"I don't know how applicable the building could be to other users," says Paul Yaffee of Preferred Realty Group, based in suburban Lincolnwood. "My guess is it would have to be demolished, but some parts would have to be retained," possibly for smaller industrial users.

Brach's decision to abandon the factory on a 28.4-acre site at 401 N. Cicero Ave. was made after $76 million in upgrades were not enough to keep the plant, first built in 1930 with additions tacked on through 1986, going. Disappointed city officials, who say the Tennessee-based company assured them it was staying, suggest the move is being made to take advantage of cheaper labor overseas. Regardless, Brach's will exit the site, located about a mile north of the Eisenhower Expressway and two blocks from a new CTA El station, by 2004.

They could leave a potential canvas for an ambitious developer willing to gamble on a struggling Austin neighborhood, where median family income is about $43,000. "Twenty-eight acres, that's enough acreage to really make a statement," says Steve Cotsirilos, with the North Side brokerage firm Lichter Realty, Inc. "But who's going to stick their neck out, who's going to have enough confidence and get enough assurances to make them rich?" The key, Cotsirilos says, will be getting the property cheap. Its current market value is about $9 million, according Cook County tax records, giving Brach's an annual property tax bill of $573,487.