A Texas developer is set to make a bold bet in the Fulton Market District and hoping to help jumpstart Chicago’s life-sciences industry in the process.
Trammell Crow said Thursday it will break ground this spring on Fulton Labs, a 400,000-square-foot life sciences laboratory and office building at 400 N. Aberdeen St.
It’s hoping it can lure biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies born at Chicago universities to the now-trendy corridor.
If it does, it might help solve a lab space shortage in the city that has driven many homegrown life sciences start-ups to more mature markets like Boston and San Francisco when they need to expand.
In other Chicago-area business news:
The public face of the giant Lollapalooza music festival is moving on.
Lolla operator C3 Presents confirmed co-owner and principal Charlie Jones, a key organizer of the annual four-day Grant Park event, is no longer with the company.
Jones was CEO of C3 predecessor Capital Sports Entertainment when it took over operating the festival in 2005.
C3 says Jones’ departure won’t mean any changes in the event for now.
But Lolla has faced more security and financial pressures in recent years, and ticket sellouts haven’t come as easily. The festival’s current contract with the Chicago Park District expires next year.
And finally, celebrity chef Jose Andres is teaming up with Chicago’s Gibsons Restaurant Group to bring a new dining venue to Wacker Drive.
They’ve leased a big space at the base of the new Bank of America tower going up at 110 N. Wacker Drive, where they’ll open a fine-dining restaurant, cocktail bar and cafe.
Andres opened fast-casual restaurant Beefsteak in Streeterville last year and is known for his humanitarian efforts – he was nominated for a 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for helping feed Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria.
The 55-story skyscraper is slated to open late this year.
Crain’s Headlines is a joint production between WTTW and Crain’s Chicago Business. It airs every Monday through Thursday on the WTTW News program “Chicago Tonight.”
