Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum opens to help LaSalle Street revival
What to expect: The free museum on the first floor of the iconic Art Deco Board of Trade Building on LaSalle and Jackson celebrates the history of the CBOT, from an instructive video of traders' ferocious hand signaling to a phone that plays memories of the men (and at least one woman) who ruled the pits.
Between the lines: The financial district has changed greatly since CBOT opened in the late 19th century, especially after 2020 as work-from-home policies keep workers off LaSalle several days a week, and development has moved to other parts of the city.
Even before the pandemic, the Board of Trade was heavily impacted by the transition to online trading and closure of the physical trading pits a decade ago.
The intrigue: Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced LaSalle Street Reimagined in 2022. Earlier this year, developers broke ground on 79 W. Monroe, an office-to-apartment conversion.
Chicago's Department of Planning and Development awarded museum founders R2 Companies, the real estate firm that manages the CBOT building, $250,000 for the museum as part of an effort to revitalize empty spaces in the Loop.
What they're saying: "It's no secret that every city in the world's got to rethink their central business district and part of doing that is not just places to live, work, eat and shop, but you have some activities to do," Ald. Bill Conway tells Axios.
"This is an iconic building, and an important part of the birth and backbone of our economy and capitalism globally. So having a museum that commemorates that, I think will be very interesting to people from around the world."
State of play: Conway, whose ward includes the CBOT, says the museum is a sign of the area's growing arts and culture scene, which already gets regular visitors on the city's architecture tours.
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Axios
6 days ago
- Axios
Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum opens to help LaSalle Street revival
The founders of the Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum hope the new attraction helps revitalize the financial district. What to expect: The free museum on the first floor of the iconic Art Deco Board of Trade Building on LaSalle and Jackson celebrates the history of the CBOT, from an instructive video of traders' ferocious hand signaling to a phone that plays memories of the men (and at least one woman) who ruled the pits. Between the lines: The financial district has changed greatly since CBOT opened in the late 19th century, especially after 2020 as work-from-home policies keep workers off LaSalle several days a week, and development has moved to other parts of the city. Even before the pandemic, the Board of Trade was heavily impacted by the transition to online trading and closure of the physical trading pits a decade ago. The intrigue: Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced LaSalle Street Reimagined in 2022. Earlier this year, developers broke ground on 79 W. Monroe, an office-to-apartment conversion. Chicago's Department of Planning and Development awarded museum founders R2 Companies, the real estate firm that manages the CBOT building, $250,000 for the museum as part of an effort to revitalize empty spaces in the Loop. What they're saying: "It's no secret that every city in the world's got to rethink their central business district and part of doing that is not just places to live, work, eat and shop, but you have some activities to do," Ald. Bill Conway tells Axios. "This is an iconic building, and an important part of the birth and backbone of our economy and capitalism globally. So having a museum that commemorates that, I think will be very interesting to people from around the world." State of play: Conway, whose ward includes the CBOT, says the museum is a sign of the area's growing arts and culture scene, which already gets regular visitors on the city's architecture tours.
Axios
6 days ago
- Axios
Chicago could say goodbye to NASCAR's Loop takeover
The NASCAR Chicago Street Race brought high-octane energy to another Fourth of July weekend, but some city officials say it's time to let the unique event fade into the sunset. The latest: Ald. Brian Hopkins, Ald. Bill Conway (34th) and other city officials are questioning whether the trouble of closing streets and shifting Chicago city traditions is worth it now that the three-year contract is up. The city race course runs in the Loop, from Michigan Avenue to DuSable Lake Shore Drive. What they're saying: "July Fourth is a very family-friendly weekend and we want families to be able to use the park on July Fourth," Conway told NBC Chicago."Not only do we have to make sure that we are making this as convenient as possible for the constituents, but also make sure the city is recouping its cost of putting on the race." "NASCAR has brought Chicago business, tourists and a spectacle unique to sports culture," Hopkins said in a statement."They have also brought noise, disruption, and road closures, some of which will continue from this year's event for many days to come. Reports have surfaced that NASCAR is considering San Diego as the next city for the race. By the numbers: While it will be months until the city releases economic figures from this past weekend, 2024 generated $128 million in economic impact, according to Choose Chicago and the Chicago Sports Commission. The 2024 race attracted just over 53,000 spectators. In recent years, the city says it spent an estimated $3.5 million on road work, staffing and police. This year, the state kicked in $5 million out of its general operating fund to help offset the city's expenses. NASCAR paid the Chicago Park District $2 million for the race. Catch up quick: NASCAR replaced the popular Taste of Chicago, which brought the city together downtown for the traditional food festival, complete with free admission and concerts. The Taste was moved to September. Reality check: The race not only replaced Taste, but charged big ticket prices to attend, which kept many Chicagoans from enjoying Grant Park over the Fourth of July weekend. It also closed roads around the Loop leading up to the race and upended the famous 16-inch softball leagues in Grant Park. Context: The race began in 2023 under the Lightfoot administration, which cited a need to bring excitement and foot traffic back to the Loop. Mayor Brandon Johnson has publicly bit his tongue on the NASCAR deal and has been mum on whether he's considering a new contract to bring it back. The vibe: While the street race is undoubtedly a fun departure for the sport, it has been hamstrung all three years by inclement weather, which has delayed races, canceled concerts and put a damper on crowds attending. Zoom out: Then there is the appeal of the sport. Chicago is a big city with many tastes, but the NASCAR street race didn't reach typical Chicagoans, instead drawing from the suburbs and nearby states. NASCAR usually visits the area at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet. What's next: NASCAR and the city have 90 days to work out dates for the next year. 🗳️ What do you think? Would you welcome the NASCAR Street Race back to Chicago next year or is it time for the race to feature ocean views?
Chicago Tribune
06-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago Board of Trade museum pays homage to city's trading history, immortalized in movies like ‘Ferris Bueller's Day Off'
A museum dedicated to preserving the legacy of open outcry trading opens Tuesday inside the Chicago Board of Trade Building, the latest step in an effort to revive the nearly century-old structure. Much of the frantic trading activity in the building — immortalized in movies like 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' and 'The Dark Knight' — now occurs digitally, leaving its cavernous main trading floor quiet and empty. But in the Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum, architecture buffs, other visitors and the building's many office tenants will be able to experience what it was like to be on the trading floors, and see how generations of Chicago's leading architects created the historic landmark. 'We wanted to find a way to honor that legacy,' said Gary Stoltz, chief design and development officer of R2 Cos. The company took over operations at the 44-story art deco skyscraper in 2023 after the previous owner, battered by the post-pandemic office market, surrendered control in late 2022 to its lender Apollo Global Management. R2 Cos. has so far spent $11 million renovating the building on the southern end of the LaSalle Street canyon at 141 W. Jackson Blvd., including the new museum and spiffing up the rooftop deck, lobbies and atriums. Those renovations, along with other exhibits paying tribute to Chicago's trading history, helped bring in many new tenants, making the Board of Trade one of the few buildings to thrive as the downtown office market struggles to recover. 'We've done about 600,000 square feet of leasing in the last two and a half years,' including about 280,000 square feet of new leases, said Matt Pistorio, a R2 Cos. partner. 'I would say there are only one or two other office buildings in the city of Chicago which have done as much.' Although nearly 30% of downtown office space is either empty or available for rent, a historic high, an increasing number of downtown office users are checking out new spaces, according to Savills, a commercial real estate firm. Most gravitate either toward the city's new trophy properties in the West Loop or Fulton Market, or toward renovated properties where owners were willing to spend on new amenities, said Robert Sevim, Savills' president for the Chicago region. 'The Chicago Board of Trade Building is a good example,' he said. 'These buildings are the most sought after, and these are the spaces that are going to be flying off the shelves.' Raucous trading pits, where generations of brokers shouted orders for agricultural products and other commodities, started shutting down about 10 years ago as computerized trading took over. The CME Group, a merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, closed most of its open trading pits during the pandemic. But Cboe Global Markets, founded in 1973 as the Chicago Board Options Exchange, opened in 2022 a new group of trading pits on the Chicago Board of Trade Building's seventh and eighth floors. The building still hosts many other trading firms, Pistorio said. Total occupancy for the building is nearly 75%, and should increase soon. 'We stabilized the rent roll by doing a lot of renewals, and hope to be in the mid-80s in the next year or so,' he said. The street-level museum includes a theater and giant screen that illustrates how the 1930 building, designed by Holabird & Root and for decades Chicago's tallest, rose on the site of the original trading exchange. It also tracks the rise of the 1980s addition designed by noted architect Helmut Jahn, designer of the nearby James R. Thompson Center, which Google will occupy next year. Other exhibits include recorded testimonies from traders about what life was like on the trading floor, photos and a projected art display visible at night from blocks away. 'We want people to know that there is something going on at the end of the block,' Pistorio said. Stoltz said the building already gets about 1,000 visitors every month, often school tours or others interested in the sleek art deco lobbies. And with most of the open trading pits shut down, the museum will give visitors a better sense of the building's historic role in Chicago's economy. 'Many people want to see the trading floor they saw in 'Ferris Bueller,' so we thought we could bring the energy of trading to our visitors, and show the architecture of the trading floors,' Stoltz said. The museum was supported by a $250,000 small-business improvement grant from the city, he said. Similar grants were given in 2024 to local restaurants, all clustered around LaSalle Street and still recovering from the pandemic, including Ceres Cafe in the Chicago Board of Trade Building and Goddess and the Baker. Stoltz said the building's renovation is ongoing. R2 Cos. may revive the lower level, possibly transforming the massive underground vault and safety deposit boxes, where traders once stored important papers, into an event space. A long-term possibility is reopening the slanted roof's glass-walled observation deck and visitor center, closed in the 1970s, and just below the iconic, three-story statue of Roman goddess Ceres. 'That's going to be one of the hardest projects to pull off,' Stoltz said.
