Green Exchange - - A Sustainable Business Marketplace

Country's Largest Green Business Community Poised to Open Doors in Chicago

The Green Exchange will become the country's largest green business community when it opens in late 2009 at 2545 W. Diversey Ave. in Chicago.

Green Exchange is a four-story, 272,000-square-foot concrete loft building, renovated and repurposed to house a complementary tenant mix that provides innovative, sustainable products and services. Green Exchange will offer networking opportunities for green businesses and convenient one-stop environmentally-responsible shopping to the public.

'With Green Exchange, we seek to broaden the sustainable business marketplace from niche to mainstream and at the same time, further Chicago's efforts to become the greenest city in the United States,' explains David Baum, Green Exchange co-developer.

The Green Exchange building bridges the architectural heritage of the past to the sustainable technologies of the future. Green Exchange owner Baum Development is completing Green Exchange renovations according to Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Core and Shell certification standards. The building now carries local and national recognition from the Commission on Chicago Landmarks and the National Park Service, respectively.

Tenants and employees will benefit from environmentally-conscious renovations such as highly-insulated walls and roofs. Other green features include a sophisticated HVAC system, a 41,000 gallon cistern irrigating more than 15,000 square feet of vegetated roof and a 'smart' escalator using 30 percent less energy than traditional models. Additional tenant amenities include an 8,000-square-foot sky garden, bike rooms and showers, environmentally-friendly meeting and event space, priority parking for low-emitting vehicles and more.

Green Exchange tenants will also benefit from reduced ongoing operating costs created by the building's energy savings, local landmark recognition-related tax breaks and the newly-created Addison South Tax Increment Financing District. Tenants will additionally have access to low-interest loans funded by green collar employment creation grants awarded to LEED Council/Green Exchange.

Green Exchange will showcase a mix of complementary businesses and organizations offering a unique collection of green products and services to environmentally-conscientious consumers. Twenty businesses and organizations have already signed-on to be tenants in the Green Exchange community, including:

• GreenChoice Bank, that provides sustainable values-based banking services, including green banking incentives for clients actively embracing sustainability.


• Conscious Planet Media, one of the city's first full-service green media, HD video production, TV and lifestyle programming (Conscious Living TV and The Soul of Green) specialists.


• The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) North America, an international advisory, coaching and training organization specializing in sustainable development solutions.


• Balanced Kitchen, a vegan and gluten-free restaurant and catering operation. The full-service Balanced Kitchen restaurant, formerly located at 6263 N. McCormick Road, will reopen in Green Exchange later this year.


• Kuma Energy Solutions, LLC, provides sustainable energy efficient solutions including the one-of-a-kind Aeroturbine urban wind turbine.


• Barefoot Concrete (Concrete Re-Surfacing Technologies, Inc.), an FSC-certified provider of polished concrete floors with green benefits that can translate to points toward LEED certification.


• Greenspace Supply, a one-stop source for office, janitorial, energy and maintenance supplies and solutions that make facilities greener, healthier and more efficient.

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