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Adaptive Reuse Could Bring Solar to Near South Side

The Chicago Plan Commission has approved the rezoning of 2548 S. Federal St., a 1920s printing factory building on Chicago’s Near South Side, for residential use. Crain’s Chicago Business reported that 548 Capital plans to begin work developing 47 apartments in the four-story structure, with solar panels installed on top. 

From 1969 until sometime in the 1980s, the brick and stone building was owned by a wing of the Nation of Islam that produced its newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, with a peak press run of 800,000 weekly and the name of the newspaper spelled out in a rooftop sign. 

“It’s pretty cool that we’re putting solar on this historic building,” 548 Capital principal A.J. Patton told Crain’s. “We’re doing this in a community where you don’t usually think about sustainability being applied. We’re putting a flag down, saying all communities deserve to have these technologies, these sustainable strategies.” 

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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