Levy points to townhouses built three miles east as replacement housing for the CHA's Henry Horner Homes as an example of what could be done at the Brach's site, but suggests the units could be owner-occupied rather than subsidized. "This might be a wonderful location as they continue to tear down (public housing), to create a low-rise townhome mixed development with commercial on Cicero Avenue and develop a wonderful community there," Levy said. "I don't see a Wal-Mart, but you might a Jewel or Dominick's (food store). I think you'd be doing a great things and help uplift a whole neighborhood."

However, 28th Ward Alderman Ed Smith doubts the site will see any use other than industrial even if jobs weren't the city's top priority. "I don't think it will go retail, not in that area. And I don't see us building houses on that spot. We want business on that spot. We don't want it to lay fallow, but we want business. There's a symbiotic relationship between business and the local community."Smith agrees a single user filling Brach's void is not likely to surface, but he envisions smaller multiple users. An example is three miles southwest at Sungate Properties' 47.5-acre SunGate Park at 5400 W. Roosevelt Rd., where 46 tenants have replaced Sunbeam after the manufacturer abandoned its plant.

"We're looking for some kind of service industry, some kind of manufacturing. We need to find jobs to come this area where the people here can do," Smith said. By "we" he means a Daley administration highly protective of the city's jobs. The city's aggressive efforts to retain local businesses included giving Brach's more than $300,000 five years ago to fix the plant's heating system.

The site also is in an empowerment zone qualifying the owner for incentives that may still be around when Brach's leaves. But demographics also could change through the Daley administration's reversing the long-running exodus of residents to the suburbs. Residential real estate agents continue to see suburbanites moving back to the city, hopping on the availability of public transportation to get to their Downtown jobs. That could make the Brach site, six blocks from the Loop, look attractive.

"I think there's an unmet demand for retail and for housing," Yaffee believes. "It could accommodate a number of uses." Like Smith, Cotsirilos questions retail use, pointing to a site 1.5 miles away at Cicero and North Avenues that has been extremely slow to develop. And Yaffee adds the Brach's location may not suit higher-end townhouse and condominium redevelopment that has been seen throughout the city.

"It's so convenient to Downtown," Yaffee said. "There's a lot of potential. Who knows? From this, maybe there's a lot we can do with it."