Board-up biz booms
On Jan. 24, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jerry Roper was ridiculed for daring to suggest that downtown businesses beef up security, put boardup services on standby and offer their employees the option of working from home to avoid commuting hassles and conflicts with demonstrators during the NATO Summit.
Nearly four months later, Roper’s controversial warning has a prophetic ring.
With the U.S. Secret Service closing parts of three major expressways and countless local streets and Metra severely restricting what passengers can carry onto trains, scores of businesses are allowing their employees to work from home on Friday, Monday or both. That includes Boeing Corp., target of what could be a massive protest Monday.
And retailers, banks, residential and office buildings are either installing bulletproof glass, boarding up windows or having plywood delivered to their locations just in case there’s trouble.
“There’s definitely a fearfactor involved here,” said Steve Trzaskowski, director of operations for Chicagobased Buzy Bee Board-up Service, which has seen a 30 percent surge in business tied to the NATO summit.
“Some people don’t even want to deal with it. We’re gonna show up Friday and board them up. Others are doing staging. We’ll deliver the plywood and framing sticks, put it in back some- where and have a worker available at the site” to install it in the event of damage.
Trzaskowski said he has installed bullet-proof glass known as Lexan on the outside of several downtown banks, retail stores and residential high-rises near McCormick Place.
“For some of the bigger buildings, you’re looking at $30,000 to $40,000 worth of glass on the first floor. We’re boarding up their windows and replacing the doorways with Lexan to provide a visual for the doorman,” he said.
“For other places without large storefronts — like the Foot Locker on State Street — the concern mostly is the amount of stuff they have inside. They’re worried about people running in and grabbing shoes.”
Water Tower Place and one of its tenants, the popular look-alike doll retailer American Girl, have set up emergency plans to board up windows if the NATO Summit turns rough, contractor Bill Disanto, president of Englewood Construction of Lemont, said Wednesday.
He said he has agreements with both sites to keep a truck loaded with plywood and other board-up materials downtown for the weekend just in case. He is paying for two workers to stay in a downtown hotel with the tools to act quickly, and carpenters and tradesmen on call from Saturday through Monday.
Spokesmen for Water Tower Place and American Girl did not return a phone call seeking a response.
Disanto said the preparations could cost from $25,000 to $50,000 for each client depending on the amount of labor and materials needed.