi cant sustainability initiatives and KPIs for the Illinois Green Alliance, setting initiatives to address racism and inequity to effectively mitigate climate change. She also oversaw implementation of sustainable construction practices for Fenton Community High School District 100, Lake County Forest Preserves, Proviso Township High School District 209 and North Shore School District 112.

Other contributions: McClendon serves on the boards of the Illinois Green Alliance and Illinois International Port District. She and her sister co-founded the Myesha & Michelle McClendon Scholarship Fund for African American women pursuing engineering degrees.

John Mitchell

Associate partner, Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture

Scope of work: John Mitchell leads Hartshorne Plunkard’s mass-timber group, developing best practices to make mass-timber buildings more ef cient and cost-competitive.

Biggest professional win: Mitchell led the team for Intro Cleveland, the nation’s largest mass-timber building when completed in 2022. The project created a playbook for code approval now followed nationwide. He also was a key part of the team that worked with Chicago’s building and re departments to develop an approval path for high-rise mass-timber buildings, using HPA’s project with Sterling Bay at 2100 N. Southport Ave. as the test case — the tallest mass-timber building ever approved in Chicago.

Other contributions: Mitchell has served on the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Future Timber City Subgroup.

Matthew McGrane

Senior project architect, LBBA Architects

Scope of work: Matthew McGrane leads the transformation of the former Robert Taylor Homes site into a mixed-use, mixed-income development, targeting LEED Gold certi cation, and the redevelopment of the Henry Horner Homes into an equitable transit-oriented development. He is also LBBA’s sustainability lead.

Biggest professional win: McGrane was recognized as the AIA Chicago Young Architect of the Year in 2018. In his current role, he leads the charge toward electri cation and decarbonization in the affordable housing industry.

Other contributions: McGrane has been involved with the Chicago Living Building Collaborative and spearheaded the creation of the Living Building Challenge Chicago Collaborative Water Petal Implementation Guide, an open-source document with resources for projects achieving net-positive water performance.

John Mlade

Director of sustainable and healthy environments, Wight

Scope of work: John Mlade has led the sustainable design of nearly 20 million square feet of buildings, including over 100 projects pursuing LEED certi cation and 10 projects pursuing WELL certi cation, and two zero-energy buildings.

Biggest professional win: He was the lead researcher and author of the University of Chicago sustainable design guidelines for small projects and led the development of Chicago Public Schools’ climate action plan/sustainable design guidelines and speci cations updates. Notable recognition includes LEED Fellow (2016) and the Living Future Hero award by the International Living Future Institute (2023).

Other contributions: Mlade’s activities include the Illinois Green Alliance (2023 board chair and 2024 ex-of cio chair); the Building Green Peer Network; and the Greenbuild Advisory Group.

Adam McMillen

Director of sustainability, IMEG

Scope of work: Adam McMillen leads IMEG’s decarbonization focus and educates the engineering design company’s 2,000-plus employees in sustainable practices.

Biggest professional win: McMillen leads the analysis and design of a geothermal system for the city of Ann Arbor, Mich., one of 11 projects funded by the U.S. Energy Department. The system will serve as a new “utility” to 262 households, a local school, a mental health service center and a public works facility, lowering the neighborhood’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40%.

Other contributions: McMillen is a founding member of the Carbon Leadership Forum’s MEP 2040 Challenge steering committee and has served on the U.S. Green Building Council Illinois chapter board and the city of Geneva’s Natural Resources Committee.

José Antonio Morán

Partner, Baker McKenzie

Scope of work: As a partner in law rm Baker McKenzie’s Chicago of ce, José Antonio Morán’s practice focuses on deals in the renewable energy and clean technology sectors. Since the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, Morán has helped many global energy companies enter the U.S. renewables market.

Biggest professional win: Led by Morán, Baker McKenzie represented Iberdrola — Mexico’s leading private generator of renewable energy — in its agreement to sell more than 8,400 megawatts of its combined cycle gas operations for approximately $6 billion.

Other contributions: Morán provides pro bono counsel to the Alliance for the Great Lakes on the operation and legal requirements of the Great Lakes Compact, which protects wildlife and habitat and ensures sound water management.

Kelly Meissner

Vice president, corporate ESG and sustainability, Ventas

Scope of work: In 2016, Kelly Meissner became Ventas’ rst sustainability leader. She also co-leads the company’s ESG Steering Committee and is a key contributor to its DEI and Enterprise Risk Management steering committees.

Biggest professional win: She’s overseen more than $82 million in energy-ef ciency investments and green building certi cation of about 30 million square feet within Ventas’ portfolio of 1,400 properties. Ventas was the rst health care REIT to commit to net-zero operational carbon emissions, and Meissner was instrumental in developing the strategy to accomplish that goal by 2040.

Other contributions: Meissner is a member of the Real Estate Roundtable Sustainability Policy Advisory Committee and GRESB and immediate past chair of the Nareit Real Estate Sustainability Council.

Dawn Nowicki

Vice president of marketing and ESG, MRP Solutions

Scope of work: Dawn Nowicki focuses on supporting sales, ESG, and innovation and technology as a vice president at MRP Solutions, a provider of plastic packaging closures, caps and jars.

Biggest professional win: Under Nowicki’s leadership, from 2019 through 2022, the amount of post-consumer recycled resin MRP Solutions used to produce closures grew 86% — representing more than 34.6 million closures produced with PCR content.

Other contributions: Nowicki helped form a critical partnership between MRP Solutions and Belgian plastic producing company Ravago to advance circular recycling with a closedloop system of collection through Amco, Republic and MRP Solutions, which will enable controlled collection and customized creation of recycled content with a steady state supply

Chris Meister

Executive director, Illinois Finance Authority

Scope of work: During most of Chris Meister’s 15 years as executive director, the Illinois Finance Authority has been primarily responsible for issuing tax-exempt bonds and coordinating on the state’s Clean Water Initiative revolving fund. In 2021, the IFA was designated as the Climate Bank for the state of Illinois.

Biggest professional win: Under Meister’s leadership, in 2022-23, the Illinois Climate Bank mobilized approximately $627 million in private capital for climate nance projects, 54% of which are located in or bene t low-income and disadvantaged communities. The Climate Bank is coordinating the state’s pursuit of more than $1 billion in federal funds for climate and energy projects.

Other contributions: Meister was a member of the EPA’s Environmental Financial Advisory Board from 2016-22.

Saagar Patel

Principal, Stantec Consulting Services

Scope of work: Saagar Patel is principal and commissioning and carbon impact regional lead at Stantec Consulting Services with 15 years of experience in the sustainability eld.

Biggest professional win: Patel landed a $1.5 million project with a client looking to completely overhaul their approach to workplace development. And the Illinois Energy Code Advisory Council, through the Capital Development Board, appointed Patel to a four-year term; he’s the mechanical engineer representative in the ninemember group that will recommend modi cations to the Illinois Energy Conservation Code and develop the rst Illinois Stretch Energy Code.

Other contributions: Patel is a member of Chicago’s Building Decarbonization Working Group, charged with a goal of powering 100% of city buildings with renewable energy by 2035.

A.J. Patton

CEO and founder, 548 Enterprise

Scope of work: A.J. Patton founded 548 Capital and 548 Development to help transform communities and their impact on the planet, developing solutions for the housing, environmental and economic issues facing inner cities. In 2022, he combined the rms into 548 Enterprise.

Biggest professional win: 548 Capital rehabilitated a oncedecrepit 79th Street building into a sustainable project with 28 affordable units, each with energy-ef cient lighting, high-performance windows and state-of-the art HVAC systems, and it will soon include solar photovoltaic rooftop panels.

Other contributions: Patton, a member of Crain’s 40 Under 40 class of 2022, is a member of the American Council on Renewable Energy’s Accelerate program, the Chicago Business Leadership Council banking and nance co-chair, and a member of the World Leaders Forum board.

Roberto Perez

CEO and founder, Hilco Redevelopment Partners

Scope of work: Roberto Perez built Hilco Redevelopment Partners into a real estate investment and redevelopment rm with more than $4 billion in assets under management.

Biggest professional win: Last year, Perez and HRP delivered the Lawndale Storage Fleet Yard, a Little Village logistics hub with a 300,000-square-foot rooftop solar array, the city’s largest. Built on the grounds of a shuttered coal- red power plant, the site was remediated under an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency program, and its transformation resulted in a reduction of over 1.5 million metric tons of CO2 per year.

Other contributions: Perez created The HRP Way, a holistic approach to sustainable redevelopment focusing on the environment, economy and community. HRP has provided over $1 million in scholarships to Chicago students since 2019.

Leveraging a Bachelor of Science in environmental studies from the University of Vermont and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in entrepreneurial studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Gies College of Business, Windfree Solar CEO Eric Heineman is on a mission to make solar energy accessible to all. He served as Gov. Pat Quinn’s sustainability director from 2009 to 2015, and has helped lay the groundwork for Illinois’ solar policy. Windfree’s sales have soared from $1 million per year to $10 million per year since 2018 when he became CEO. Heineman is leading the transition to clean, green energy as he continues to drive growth in the solar industry in Illinois and the Midwest.

Chris Perzan

Vice president, environment and sustainability, Navistar

Scope of work: Chris Perzan, also Navistar’s chief environmental counsel, leads the team responsible for the corporate carbon footprint and emissions reduction strategy and manages environmental compliance.

Biggest professional win: Perzan played a crucial role regarding environmental and sustainability issues, as well as related legal issues, in Navistar resolving emissions matters through its Traton Group merger. He and his team led the calculation of Navistar’s carbon footprint — an estimate approximately equivalent to 1% of total U.S. CO2e emissions — and are using that data to establish decarbonization targets.

Other contributions: Perzan is on the advisory board of Loyola University’s Supply Chain & Sustainability Center and is co-chair of Union League Club’s environmental group.

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Florian Pfahler

CEO and founder, Hannah’s Bretzel

Scope of work: Florian Pfahler founded Hannah’s Bretzel nearly 20 years ago with the aim to use organic ingredients and create the smallest possible environmental footprint.

Biggest professional win: All Hannah’s locations operate 100% on wind and solar power, use 100% biodegradable or recyclable packaging, and deliver with an electric Mini Cooper. Hannah’s introduced in-store composting to completely close the waste cycle and sources ingredients from local, independently owned farms.

Other contributions: Pfahler has been a board member of the Foresight Design Initiative, a leading nonpro t that promotes sustainable practices in Chicago. Hannah’s Bretzel is a founding member of the Chicago Green Chicago Restaurant Cooperative and was recognized by the Green Restaurant Association as a Certi ed Green Restaurant in 2010.

Jamie Ponce

Executive director, Civic Infrastructure Collaborative Scope of work: Jamie Ponce leads Civic Infrastructure Collaborative, or Cinco, a Chicago-based nonpro t that creates public and private value from core urban infrastructure. In that role as well as chief innovation and strategy of cer at Millennium Garages, he works to accelerate implementation of adaptive reuse, electri cation, decarbonization, business digitization and urban systems integration.

Biggest professional win: In partnership with Cinco, Millennium Garages, ComEd, the city of Chicago and multiple electric vehicle charging platforms, Ponce launched and leads the largest public EV charging hub in the Midwest, with more than 100 level 2 charging ports downtown. Other contributions: Ponce is a member of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce board and the Chicagoland Corporate Sustainability Leaders Network.

NOTABLE SPOTLIGHT with Eric Heineman

Windfree Solar CEO continues push for solar accessibility across Illinois

What inspired you to pursue a career in sustainability?

While teaching computer classes in Chicago in 2005, I found myself advocating for sustainability initiatives within the schools where I worked. I began to integrate green practices into my teaching role by securing zero-waste grants and implementing sustainability programs. This led me into a dedicated role at the University of Chicago, where I became the institution’s rst full-time sustainability manager. My journey underscores the idea that anyone can champion sustainability efforts, regardless of job title.

How did your graduate education from Gies prepare you to lead Windfree?

The MBA program at Gies College of Business played a crucial role in shaping my career. One of the key strengths of the MBA program was its emphasis on experiential learning, which really resonated with me. Through various projects and case studies, I learned to apply theoretical concepts to real-world challenges, honing my problem-solving skills and decision-making abilities.

Truth be told, nothing would’ve prepared me for being a CEO in a very

fast-paced, growing solar company besides on the job learning.

The Gies MBA also offered invaluable networking opportunities. This network proved instrumental in my role at Windfree, providing access to resources, expertise and potential partnerships.

As CEO of Windfree, I draw upon the knowledge and skills acquired during my MBA journey to drive sustainable growth and innovation. From strategic planning to nancial management, the MBA program equipped me with the tools necessary to navigate complex business environments and lead Windfree toward success. I would highly recommend the Gies MBA at U of I.

What are some of the most notable solar projects you’ve led?

The solar installation at the new Guinness Brewery in the West Loop area of Chicago was a particularly exciting project, given the iconic nature of the brand and the innovative design of the building. Another notable client was Big Star Tacos, a well-known restaurant chain.

Over the years, we’ve also established longstanding partnerships with local park districts, including Chicago Ridge Park District and the Park District of Oak Park, completing multiple solar

installations across their facilities. Each project demonstrates our commitment to sustainability across different sectors.

What’s your outlook for solar energy in Illinois?

I’m optimistic about the continued growth and adoption of solar energy in our state. Illinois has been making signi cant strides in renewable energy initiatives, with supportive policies and incentives driving increased investments in solar projects.

How are you making solar adoption more equitable?

Our program Sun and Save in collaboration with Cook County, is making solar adoption more equitable. In it, Windfree provides free solar installations to eligible low- to moderateincome homeowners in Cook County. This initiative not only reduces energy costs for residents, but also promotes the equitable adoption of renewable energy by allowing homeowners to own a free solar energy system with no contract, no commitment and no credit check.

Emily Purcell

Sustainable design lead, CannonDesign

Scope of work: Emily Purcell guides projects through design and construction to realize sustainability goals, including achieving building certi cations, pursuing energy reductions and selecting materials to reduce carbon and indoor pollutants.

Biggest professional win: Purcell draws on her public policy background in doing rm education on energy codes and helping clients understand local climate policy. She’s delving into federal funding, which is expanding under the In ation Reduction Act.

Other contributions: Purcell is a leader of the Chicago hub of the Carbon Leadership Forum and volunteers with Illinois Green Alliance. She served on former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Building Decarbonization Working Group and recently joined the steering committee of U.S. Architects Declare.

Robert Render

President and CEO, Lakeside 360 Partners

Scope of work: Robert Render designs recycling programs, assists in using recycled content in products and develops feedstock acquisition strategies for clients including petrochemical, consumer products and recycling technology companies.

Biggest professional win: Four years ago, Render was tasked with developing an export shipping pallet made from recycled plastic. Today it’s the only ISO-certi ed plastic pallet. It’ll divert millions of pounds of plastic waste and preserve hardwood forests worldwide while being reused multiple times; it’s lighter than wood, saving fuel, and is 100% recyclable.

Other contributions: Render is on the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council executive committee, the board of the Recycling Committee of the Plastics Industry Association and a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers.

Mauricio Rincon

Managing director of capital solutions, Opportunity International

Scope of work: As managing director of capital solutions, Mauricio Rincon leads Opportunity International’s impact investing and capital solutions efforts, helping to shift the nonpro t’s focus and investment toward adaptive, regenerative practices that help combat and increase resilience to climate change.

Biggest professional win: Rincon led and developed a proprietary intervention called The Climate Collateral Alliance, an investment vehicle that will introduce a novel approach to resilient, adaptive agriculture for smallholder farmers, offering credit support to nancial institutions originating loans to farmers practicing regenerative agriculture.

Other contributions: Rincon co-founded the Fundación Nueva Vida Para Todos, which provides education and development opportunities to children in Bogota.

Rory Rubin

Founder and CEO, S.I. Container Builds

Scope of work: Rory Rubin oversees a team that produces affordable homes by repurposing shipping containers. The shortage of women in leadership, especially in the construction industry, led her to establish the rm offering an innovative solution to traditional building.

Biggest professional win: Rubin established S.I. Container Builds at the end of 2018 to deliver resilient, eco-friendly structures resistant to natural disasters and embrace the use of single-use shipping containers, a growing environmental waste product, as versatile and strong building blocks.

Other contributions: Rubin and S.I. Container Builds have been active in efforts to expand affordable housing initiatives in Chicago, Evanston and elsewhere, as well as expanding efforts to allow greater exibility in additional dwelling units across the area.

Tom Ryan

Vice president of facilities and logistics, Art Institute of Chicago Scope of work: Tom Ryan leads the team that ensures the Art Institute’s complex building systems run optimally for visitors and the museum’s delicate art.

Biggest professional win: Temperature and humidity control is crucial to preserve thousands of works of art; the museum’s original system wasted energy in adjusting temperature. Ryan’s team installed a more ef cient system, resulting in 1,996,998 kilowatt-hour savings per year. His team also implemented optimized humidity control, which uses machine learning to maintain temperature and humidity, reducing energy usage by approximately 100,000 therms and 1,400,000 kWh a year.

Other contributions: Ryan is Midwest chapter chair of the International Association of Museum Facility Administrators and a member of the American Alliance of Museums.

Amy Rynell

Executive director, Active Transportation Alliance

Scope of work: Leading the nonpro t that aims to improve regional walking, biking and public transportation, Amy Rynell helps craft laws to make streets safer and transform the transit system in a state where transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Biggest professional win: Rynell led the effort to remove a state requirement mandating intersections on IDOT roads must accommodate turning for the largest trucks, allowing for safer intersections. She also led the effort to create a statemandated task force that will create policy recommendations to eliminate traf c fatalities.

Other contributions: Rynell serves on the Mobility Recovery Task Force and the steering committees for Plan of Action for Regional Transit and the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.

Elena Savona

Senior director of federal partnerships, Elevate

Scope of work: Elena Savona is senior director of federal partnerships at Elevate, a nonpro t dedicated to creating equitable solutions to climate change that provide healthy, safe and affordable homes.

Biggest professional win: Savona led efforts to secure nearly $100 million in public funds over the next ve years to support Elevate’s program implementation in building electri cation, lead service line replacement, water affordability, healthy homes, solar programs and technical assistance. She also led $5 million in fundraising to launch the Illinois Building Energy Resource Hub, to meet the needs of building industry professionals and alleviate marketplace uncertainty about the changes in the industry and the solutions available to improve building performance.

Other contributions: Savona is treasurer of the Illinois Green Alliance.

Over the last two decades, aquatic ecologist Nancy C. Tuchman, PhD, has spearheaded the vision for sustainability at Loyola University Chicago. Since founding and directing the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy in 2005 and the Institute of Environmental Sustainability in 2013, Tuchman has led Loyola’s transformation to become one of the greenest colleges in the nation — shrinking the university’s environmental impact and preparing the next generation of eco-conscious leaders.

Shavion Scott

Managing director of urban resilience, Center for Neighborhood Technology

Scope of work: Shavion Scott leads a team managing over 20 land-use, policy and economic resilience projects, responsible for more than $7 million in grants and contracts from public and philanthropic sources.

Biggest professional win: In 2022, Cook County allocated $6 million to implement the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s RainReady Calumet green infrastructure projects in six ood-prone communities: Blue Island, Dolton, Calumet City, Calumet Park, Riverdale and Robbins. The project engages local leaders in prioritizing green stormwater infrastructure projects to decrease hazardous ooding.

Other contributions: Scott is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the American Planning Association’s sustainable communities and economic development divisions.

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Thru Shivakumar

CEO and co-founder, Cohesion Scope of work: As the CEO and co-founder of Cohesion, a smart-building software and data platform, Thru Shivakumar works to ensure the connection between people and places becomes more sustainable through smart data.

Biggest professional win: Shivakumar led Cohesion’s creation of the real estate industry’s rst and only predictive arti cial intelligence for building occupancy and utilization, OccupancyAI. As of 2023, in buildings where it is implemented, average daily pollutant volume is reduced by 32% and in less than ve minutes.

Other contributions: Shivakumar is a founding board member of water technology accelerator Current and has served on the technology advisory board of the Green Building Initiative and the workforce advisory committee of BOMA National.

Frank Soldano

Vice president of architecture and planning, Related Midwest Scope of work: Frank Soldano leads sustainability initiatives for Related Midwest, including overseeing LEED, Enterprise Green Communities and Green Globes certi cations.

Biggest professional win: Soldano helped in the restoration and redevelopment of the historic Lathrop Homes into a mixedincome community. He helped secure three certi cations: LEED Gold for neighborhood design, LEED Silver for new construction and Enterprise Green Communities. Soldano also achieved Related Midwest’s rst and Chicago’s only Three Green Globe multifamily certi cation post-2019 for sustainability initiatives at The Row, a 300-unit residential tower in Fulton Market. Other contributions: Soldano serves on the advisory board of the Building Energy Resource Hub and is a member of the Illinois Green Alliance.

NOTABLE SPOTLIGHT with Nancy C. Tuchman, PhD

Loyola University dean prepares next generation of green leaders

How did your sustainability efforts at Loyola begin, and how has the work progressed?

As someone who works in conservation, I was concerned about the university’s environmental footprint. So, in the early 2000s, I raised this issue with Loyola’s president. In 2004, the university’s capital improvement plan included a pledge to make our campuses more environmentally sustainable.

Since then, we’ve cut our water use per square foot by 34%, and we now divert 44% of campus waste from land lls through recycling or composting. Perhaps most importantly, we’ve reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the Lake Shore Campus by nearly 80% and will be carbon neutral by 2025.

How did the School of Environmental Sustainability get started at Loyola?

We continued to build momentum with our environmental initiatives. In 2013, Loyola established the Institute of Environmental Sustainability (IES) and began to offer undergraduate degree programs. By 2019, IES had around 400 students and a graduate program. In 2020, the university expanded IES to launch the School of Environmental Sustainability.

Our focus on sustainability differentiates Loyola from our peer universities. When we surveyed incoming students this year, 57% said that commitment to the environment was important in their college decision.

How has SES grown and developed?

We now have more than 500 students, including over 60 graduate students, and undergraduates can choose from seven majors. To support this growth, we’ve nearly tripled our faculty and staff and continue building an interdisciplinary team of outstanding educators and researchers.

Our Urban Agriculture Program is one example of our impact and the engaged learning opportunities we offer. The program gives students hands-on experience with sustainable food production. Since the program started 10 years ago, students have produced more than 20,000 pounds of healthy, sustainably grown food that they donate and sell locally.

How does your work align with business trends in the corporate world?

We’re seeing growing interest in sustainability among corporate leaders and consumers. At SES, we’re equipping

students with the expertise to adapt business practices for environmental sustainability.

Last year, we launched a new bachelor’s degree program in environmental economics and sustainability. This program connects environmental problems to business theories and economic analysis, preparing students to become leaders in the new green economy.

What is your vision for the future of sustainability at Loyola?

We’re currently working on our next Carbon Action Plan and intend to go beyond carbon neutrality. We aim to completely decarbonize our campuses, which means eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels and investing in new technologies. We’re already installing new geothermal systems and investigating cutting-edge heat exchange systems.

Another goal is to make Loyola a zerowaste campus. Our athletic events are already zero-waste, and we look forward to expanding on what we’ve learned to reduce and divert waste from all campus operations.

Alana Spencer

Vice president of sustainability, Clayco

Scope of work: At Clayco, Alana Spencer is responsible for creating a corporatewide sustainability strategy and oversees a holistic team of decarbonization, sustainable design and sustainable construction professionals.

Biggest professional win: She spearheaded corporate sustainability and sustainability consulting initiatives within the architectural, engineering, construction and real estate industries, including Clayco. This holistic approach has resulted in helping to position organizations as sustainability leaders. Spencer also activated a groundbreaking sustainability strategy at Clayco to accelerate the company’s environmental impact goals.

Other contributions: Spencer is involved in Illinois Green Alliance and Sustainable Construction Leaders. She works with the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition, aiding STEM education.

Syed Suhail

Regional digital services manager, Trane

Scope of work: Syed Suhail has more than 18 years of experience in elds including energy and sustainability consulting, data analytics, energy auditing/ ef ciency, continuous commissioning and remote monitoring.

Biggest professional win: Suhail, a certi ed energy manager, led a monitoring-based commissioning project for The Franklin, a multitenant of ce property seeking insight into how its downtown property consumed energy. He developed an online dashboard to monitor the performance of the project, resulting in a reduction of over 7 million kilowatt-hours in annual energy use, equivalent to more than 18% of the property’s historical consumption.

Other contributions: The Franklin project was recognized by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers’ Illinois chapter and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Sumayyah Theron

Founder and CEO, Avant-Garde Sustainable Solutions

Scope of work: With 20-plus years in sustainable building design, project management and green building certi cations, Sumayyah Theron oversees the development and execution of comprehensive carbon reduction strategies and counsels clients on sustainable practices, green building certi cations and emerging trends.

Biggest professional win: Theron became a Fitwel Ambassador, a Green Globes professional, and a WELL Performance testing agent and accredited professional. She was named to Engineered Systems’ “20 to Watch: Women in HVAC” in 2024 and was named a Green Building Initiative Advocacy Ambassador in 2023.

Other contributions: Theron is the student activities chair of the Illinois chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers and a co-chair of the society’s winter conference.

Bea Thompson

Business representative, IBEW Local 134

Scope of work: Early in her career, Bea Thompson was the only female electrician at the Cook County Department of Corrections before becoming the rst African American female business representative for IBEW 134. She’s now the liaison for IBEW-NECA Technical Institute apprentices and board secretary of the IBEW Renewable Energy Fund.

Biggest professional win: She has been instrumental in creating career opportunities for South and West Side students and building a renewable energy workforce. The Summer Solar Program, administered by the Renewable Energy Fund in partnership with Chicago Public Schools, graduated 87 students last August.

Other contributions: Thompson recently accepted the Illinois Clean Energy Champion Award on behalf of the Renewable Energy Fund for preparing students for careers in renewable energy.

Anthony Tindall

Solid waste coordinator, Cook County Department of Environment & Sustainability

Scope of work: Anthony Tindall creates and implements the strategic plan, policies and programs to increase recycling and reduce waste for suburban Cook County.

Biggest professional win: Tindall created the sustainability program for the Cook County Forest Preserves and authored the Sustainability & Climate Resiliency Master Plan and Clean Energy Framework. His work won the Illinois Association of Park Districts’ 2019 Best Green Practices Award. Tindall also assisted in the production of the PBS documentary “Chicago’s True Nature: The Forest Preserves of Cook County.”

Other contributions: Tindall created Illinois’ rst Center for Hard to Recycle Materials and received the Illinois Recycling Association’s 2023 Outstanding Public Sector Award.

Nancy Tuchman

Dean, School of Environmental Sustainability, Loyola University

Chicago

Scope of work: As founding dean of Loyola’s School of Environmental Sustainability, Nancy Tuchman has provided vision and leadership since its inception as an institute in fall 2013. The school includes a biodiesel lab and an urban agriculture program, both student-run.

Biggest professional win: In 2020, the Institute of Environmental Sustainability was promoted to Loyola’s 13th school, becoming the School of Environmental Sustainability. The school has grown to offer eight undergraduate degree programs, a Master’s in Environmental Science and Sustainability and three graduate certi cate programs.

Other contributions: Tuchman’s awards include the Society for Freshwater Science Fellows Award and the Leadership in Science & Education Award from the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

Vikrant Viniak

Senior managing director, North America sustainability services lead, Accenture

Scope of work: Vikrant Viniak oversees delivering sustainability services and integrating sustainability into all client work for Accenture’s largest geographic market. He leads 700 people and a business generating $1 billion in annual revenue.

Biggest professional win: Buildings account for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Viniak works with Johnson Controls International, a leading provider of smartbuildings products and services, to help clients reduce emissions as much as 30% through technologies including AI and digital twins.

Other contributions: Viniak is an industry advisory board member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Climate & Sustainability Consortium and is on the board of advisers at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business.

Julie Wolf

Chair of the Environmental & Energy Commission, Village of Wilmette Scope of work: For the past ve years, Julie Wolf has chaired Wilmette’s seven-member Environmental & Energy Commission.

Biggest professional win: In 2021, under her leadership, Wilmette adopted its sustainability plan, the catalyst for creating a full-time sustainability coordinator position that serves ve gover nment agencies in Wilmette. Last year the village launched an electric aggregation program that is estimated to contribute 6,048 megawatt-hours of renewable energy to the grid and avoid approximately 9.45 million pounds of CO2 per year.

Other contributions: Wolf, who served as a village trustee from 2011 to 2019, has a background in landscape architecture that contributed to projects such as the restoration of Elmwood Dunes.

Catherine Zimmerman

Vice president, global environment, health, safety and sustainability, Ingredion Scope of work: Catherine Zimmerman steers Ingredion’s employees to harmonize efforts, keeping the company on track to deliver sustainability commitments, and works to de ne projects within Ingredion’s ve-year plan to reduce CO2 emissions, water, waste and plastics.

Biggest professional win: Zimmerman constructed a global sustainability road map that led to Ingredion’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 28% versus its 2019 baseline. She drove a sustainability review that led to Ingredion transitioning its largest global manufacturing facility in Bedford Park from coal to natural gas.

Other contributions: Zimmerman is an advisory board member of the Chicago chapter of Blessings in a Backpack and is a volunteer mentor through American Corporate Partners.

NOTE WORTHY

Demand for workers trained in climaterelated jobs is outpacing supply, according to LinkedIn’s “Global Green Skills Report 2023.” Between 2022 and 2023:

12% Increase in the share of the workforce with green skills

22% Increase in the share of job listings that require at least one green skill

drove the shift from mechanical operations to electronic controls.

In addition to monitoring emissions output, combines and tractors are now loaded with digital sensors that measure everything from humidity in the air to the density of the soil on a centimeter-accurate grid, instantaneously sharing those metrics with the cloud via satellite and GPS imaging. Deere’s quest to create optimum e ciency is driving the company to develop a fully autonomous eet by 2030.

In reality, a faulty sensor in Lieb’s case caused his combine to shut down. And up until the MOU last year, farmers like him and independent repair technicians couldn’t access the necessary software tools to make their own repairs or clear a code once the repair was completed.

But why was the MOU even necessary? Over the years, Deere has argued in court that a farmer may own a tractor, but they don’t own the software that makes it run.

In a seeming win for farmers seeking the right to repair, the Library of Congress ruled in 2015 that repairing agricultural equipment is not an infringement on copyright. However, the ruling fell short of requiring equipment manufacturers to make their diagnostic tools publicly available.

Customer tools leave much to be desired

With nearly 6 million members nationally and 400,000 in Illinois, the American Farm Bureau Federation is the largest organization of farm and ranch families in the country and a powerful agriculture industry lobbying group. ( e Census of Agriculture counts about 3 million farmers total in the U.S.; the farm bureau invites non-farmers to apply to be members.) e organization has drawn the ire of repair advocates over the memorandum of understanding.

e 2023 MOU was brokered between the farm bureau, John Deere, CNH Industrial, CLAAS, AGCO, and Kubota. e companies agreed to release customer diagnostic tools, which range in annual subscriptions, for example, between $1,500 from CNH to $3,100 from John Deere.

Repair advocates with the Public Interest Research Group, a federation of nonpro ts focused on consumer protection issues, compared the John Deere customer tool to the authorized company tool, and said the customer version leaves much to be desired.

at is why state or federal regulation is required, advocates argue.  PIRG Director Nathan Proctor said he took it personally when he saw the di erences. “It was almost like (the customer’s tool) is redacted or obfuscated,” he said.

e tool provides a lot of information, Proctor said, but it’s inferior compared to what dealers have, and requires customers to go through extra steps in order to accurately diagnose issues and clear codes once the repair is complete. is leaves independent

technicians and farmers at an unfair advantage in the market of equipment repair, he said.

“Essentially, the dealers have a privileged level of access,” said O’Reilly, former right-to-repair campaign director for PIRG. “ ey can get through a digital door to press a button that you need to press in order to x the thing, and farmers either don’t have access to that door, the door was locked, or they had to go through three, six, nine di erent doors just to get to the same place that the dealer was able to get to, right away.”

PIRG focused their study solely on Deere tools because of the company’s dominance in the market. “When people think of agriculture or farming, John Deere is one of the rst brands that comes to mind,” O’Reilly said. “ ey denitely have a level of dominance both as far as in the market but culturally as well.”

Only three companies control the highly concentrated U.S. market for agricultural equipment — CNH, AGCO and Deere — and Deere commands nearly half of that. Globally, Deere controls a quarter of the market share of all ag equipment sales worldwide.

An in uential giant in agricultural equipment

e rst right-to-repair bill was introduced in Illinois in 2018. It would have applied to a broad category of electronic equipment, including electric wheelchairs, laptops, smartphones, and medical equipment, had it passed. After lining up nine bipartisan cosponsors and hearing debate, it died on the House oor.It was opposed by numerous associations and large agribusinesses, including John Deere and CNH.

Deere & Company has been headquartered in Moline, Illinois, for the last 176 years, growing into the agricultural giant it is today with more than 80,000 employees worldwide and pro ts topping $10 billion in 2023.

As the nation’s leader in soybean crops and second in the nation for corn production, Illinois exports millions of bushels around the globe, generating billions of dollars of revenue. And when farmers pro t, John Deere pro ts.

Some of that money ows into the state capital. e John Deere Political Action Committee donated more money to Illinois politicians since 2017 than politicians in any other state by tens of thousands of dollars each year. In 2022, the most recent year of the most available comprehensive data, the John Deere PAC gave $183,500 total to 47 Illinois politicians, while the median donation for all other politicians in the country was only $15,000.  e company’s rapid technological innovations over the past decade coincided with an aggressive merger and acquisition strategy, which the federal government has said erodes competition. Deere has acquired multiple machine learning and arti cial intelligence companies over the last decade and recently announced a partnership with SpaceX, all but dissolving the categorical di erences between Big Tech and Big Ag.

As for its competitors, Deere’s net income surpasses its competition by the billions. e company made more in the rst quarter of 2024, which ended Jan. 28, than AGCO and CLAAS combined for all of 2023.

ese trends worry elected ocials in the White House and around the country. In 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order promoting competition and targeting repair restrictions that violate anti-trust laws. e order was supported by the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces federal consumer protection laws. In 2023, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul led a coalition of attorneys general around the country urging Congress to pass right-to-repair legislation, speci cally for farm equipment. And 15 states are currently considering right-to-repair bills that

tal Protection Agency, which regulates emissions standards, say this isn’t the point of repair advocacy.  e EPA sent a letter to the National Farmers Union in August 2023 stating that the Clean Air Act and the EPA’s policies of implementing regulations are “aligned in preventing tampering, not by limiting access to independent repair, but rather by enforcing the prohibition against tampering against any party that does so.”

“We’re not looking to turn our tractors into hot rods and soup them up,” said Lieb, the central Illinois corn and soybean farmer. “We need them for longevity, and when you start turning up horsepower and messing with things that they’re not designed to do, inevitably, you’re going to shorten the lifespan.”

‘The people calling for change are farmers’

Last October, members of the National Farmers Union, an organization representing 200,000 farmers and ranchers across the U.S., went to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers about the impact of what they say are monopolies in the ag sector.

cover agriculture equipment, after Colorado passed the rst in the country in 2023.

In the meantime, the Illinois farm bureau said it will work with the MOU.

“ e MOU led by AFBF a year ago was a solid step in the right direction for an individual to perform maintenance on their own equipment,” wrote DeAnne Bloomberg, Illinois Farm Bureau’s director of issue management, in a written statement to Investigate Midwest. “In the meantime, the Illinois Farm Bureau will honor the Memorandum of Understanding signed by AFBF.”

Why groups oppose legislation

Equipment manufacturers and private business interest groups such as the Illinois Chamber of Commerce have spent the past seven years lobbying against proposed right-to-repair legislation in Illinois, according to witness slip records on the state’s General Assembly website.

ey’re concerned about safety and emissions tampering, whether intentional or accidental, according to those records.

A spokesperson for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers said in a written statement to Investigate Midwest that current legislative proposals go further than what is safe and could “increase the likelihood of cybersecurity attacks on equipment…and leave equipment vulnerable to untrained or unauthorized parties looking to steal or use it for an unintended purpose.”

Mark Denzler, president of the Illinois Manufacturers Association, said that he’s not opposed to farmers repairing their equipment, he’s opposed to modi cations. “You can get in and either accidentally or intentionally, for example, change coding, and suddenly you’re emitting past what you’re supposed to.”  Farmers, and the Environmen-

Mike Stranz, vice president of advocacy at National Farmers Union, said that passing right-torepair legislation will bring more competition, openness and transparency to the market for farm equipment repair.

“Having more choices in the marketplace and a more open repair market that drives competition makes things work better for farmers,” he said. “What big companies are pushing against is more competition — they want less.”

Farmers aren’t the only ones who depend on John Deere. e state of Illinois has paid the company $42.8 million in contracts since 2005, according to state comptroller records. e state mostly depends on John Deere machines for lawn service, trail maintenance, highway and roadside mowing.

All o -road diesel engine machines, such as construction equipment and forestry machines, have internal computers and repair restrictions similar to tractors and combines. However, the difference between a $500,000 John Deere combine and a $40,000 utility tractor for landscaping is that the software isn’t as integrated into the utility tractor and most repairs are still analog.

Farmers are concerned with repair restrictions because of the di erences in the distribution models. Farmers typically own their equipment, while construction companies generally rent equipment for the duration of a project. e overhead, the budget and the time scale of farming and construction also is di erent, said O’Reilly, formerly with the Public Interest Research Group.

Ultimately, O’Reilly hopes that right-to-repair laws will pass across industries, including construction and forestry.

“But right now,” he said, “the people calling for change are the farmers.”

is article rst appeared on Investigate Midwest and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Jake Lieb looks over his John Deere planter at his farm. | DARRELL HOEMANN, INVESTIGATE MIDWEST

To

OUR READERS ARE 125% MORE LIKELY TO INFLUENCE OFFICE SPACE DECISIONS

Columbia College on the brink of junk rating

The

school’s challenges aren’t expected to abate until at least 2027

Columbia College Chicago got its credit rating cut to the brink of junk as its operating de cits are expected to extend into the foreseeable future.

e private liberal arts and sciences college was downgraded two notches to BBB-, the lowest investment grade designation, by S&P Global Ratings on April 12. e rm’s outlook on the school is negative as its challenges aren’t expected to abate until at least 2027. It’s the latest salvo to the increasing pressures facing US colleges and universities.

“ is recent trend of weak nancial performance has led to the rapid deterioration of Columbia’snancial resources and has materially weakened its liquidity,” S&P credit analyst Nicholas Fortin said in a statement.

Columbia College Chicago is already taking steps to stabilizenances including cutting operating expenses by $19 million for the scal year starting Sept. 1, Lambrini Lukidis, associate vice president, said in an emailed statement on April 15.

ABBVIE

From Page 1

biosimilar medications. Hyrimoz is among the rst biosimilars Cordavis is producing in partnership with Novartis-owned Sandoz.

CVS Health declined to comment on Humira and AbbVie to Crain’s, but said the decision to o er more biosimilar prescriptions broadly is intended to lower costs and improve clinical outcomes.

“Cordavis is manufacturing lowlist price biosimilars at scale and delivering what the marketplace needs,” the company said.

An AbbVie spokesperson told Crain’s in a statement the formulary change at CVS was “anticipated” and disclosed in earnings projections.

“Despite the change with the CVS template formularies, Humira remains widely available for patients alongside other adalimumab treatment options,” AbbVie said.

e college also is analyzing its programs “to better align curricular o erings with industry trends and market demand in creative elds to improve enrollment and retention,” Lukidis said. “ e college continues to focus fundraising strategies and partnerships to increase development derived revenues and to o set reliance on tuition revenue.”

Small schools across the US are facing declines in enrollment as fewer students seek a degree while also contending with higher operating costs.

Enrollment down

Total enrollment for the 2022-23 academic year at Columbia College Chicago, which o ers acoustics, game art, dance and marketing classes, fell 2% to nearly 6,400 since right before the pandemic, according to the school.

S&P assesses the school’s risk pro le as “adequate” with “persistent enrollment declines, weak selectivity, retention, and graduation rates,” Fortin wrote in a note.

A recent adjunct faculty strike “caused nancial, strategic, and reputational damage that could disrupt the timely implementation of the college’s strategic plan,

making stabilizing enrollment and operations di cult over the twoyear outlook period,” Fortin said. e school agreed to a 16% raise over four years for part-time faculty to end the strike that took place at the end of last year.

In addition, the resignation of the college’s president and chief executive o cer of more than a decade earlier this year could also slow implementation of its strategic plan, Fortin said. e board of trustees has started to search for a new president and CEO, according to Lukidis.

Columbia College Chicago is “highly dependent” on tuition and auxiliary charges which accounts for over 90% of its adjusted operating revenue, said Fortin, adding that “weakens Columbia’s nancial risk pro le.”

Tuition and fees at the school were about $31,026 for the 202223 academic year, according to its website. About 99% of freshmen and 98% of transfer students got nancial aid in the form of scholarships, grants or loans during the fall of 2021.

e school held about $158 million in total debt outstanding at the end of scal 2023, according to S&P.

cations on the drugs’ sales going forward.

“In time, you’ll see more and more of this,” says Morningstar analyst Damien Conover. “(PBMs) are sort of dictating where the market share goes.”

Lowering costs

says. e strategy allowed Humira to remain the top choice of adalimumab drugs, but the rebates led to slumping Humira revenue as AbbVie cut the drug’s price.

e recent formulary changes at CVS Health comes more than a year since the rst Humira biosimilar hit the market. Humira, which once represented as much as 30% of AbbVie’s revenue, now faces nine biosimilars as of April, and two others are currently being developed.

While Humira-related revenues slipped in the rst year of biosimilar competition, Humira held on to 96% of the market through February 2024, according to a recent Samsung Bioepis report.

But now, with other PBMs expected to make similar changes to drug formularies, more pain is likely ahead for North Chicago-based AbbVie. As one of the rst blockbuster biosimilar drugs that’s been funneled to patients through the PBM industry, changes like the one at CVS Caremark will have big rami-

While biosimilar competition is a threat to the bottom line of any drug manufacturer, generic versions of drugs largely help reduce drug and health care costs for payors and patients, research shows. More competition forces pharmaceutical companies to lower prices, which reduces health care spending and, in some cases, expands the availability of a drug to more patients.

If all adalimumab patients switched to biosimilars, the U.S. health care system would save up to $6 billion, according to an analysis from IQVIA, a health care data and research rm.

Despite the market share erosion appearing now, AbbVie managed to hold onto its grip of the market in the rst year of biosimilar competition by e ectively lowering the price of Humira by o ering PBMs higher “rebates,” a discount that PBMs often pass along to insurance plans and patients, Conover

AbbVie declined to comment on its rebate strategy, but Humira sales declined 32% to $14.4 billion in 2023 as competitor drugs entered the market, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission lings show. And overall, AbbVie’s annual revenue was down 6% to $54 billion.

Conover estimates Humira will bring in $9.6 billion in revenue this year, which is largely in line with the company’s revenue projections, but will later sag to about $5.7 billion in 2026.

“About half of the sales in 2024 will be gone by 2026,” he says.

Despite persisting Humira declines, industry analysts and observers have largely concluded that AbbVie successfully navigated this period by boosting sales of its other drugs, like plaque psoriasis medication Skyrizi and rheumatoid arthritis drug Rinvoq, and acquiring new companies with promising therapies in development stages.

“ ey’ve got next-generation drugs that are really ramping very, very well, and really starting to take share from Humira,” Conover says.

Danielle Moran and Shruti Date Singh, Bloomberg

CRAIN’S DINING AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE

Options for vibrant culture, delectable cuisine and unforgettable entertainment.

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Dolci Amori, Chicago’s authentic Italian pastry shop founded by Napoli native Ciro Longobardo, blends traditional “Italian Pasticciera” and “Rosticciera.” Our top priority is always freshness and quality. Explore unique contemporary Italian pastries, pizzas and paninis crafted by our renowned team from Italy, led by a 40year experienced Pastry Chef.

GRILL ON 21

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A cut above everything. Experience the best business lunch in Chicago’s nancial district. Indulge in gourmet dishes crafted with precision and air; all served in a sophisticated atmosphere that’s perfect for sealing deals or unwinding with colleagues. Elevate your lunchtime experience at Grill on 21 today.

MORETTI’S RESTAURANTS

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Moretti’s was founded in Chicago and is 100% family-owned and exclusive to the Chicago area. The original Moretti’s is on the northwest side of Chicago. Ten other locations serve the north and west metro area. Moretti’s original family recipes range from traditional to the latest delicious trends. All ingredients are fresh, and everything is handcrafted to order.

WAREHOUSES

gauged the direction of the U.S. economy. at stoked fears that the vacancy rate would start to jump quickly, since developers have a tendency to overbuild even as demand in a particular subset of the real estate market starts to cool.

But spiking interest rates over the past two years have helped rein in developers’ exuberance. Colliers projects only 17.5 million square feet of industrial projects will be completed in the Chicago area this year.

There has also been a drop-off in speculative warehouse projects, those that are under construction without any tenants lined up in advance. While there are now 40 industrial projects underway today in the Chicago area totaling about 12.5 million square feet, the majority of that is being built with tenants already lined up, according to Colliers. It’s the first time since mid2021 that so-called built-to-suit projects have outpaced speculative ones, the brokerage’s data shows.

Murky outlook

Higher borrowing costs and a murky economic outlook “have been a natural governor (keeping the market from) being overbuilt,” said Colliers Vice Chair Matthew Stauber, a longtime industrial real estate broker.

Another force keeping the vacancy rate from spiking is that demand hasn’t fallen off as dramatically as some owners might have feared late last year. Net absorption, which measures the change in the amount of leased and occupied space compared with the prior period, rose by 5.5 million square feet during the

RETAIL

to change that trajectory.

e bookstore chain announced plans earlier this year to take over the former Walgreens space in an old bank at 1601 N. Milwaukee Ave. at deal was announced after Stone Real Estate gathered its data. If the deal had closed in 2023, it would have sunk the street’s vacancy rate to 13%.

“ at’s huge for the street, that a really good, solid-name national retailer is going to come in and use the space in an interesting way,” said Will Winter, vice president of Stone Real Estate. “It plugs a huge vacancy and anchors the eastern ank.”

e bookstore chain’s presence could continue to shift Damen’s identity. e area rst popped up as a hot shopping strip for edgy clothing brands because artists worked nearby. Soft-goods retailers — including apparel and bedding — were already leaving the strip before 2020, but the pandemic hit Damen hard. Its vacancy rate soared to nearly 30% in 2020, doubling the sub-10% rates the corridor enjoyed between 2013 and

Supply surge slowing

Warehouse projects that kicked off during the COVID-era development boom pushed the industrial vacancy rate higher for the the fth straight quarter, but a slowdown in new supply is on the horizon.

Vacancy rate

10,000 square feet each, according to Colliers, deals that collectively added up to 8.9 million square feet of leasing. That was 11% higher than the 8 million square feet during the fourth quarter of 2023. GE Appliances led the way during the first quarter with a 1.2 million-square-foot deal in far southwest suburban Morris.

Stauber said the number of big tenants in the market for space right now is a signal that demand is “healthy,” and noted that rents are continuing to grow. “We’ve seen very little in the form of indicators that there will be a significant pullback in demand.”

Companies reluctant

Net absorption (thousands)

Note: Net absorption measures the amount of leased and occupied space compared with the prior period.

Source: Colliers

first quarter, according to Colliers. While that was well below the 10.5 million square feet of net absorption during the previous quarter, it was still higher than the quarterly average for several years leading up to the

2016. Damen was at a crossroads. Would it maintain its ethos as a soft-goods hot spot?

New identity emerges

As it began to recover in 2022, a new identity started emerging on Damen. Service retailers like banks and veterinary clinics began replacing clothing stores. Families populate the neighborhood now more than working artists, making it more attractive to businesses like dentists, optometrists and child care facilities. Hybrid work models also caused people to seek such services in their neighborhoods rather than near their o ces in the Loop.

Last year brought more retailers that catered toward the family demographic. New stores on the street include clothing shop Seraphine Maternity, Just Food for Dogs and clothing label Big Bud Press. Cosmetics store Jones Road Beauty is set to open this week at 1655 N. Damen Ave. Retailers that left the street last year included clothing store Scotch & Soda, sneaker retailer Stadium Goods, AT&T and bar Tricycle, according to the Stone Real Estate survey.

ough Barnes & Noble does serve families, it can draw a di er-

pandemic, Colliers data shows. New leases inked during the first three months of the year are also an encouraging sign of demand for warehouse owners. Companies signed 123 new leases or expansions greater than

ent shopper than a vet or dentist might, Winter said. at could impact the street’s leasing trajectory. “Does that shift the way retailers look at the street?” he said. “It brings a di erent customer that is a little bit more in the shopping mode.”

A Barnes & Noble representative told the Chicago Tribune earlier this year that the Damen Avenue store should be open by summer. e company did not respond to a request for comment from Crain’s.

Stone Real Estate's report also analyzed the health of Armitage and Southport avenues, which it considers to be Chicago's primary boutique retail corridors, along with Damen. e three areas are often go-to spots for brands looking to set up shop in Chicago, and their fate could in uence the city's ability to attract retailers. Such strips also bring business and vibrancy to neighborhoods — a vital task, as residents continue spending time and money near home.

Armitage Avenue between Shefeld Street and Halsted Avenue saw its vacancy rate increase in 2023 for the rst time in seven years. e bump to 6.2% from 3%

they consider these products to be a part of the standard of care for feeding premature infants.”

“Countless babies have benefited from these products,” he continued.

Ford said Abbott is preparing to defend its products in court this summer, and will “lay out the facts, the science and the data. We stand behind our products.”

Timing of the Federal Reserve’s expected interest rate cuts will factor into that, Stauber said, and those looked a little cloudier after a March report showed inflation hadn’t cooled as much as the Fed had hoped. Companies reluctant to make big leasing decisions in the middle of a presidential election year could also hamper demand in the second and third quarters, he said.

But if demand stays steady throughout the year, the vacancy rate could start to tick down again because of a lack of spec projects, according to Stauber. “I believe there will be a real lack of available product in the next six to 12 months,” he said.

That prediction is music to the ears of industrial developers now on the hunt for tenants, including those that recently completed big buildings. Colliers data shows that developers delivered a trio of buildings in Joliet, Kenosha, Wis., and Melrose Park during the first quarter totaling more than 2.7 million square feet, all of which is vacant.

in 2022 came from two closures: Chase Bank at 935 W. Armitage Ave. and Lincoln Park Aesthetics at 908 W. Armitage Ave.

Additionally, retailer Outdoor Voices closed all its stores last month, including one on Armitage. at vacancy was not included in Stone Real Estate’s 2023 survey.

Still, Winter said the street remains stable. e vacancies could prove bene cial for the health of the corridor in the long run, if they are quickly lled with a retailer that is more interesting than, say, a bank branch. Previously, the only empty storefront on the street was the former Charlie Trotter's restaurant.

“You never want to see an increase in vacancy,” Winter said. “But it doesn’t hurt to have a little bit of turnover once in a while so that the street doesn’t become stale.”

Crown jewel

Farther north, Southport Avenue continues to be the crown jewel of Chicago’s boutique retail corridors. Vacancy between Addison and Roscoe streets dropped to 0% last year from 4.8% in 2022. e last time that stretch of

Despite the proliferation of NEC cases, as well as other infant formula lawsuits related to Abbott’s formula recall over contamination issues at a Michigan manufacturing plant, the company’s pediatric formula sales grew 9% to more than $1 billion in the first quarter, Abbott announced on April 17.

Across the entire business, Abbott reported sales in the quarter growing 2.2% to $10 billion. It also revealed higher annual pro t projections due to strong sales among its medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

Abbott now expects adjusted earnings for the full year in the range of $4.55 to $4.70 a share, compared to the previously announced guidance of $4.50 to $4.70 a share.

Abbott’s stock was down more than 3% on April 17 and is about flat from a year ago, trading at $105.

Ford said today’s earnings report represented the fth consecutive quarter of doubledigit growth.

“We’re very well positioned to continue to deliver strong results for the remainder of the year," Ford said.

Southport Avenue had no vacancy was pre-pandemic, before the fate of Chicago’s retail corridors was thrown into question.

e corridor’s strength comes from its “solid” mix of national mainstream brands and local shops and restaurants, Winter said. Southport’s soft-goods mix increased to almost 59% from roughly 53% in 2022, surpassing Damen and Armitage and establishing it as the go-to spot for such retailers.

A vacancy left from Amazon was quickly lled by clothing brands Vuori and Arc’teryx. Other new retailers included women’s boutique Pink Moon Bay, jewelry shop Ink + Alloy and local children’s clothing store Mini Wonder.

Clothing brand Buck Mason is set to open soon in the former Lakeview Insurance Agency space at 3438 N. Southport Ave., said Chris Irwin, senior vice president of retail sales and leasing at Colliers.

“Retailers have told us that the ZIP codes there are some of their highest (for online ordering),” said Irwin, who represented the landlord in the Buck Mason deal. “People want brick and mortar to back it up.”

donations has been large and wide-reaching, often breaking records at nonpro ts and landing his name on buildings. During his three-plus decades in Chicago, he donated to educational, cultural, medical and civic organizations.

e $125 million donation to the Museum of Science & Industry is the largest single gift in the South Side museum’s history. e museum will be renamed the Kenneth C. Gri n Museum of Science and Industry later this year. He donated at least $150 million to the University of Chicago’s storied economics department, which now bears his name.

Other Chicago institutions that have received donations from him have included the Art Institute of Chicago; the Chicago Public Education Fund, a nonpro t that invests in the development and retention of principals at Chicago Public Schools; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others.

“He has truly left a wonderful and lasting legacy here in Chicago,” said Chevy Humphrey, president and CEO of MSI.

But since trading the Windy City for South Beach, his donations in Florida have exploded and now eclipse over $300 million in the state, with the majority of them landing in the last few years, leaving his former home dry during

MICHIGAN CITY

So when real estate entrepreneur Barry Schain suggested he and Goodman partner on a luxury hotel and condo complex on Michigan City’s lakefront, it didn’t take Goodman, founding principal of Farpoint Development in Chicago, long to say yes.

Goodman, who helped develop Fulton Market when he was with Sterling Bay, is betting big on Michigan City, co-developing a 14-story hotel, condo and retail building on an empty lakefront lot there.

Goodman, who also developed McDonald’s global headquarters and Google’s Midwest headquarters in Chicago, is leading YAB Development Partners, which will soon break ground on the 628,000square-foot, $280 million SoLa project in downtown Michigan City, where passersby might recall seeing the “You Are Beautiful” sculpture.

Plans call for two boutique hotels by Wyndham o ering 235 rooms (some suites and some with bunk beds), a rooftop pool overlooking Lake Michigan, 174 condos (60 of which will be vacation rentals), 18 townhouses, upscale restaurants, bars and 25,000 square feet of retail space.

Condos will have balconies and sweeping views of Lake Michigan, Indiana Dunes National Park and the Chicago skyline from across the lake.

A three-story, 396-space, climate-controlled parking garage is planned for the center of

that time.

In March, he gave $50 million to the Miami Neuroscience Institute at Baptist Health and another $50 million to Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Both institutions will now bear his name.

Other large gifts in Florida over the past two years have included $20 million to Miami Dade College, $25 million to the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and, announced April 11, $9 million to bring a University of Chicago math-tutoring program to public school students in Miami, among other donations.

Whether it’s a change in his philanthropic giving or a honeymoon phase with his new home, Florida is now receiving a lot of Gri n’s philanthropic attention, a privilege Chicago used to claim title to.

Moody says it is not uncommon for prominent donors to move and have their donations decrease in their former city. “ ere’s no doubt that there’s going to be less giving in Chicago for him than if he had stayed in the city,” he said.

e question is when will his donations return and how big will they be when they do, all which is complicated by Gri n’s public breakup with the city. Prior to announcing his departure from Chicago, he made frequent complaints about rising crime levels in the city and high taxes in the state. He once famously described the city’s violent crime as “like Afghanistan on a good day.”

the development.

Current overnight options in Michigan City are con ned to Airbnbs, motels and the Blue Chip Casino, which has 484 hotel rooms, some of which have lake views.

ere’s a lot going on in Michigan City’s favor right now. Besides the double-track train project, which is wrapping up sooner than expected in mid-May, Nipsco plans to retire its generating station between 2026 and 2028. e utility’s cooling tower, a blight on the landscape that’s sometimes mistaken for a nuclear facility, will come down and free up a mile of lakefront space. e facility sits on 123 acres.

Prison to close

e Indiana Department of Correction has announced it will close the state prison in Michigan City within three to four years, freeing

But Moody, while acknowledging Gri n’s unique and complicated relationship with Chicago, believes his philanthropic dollars may someday return here.

“He has his name on buildings, and I think there’s always going to be a residue of his giving in Chicago, which will keep him engaged in the city,” Moody said.

Loss of leadership

While a proli c donor, Gri n was also a prominent leader in the philanthropic community and a board member of a long list of organizations.

“He would not only donate large amounts, but he was a public and civic leader,” said John A. Canning Jr., chairman emeritus at investment rm Madison Dearborn Partners, who oftentimes served on boards with Gri n. “ at loss is a tragedy for the city of Chicago.”

Gri n served on the board of the University of Chicago, the Chicago Public Education Fund, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, to name a few. As a spokesperson for him previously told Crain’s, “Given that he and his family have moved, he unfortunately will no longer be able to serve on boards in Chicago.”

Heather Anichini, president and CEO of the Chicago Public Education Fund, said losing even one board member is hard, but especially one with Gri n’s in uence.

“Ken’s loss is felt, both in terms of the time and leadership, and in

up land 2 miles o the lake.

And the Marquette bike trail, which will connect Chicago to New Bu alo, Mich., and run through Michigan City, is expected to be complete by 2027. e Illinois portion is nished, the Indiana leg is under construction and the Michigan section broke ground April 3.

With all that happening, Goodman, who hopes to break ground this summer on SoLa, isn’t the only one who sees opportunity in Michigan City.

Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins plans to build an $80 million, 12-story development on 1.5 acres near the new South Shore Line Station on 11th Street at Franklin. It will o er 220 market-rate apartment residences (some with lake views) and 5,600 square feet of commercial space.

And a California developer has just announced plans for the vacant Marquette Mall in Michigan City. Moshe Shemian, who’s from the Los Angeles area, was part of a group that purchased the property, which includes 500,000 square feet of space once anchored by J.C. Penney, Sears and Carson Pirie Scott, nearly 20 years ago. Shemian is now the sole owner and says he is looking to “proceed forward beginning a new dream for Michigan City,” according to a press release. He provided no details.

Goodman acknowledges the SoLa project is risky. “We are making the market for this type of market,” he says, referring to the fact that there’s nothing comparable in the area. Michigan City,

terms of the dollars,” she said.

Previous donations continue to bene t Chicago

While much of the discussion has been about what Gri n’s absence has meant for Chicago, Roseanna Ander, founding executive director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, an independent research organization, wants to emphasize the lasting impact of what he has already donated.

“ e good news about the donations he made are that they are things that continue to have an impact in perpetuity and beyond the year the gift was made,” she said.

“ ere’s no way to see his departure as anything other than a loss for Chicago, but his gifts continue to pay dividends for Chicago.”

Ander points to the work her team is continuing to do with the Community Safety Leadership Academies, which aims to educate police and community violence intervention leaders. e program, which Ander says will continue over at least the next ve years, is funded by a $25 million Gri n donation.

In addition to donations to aid and enhance Chicago’s museums, he has donated around $15 million to enhance the city’s Lakefront Trail, helping fund separate paths for cyclists and pedestrians along the 18-mile stretch.

“ e legacy of his gifts will continue to reap bene ts for Chicago,” Ander said.

a once-thriving town of 32,000 some 59 miles from the Loop, has a poverty rate that’s nearly twice the national level; boarded-up buildings dot the town.

“But there are already a lot of catalysts, and this is the result of what the city, state and region has done to promote” Michigan City, he says. “ e hope is that a lot of others will follow.”

Goodman points out that, unlike New Bu alo 10 minutes away or other nearby vacation towns, which are “beautiful but sleepy,” Michigan City is a “real city, with a lot more food and beverage and experiential things.”

“We like to be on the path of renovation but where the bones already exist,” he said. He points to two Farpoint projects as examples: Fulton Market, as well as the Bronzeville lakefront (the former Michael Reese Hospital site), next to McCormick Place.

“They have all the infrastructure already,” he says. “It doesn’t take a lot of imagination” to see what could happen there.

Michigan City is similar, he says. “It’s a proven community that sprawls during summer months, but I see it as much more year-round in terms of activity.”

Nearly 410 people are on the interest list for condos at SoLa, he says, including older people who want to turn their large Michiana properties over to their adult children and downsize but still be close by. Goodman is not in that category but is interested; he says he’s looking forward to having a getaway in the area again.

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CRAIN’S

Scott Goodman

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