Walk into the atrium of the University Technology Park at IIT near downtown Chicago and you’ll see a cutting-edge facility. Natural light pours into the common area. Take a stroll down the hallway and you’ll see wet and dry lab space and offices that are home to emerging companies. The building, on the historic Ludwig Mies van der Rohe campus, is busy with Illinois Institute of Technology undergraduates, entrepreneurs and researchers.

A stark contrast from this once abandoned lab.

In 2006, the IIT and its private developer partner, Wexford Science and Technology, turned the 1959 chemistry research building into a mixed-use, multitenant, life sciences-focused facility. The Technology Business Center is now home to the 3.5 floors of new and emerging companies as well as sophisticated multi-disciplinary IIT research centers and IIT’s path-breaking “Idea Shop.”

To read the full, original article click on this link: Communities Turn Old Buildings Into New Opportunities