AgriFlats doesn’t just grow food. It grows community.
Within miles of Chicago’s top restaurant corridors, AgriFlats combines a business incubator with Dutch-style Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) to provide 13 aspiring growers with one-acre greenhouses sheltered by attached live-work units. Together, they form a puzzle piece in Chicago’s first Food District, known for growing and serving delicious local food.
Produce cultivated year-round at AgriFlats will be 100% pesticide-free, harvested and delivered to market within a day, and grown using 90% less water than field-grown vegetables. The project will create 230 permanent, nonseasonal jobs in the community — roles immune to AI disruption and accessible to locally trained residents.
AgriFlats functions as both an incubator and accelerator. After 5–7 years of modest-scale success, growers scale operations elsewhere to expand profitability and reach. A newly formed Cooperative provides meeting, learning, and living spaces to support farmers and residents alike. Researchers will develop new varieties unique to Chicago.
Decarbonization is a priority. AgriFlats obviates cross-country transport. Passive solar greenhouses, supplemented by solar thermal collectors, store heat in underground insulated tanks. A Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system, fed by an anaerobic biomass digester, produces both electricity and natural gas on-site. CO₂ captured from combustion is redirected into the greenhouse, where growing plants sequester it.
Resilience is embedded at every level — underground water reservoirs sized for 100-year drought conditions, rainwater collection for greywater use, and a cooperative structure that allows growers to share risk, resources, data, and distribution to consumers and chefs.