3 ms·
Should it ever come to pass that FermiLab were shut down, the real-estate developers would grab it in a heart beat. It's a massive block of prime west Chicagola
by mikewarot 2y ago
Should it ever come to pass that FermiLab were shut down, the real-estate developers would grab it in a heart beat. It's a massive block of prime west Chicagoland Real Estate.
- Kon-Peki 2y agoThe chance of that happening is close to nil. The property is owned by the US Government and would likely get transferred to the US Forest Service to be managed as a tallgrass prairie, like Midewin [1] (large amounts of open space within Fermilab are already being managed as a tallgrass prairie [2]). [1] https://www.fs.usda.gov/midewin https://www.fs.usda.gov/midewin [2] https://ecology.fnal.gov https://ecology.fnal.gov
- wenc 2y agoLegality aside, I used to work in Hinsdale and I’ve visited Fermilab in Batavia. I could be all wrong about this but the location didn’t seem that desirable. Batavia is far away from major highways and feels like a forgotten sleepy town out in the boonies. I remember feeling, “who would ever want to live here except physicists who wanted to isolate themselves?” This is in contrast to Argonne National Lab (also operated by UChicago) down the street (well 30 mi, 40 mins away) in Lemont. It’s next to the I-55 and reachable from populated burbs like Naperville and Westmont, and even Chicago. Food options abound in neighboring suburbs. Now that’s prime real estate.
- Kon-Peki 2y agoArgonne is completely surrounded by (and was carved out of) DuPage County Forest Preserve land. They'll want it back if the government is ever done with it. The forest preserve district will simply remove all the roads on their land and leave it inaccessible.
- mikewarot 2y agoYou haven't been down Kirk road in the past few years, have you? There are so many McMansions across the street in land that used to be farms.