CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Is this data really reliable at the tract level outside of the decennial census?

It's a sample survey - there's some tracts that were estimated at the 2010 ACS that were only off by a total of 5 total people in population. I'm not sure regarding stuff like this because a lot of the stuff ACS collects is not asked in the official census. I'd guess that it's fairly accurate. Maybe not to the exact number but that's why they have a margin of error always.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by glowrock

I think this is great news! I'm glad that this partnership with Common is starting to show dividends. For sure the South Side needs some love. I honestly know little about the Far South Side such as the area this will be built in, but still, nice to see the developments spreading outside the Loop/North side!

Aaron (Glowrock)

That is great news. 500-550+ new jobs in an area is great. Seems like these might be decent paying jobs too. There are a bunch of new homes just 2 miles north of this between 105th and 107th around Vincennes, Throop, etc. AKA The Renaissance at Beverly Ridge. It would be cool if some small scale stuff down that way popped up more because of things like this.

[the urban politician]

A month old and out in Oak Brook, but it’s still lots of job growth:

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...ed-Growth.html

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by marothisu

It's a sample survey - there's some tracts that were estimated at the 2010 ACS that were only off by a total of 5 total people in population. I'm not sure regarding stuff like this because a lot of the stuff ACS collects is not asked in the official census. I'd guess that it's fairly accurate. Maybe not to the exact number but that's why they have a margin of error always.

Yeah, I (sort of) trust the top line population number of ACS but I'm more skeptical of things like income where the sample sizes (on a tract level) have got to be very small... and in a neighborhood like LV, I imagine plenty of respondents are scared away from filling out government forms due to immigration status issues.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Yeah, I (sort of) trust the top line population number of ACS but I'm more skeptical of things like income where the sample sizes (on a tract level) have got to be very small... and in a neighborhood like LV, I imagine plenty of respondents are scared away from filling out government forms due to immigration status issues.

I believe three Census has a minimum sample size answered requirement to even show the data. I have seen census tracts in other cities not actually give data for various measures. I somehow don't think the Census is dumb enough to show data for a survey when only 5 of 600 people responded to their form.

If we are getting data for some tract in LV on income, it most likely means that the Census was confident enough to make an estimate because they got enough responses.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Is this data really reliable at the tract level outside of the decennial census?

I'm sure the trends are very reliable. The exact percentages are likely not very precise.

[Handro]

Engineers are the focus of this San Francisco firm's new Chicago outpost


https://www.chicagobusiness.com/john...hicago-outpost

Stripe joins several West Coast tech companies that are turning to Chicago for technical talent. Chicago has long been an outpost for sales and customer support but only recently have companies such as Google begun aggressively growing their technology ranks here.

...

"It’s a good market for talent," Collison says. "You don’t have to twist people’s arms particularly hard to get them to move to Chicago. When you open an office, you’re not necessarily just hiring from that city. There are a lot of people who’d be very excited to work for Stripe from Chicago, but maybe they have family here and wouldn’t necessarily want to move all the way to San Francisco or Seattle.”

That's been the city's mantra for several years, and was a key part of Chicago's pitch to Amazon during the HQ2 derby. Until now, there weren't many companies saying it. It will be interesting to see how many more join in.

[marothisu]

^ Nice. More and more will follow as some of you may have noticed. Especially as well respected companies start doing it that have a reputation for looking for good talent - such as Google. More and more companies will notice, and a lot of companies will just reference "Google, Facebook, Uber, Salesforce, etc are doing it so we should look into it." That's really how it starts..



Tastytrade Brings ‘Dough’ Brand Back to Life With $20M Investment

https://www.americaninno.com/chicago...0m-investment/

Tastytrade, the Chicago fintech company offering free, accessible content about trading and finance for active investors, has invested $20 million into a new company it’s building.

Dough, which is named after tastytrade’s previous front-end trading application that shut down in 2017, is being led by the former director of trading and operations at TD Ameritrade, Victor Jones. He said the new company, a wholly owned subsidiary of tastytrade, is an independent broker dealer where users can trade commission-free stock.

..

Being owned by tastytrade also gives Dough access to an established engineering team that can help build out the Dough platform, Jones said. Additionally, he expects Dough’s team of 11 to double within the next year.

--

LanzaTech Raises Another $72M to Turn Pollution into Fuel

Chicago-based LanzaTech has landed a large round of funding for its climate change-fighting solution that turns pollution into jet fuel and other reusable materials.

LanzaTech announced Tuesday that it has raised $72 million in a Series E round from Novo Holdings, a Danish investment firm that backs life science companies. The round brings LanzaTech’s total funding to more than $300 million since it was founded in 2005.

..

LanzaTech has twice landed on CNBC’s list of most disruptive companies, and was named to Fast Company’s annual list of most innovative companies.

Located just outside of Chicago in suburban Skokie, LanzaTech has grown its staff to more than 160 employees.

--

BuiltinChicago says they have about 20 employees, but still positive to double.

B2B Healthcare Software Startup TimeDoc Health Raises $2.5M

A Chicago startup that’s helping physicians better care for chronically-ill patients has raised a round of funding as it expands and improves its B2B software platform.

TimeDoc Health announced Wednesday that it raised $2.5 million in a funding round led by Grand Ventures, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based venture firm that invests in early-stage companies.

..

With the new financing, TimeDoc says it will expand its platform to service behavioral health needs and improve the software’s ability to monitor patients remotely. The startup also plans to double its staff within the next 12 months.

TimeDoc says its platform is being used by healthcare organizations in more than 30 states. The startup’s clients include Optimus Healthcare, AllCare Health and StayWell Health Care. Earlier this year, TimeDoc enrolled its 20,000th patient.

[the urban politician]

Central Loop becoming a startup magnet:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...here-you-think

[LouisVanDerWright]

Just rented my first apt to a West Loop techie type. A couple who both have sales positions with tech companies that we have seen posted here doubling their head count. The West loop boom has officially reached little village!

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Just rented my first apt to a West Loop techie type. A couple who both have sales positions with tech companies that we have seen posted here doubling their head count. The West loop boom has officially reached little village!

I'll be really interested to hear from you if this becomes a trend. As much as I love downtown and want everyone to live there, increase of price can be a very good thing for the growth of areas such as where you have your properties. Then again, people coming from more expensive places like NYC will see downtown as a great deal and might not venture out to where you are. One of my coworkers here in NYC made her first ever visit to Chicago last weekend and stayed with a friend who lives at NEMA. When I told her the prices of 1 bedroom units, her jaw hit the floor in amazement at how cheap it is relative to NYC. Then even more as I told her it's one of the more expensive rental buildings in the city. Apparently the amenities of that place are awesome - but then again her jaw hit the floor when I told her there are numerous other buildings downtown with golf simulators as part of the amenities. .. LOL

[the urban politician]

I’m wondering what the rent for a 1 bedroom in a new construction high rise in Midtown Manhattan with all of the bells and whistles (golf simulator, etc) would be? I’m too lazy to look it up, but $5000 wouldn’t surprise me

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

I’m wondering what the rent for a 1 bedroom in a new construction high rise in Midtown Manhattan with all of the bells and whistles (golf simulator, etc) would be? I’m too lazy to look it up, but $5000 wouldn’t surprise me

Having amenities such as Golf Simulator is pretty rare in Manhattan - I wouldn't be surprised if literally no building offers it anywhere around here including in Brooklyn, Queens, etc and even Jersey City for rentals especially. Maybe a few buildings but not much more. Simply put, the amenities of the downtown Chicago luxury high rises in the last 8-10 years are much better than what you're going to get in NYC on average.

To answer your question though, minimum of $4500/month and over $6000/mo if you want a space for a dining room or den. These don't even include anything like golf simulator, arcade rooms, etc. They come with a gym, doorman, and lounge. If they had what they have in Chicago, all these buildings would be minimum $5000/mo.

The closest you might come is something in FiDi like 19 Dutch. I have a friend of a friend who just moved there who pays about $4000/mo for a studio. This is in FiDi too which is cheaper than the other areas for the record. This guy has a good software development job too for Amazon (I think) and can still barely afford it while he literally took a second job for the sole reason of living in this building. So dumb.

https://www.19dutch.com/floorplans

Otherwise to give you a sense, from my landlord. Some of the more expensive ones have den/dining room space which is why they're more expensive. However they don't offer amenities like in Chicago:

https://tfc.com/new-york-luxury-no-f...-rentals/1-bed

[the urban politician]

Another good read by Ed Zotti with some interesting charts:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/columni...ity-crossroads

[Baronvonellis]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Another good read by Ed Zotti with some interesting charts:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/columni...ity-crossroads

Wow, that's really fascinating! Since 1970-2100 Chicago has lost 671k people yet the amount of jobs in the city is almost the same as it was when all the factories were still humming in the 70's. From what I've read in the media before it was always that Chicago has lost hundred's of thousands of jobs that will never come back. But that isn't the case, they have been replaced with better service jobs, and per capita more people are employed than back then.

I didn't know that Downtown has 100k more service jobs than it did in the boom years of the 90's and early 2000's. It looks like there's no sign of stopping the growth of service jobs downtown either! That is really amazing, since 2010 the downtown economy has been reinvented! I wonder how much of this is due to Rahm working to tirelessly bring companies downtown. He basically got the ball rolling, and now it's an avalanche of jobs!

Everyone criticized Rahm for focusing on downtown, but it's obvious from these charts where the economic engine of the region is, and where it's headed in the future.

[the urban politician]

Another WeWork lease:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...arket-location

[LouisVanDerWright]

Hot take:

WeWork is a VC pyramid scheme that will go belly up at the first signs of recession.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Hot take:

WeWork is a VC pyramid scheme that will go belly up at the first signs of recession.

I wouldn't say pyramid scheme, but they are scammy.. As of last year it owed $18B in back rent. The CEO was also doing some really shady stuff.

[Steely Dan]

Folks, we don't do any national politics in this thread.

As always, any post mentioning Trump, Hillary, or any other hyper divisive national political figure will be deleted.

There are 8 billion other places on the interwebs to yell at each other about that shit

[Tom In Chicago]

[MODERATOR CLEANUP] Moved all off-topic posts to the appropriate thread here:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...208431&page=80

. . .