Retail, Residential Possibilities Seen at Candy Company Plant Site

CHICAGO-Finding one large single user to replace Brach & Brock Confection Inc. at its two-million-sf facility on the West Side is highly unlikely, opening the door for retail and residential redevelopment in addition to a limited number of small industrial users. But replacing the 1,100 jobs at the plant is city officials’ top priority.

“I don’t know how applicable the building could be to other users,” says Paul Yaffee of Preferred Realty Group, based in suburban Lincolnwood. “My guess is it would have to be demolished, but some parts would have to be retained,” possibly for smaller industrial users.

Brach’s decision to abandon the factory on a 28.4-acre site at 401 N. Cicero Ave. was made after $76 million in upgrades were not enough to keep the plant, first built in 1930 with additions tacked on through 1986, going. Disappointed city officials, who say the Tennessee-based company assured them it was staying, suggest the move is being made to take advantage of cheaper labor overseas. Regardless, Brach’s will exit the site, located about a mile north of the Eisenhower Expressway and two blocks from a new CTA El station, by 2004.