In an effort to make the city more energy efficient and attractive to business, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday announced that 14 commercial buildings had signed on to his Retrofit Chicago's Commercial Buildings Initiative.
The projects, his office said, will create more than 1,000 jobs and will eventually save the buildings more than $5 million annually in energy costs.
"Today is a major step forward for the City of Chicago, as we create a private sector complement for the work we are doing to ensure energy efficiency in our municipal buildings and infrastructure," he said in a statement.
The buildings, totaling 14 million square feet, range in age from 7 to 117 years old, the mayor's office said.
The mayor touted the effort during a visit to St. Cornelius School, in Jefferson Park on the city's northwest side. PepsiCo on Tuesday named the school its grand prize winner in the Dream Machine Recycle Rally "Dream Green School Makeover" contest. The school was awarded $50,000 to help fund green improvements.
"The private sector is joining the kids at St. Cornelius in a new energy and environmental policy for the whole city," he said. "Obviously you guys won [the PepsiCo challenge], but 899 other schools learned something also, about environmental policy, about working together, about setting a goal and about achieving something."
The buildings set to undergo retrofit projects include:
- 224 South Michigan Avenue (Santa Fe Building), 224 South Michigan Avenue
- 333 North Michigan Avenue, 333 North Michigan Avenue
- 515 North State Street, 515 North State Street
- The AT&T Building, 225 West Randolph Street
- CNA Headquarters, 333 South Wabash Avenue
- Fifth Third Center, 222 South Riverside Plaza
- Franklin Center, 227 West Monroe Street & 222 West Adams Street
- Hyatt Center, 71 South Wacker Drive
- InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile, 505 North Michigan Avenue
- The Marquette Building, 140 South Dearborn Street
- NBC Tower, 454 North Columbus Drive
- One Financial Place, 440 South LaSalle Street
- Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, 301 East North Water Street
- The Wrigley Building, 400-410 North Michigan Avenue
The projects will not be funded through the "Retrofit Chicago" program unveiled in March.
"[Building owners and managers are] going to do it from their own self-interests and their own capital," Emanuel said.
