Architectural observer Lynn Becker has put together a good historic overview of the Wrigley Company following word of the pending sale of the abandoned 30-acre manufacturing complex on the South Side. Beginning with the biographical details of William Wrigley, Jr. and his entrepreneurial transition from soaps to baking powder to chewing gum, the article moves on to the company's growth and the series of decisions that portended its contraction and acquisition by Mars. Local factory jobs were an inevitable casualty. On the market since '09 and originally asking about $19M, the final sales figure is down around $5M. As Becker puts it, the old manufacturing powerhouse which once employed 1,700 people is essentially being sold "for scrap". [ArchitectureChicagoPLUS]
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