CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[left of center]

I remember hearing years back that MDW was Southwest's largest hub with a similar feeling of surprise, knowing that they were based in Dallas. Unlikely they will ever move though in the near future (as cool as it would be to have another airliner based in town). I'm pretty sure even the threat to move to Chicago over the Wright Amendment back in the day was more or less and empty threat, especially since leaving Texas would still not have solved the issue of flying across the country from Love Field, their primary base of operations in Texas (in addition to Hobby-Houston).

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by left of center

I remember hearing years back that MDW was Southwest's largest hub with a similar feeling of surprise, knowing that they were based in Dallas. Unlikely they will ever move though in the near future (as cool as it would be to have another airliner based in town). I'm pretty sure even the threat to move to Chicago over the Wright Amendment back in the day was more or less and empty threat, especially since leaving Texas would still not have solved the issue of flying across the country from Love Field, their primary base of operations in Texas (in addition to Hobby-Houston).

Southwest is quite the outlier in terms of overall airline hub and spoke systems, as I'm sure most of us already know around here. Yes, Dallas/Love Field, Houston Hobby and Chicago Midway are certainly their largest 'hubs', but they also have massive operations out of places as diverse as Las Vegas, Denver, Baltimore, Phoenix, Atlanta, Oakland, among a number of others. I'd guess that Southwest has the largest number of "super-regional hubs" if you will, because they really aren't necessarily traditional hubs at all, rather part of a network where the majority of their flights are less than 3 hours per segment.

Regardless, I do agree that there's no chance in hell they'd move their HQ to Chicago. Too Texas-centric, and they more or less control the legislature to boot.

Aaron (Glowrock)

[Justin_Chicago]

Lake Forest pharma complex attracts another HQ

A Newark, Calif.-based pharmaceutical company, Depomed, is relocating its headquarters to north suburban Lake Forest and bringing new jobs to the area.

The company announced today it has signed a lease for its new corporate headquarters in the Landmark Conway Farms complex in Lake Forest. The same complex houses Abbott Nutrition and Horizon Pharma. The new headquarters will accommodate about 70 employees, many of which will be new hires from the area, according to a statement.

Depomed anticipates to be officially operational in the new headquarters this summer. During the construction phase, the company will operate out of temporary space within the same building.

"The location, being in close proximity to a growing number of specialty pharmaceutical companies, will allow us to attract and retain the talent needed to take the company to the next level," said Arthur Higgins, the pharma company's president and CEO, in a release.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...pharma-complex

[the urban politician]

^ Yay and...

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...es-another-80m

Yay

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Yay and...

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...es-another-80m

Yay

Doubled headcount in just 18 months - +200 people. This round of funding may allow them to double again in that period of time. Very nice..

[Kngkyle]

Off to a good start....

Chicago hotel performance for the first two months of 2018 saw record growth in demand and occupancy. For the combined months of January and February hotel demand, representing the number of room nights sold, was up 12.5 percent. The record volume helped push an overall occupancy increase of 7.3 percent.

The number of people visiting Chicago for both business and leisure increased significantly in the first two months of 2018. Rooms sold associated with Group and Meetings business was up 32.8 percent in the first two months while Leisure visitor rooms consumed increased 5.9 percent - both record growth for the period.

January and February’s strong visitor numbers were driven in part by a series of major meetings and conventions hosted in the city. There were two major conventions meeting in Chicago for the very first time as well as three large meetings convening at McCormick Place this year that were not part of the meetings line up in 2017.

https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/e...smRecords.html

[Vlajos]

Wow, some solid growth in tourism and conventions. Hope it continues

[bnk]

I have to admit I'm surprised by a pretty much total blackout on news thus far, this being Amazon's been here for two days already. No news on sites visited, no wine and dining talk. No reports of helicopters. Rahm has cards tight to he chest on this one.

It's chilly out, 40 degrees, but there is not a cloud in the sky. Kind of fell in a good weather window.
Meanwhile it raining and 43 degrees in Seattle and the east coast has had 4 noreasters in just March of this year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_2018_nor%27easter



This is all we know so far



http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...322-story.html

By Lauren Zumbach, Ryan Ori and Kyle Bentle•Contact Reporters

March 22, 2018, 5:20 PM

Amazon’s site selection team scouted five of the 10 proposed Chicago-area development sites while in the city this week, sources said.



Those sites were:

• The Burnham Lakefront, Farpoint Development and Draper and Kramer’s planned redevelopment of the former Michael Reese Hospital site and other land just south of Interstate 55 and McCormick Place.

• The 78, Related Midwest’s 62-acre site along the Chicago River between the South Loop and Chinatown.

• Lincoln Yards, Sterling Bay’s more than 70-acre site on the river along Lincoln Park and Bucktown.

• The River District, 37 riverfront acres owned by Tribune Media between Chicago and Grand avenues.

• Land belonging to multiple owners in the Fulton Market district on the Near West Side.

[marothisu]

^ I'm really surprised that Old Post Office/Union Station wasn't part of the scouting tour, apparently. A few of these places though provide a completely blank slate for them though I am a bit weird on the transit access at a few of these sites, but that can be remedied I guess. Still surprised though because it sounds like they really want 500K sq ft of space right away with the option to expand nearby soon after. OPO area is great for that, though so is Fulton Market potentially. Imagine if they picked Chicago and it was Fulton Market. OOF..

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Imagine if they picked Chicago and it was Fulton Market. OOF..

If Fulton Market ever gets a massive tech HQ, it will literally become the Loop equivalent for the tech industry

[bnk]

I can't find it in the news but didn't Amazon visit Chicago months ago, or even late last year, unofficially. I swear I remember that but do not recall the places they visited.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by bnk

I can't find it in the news but didn't Amazon visit Chicago months ago, or even late last year, unofficially. I swear I remember that but do not recall the places they visited.

Probably? Amazon DOES have an office in the Loop which I believe announced of late that it would double headcount and the permit was issued a month or two ago. Also, Amazon employs thousands of people at fulfillment centers in the area.

[marothisu]

Okay..according to Crain's they did visit OPO.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Okay..according to Crain's they did visit OPO.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...-what-they-did

That's the article if anyone is interested. It doesn't relay too much info. Seems like both Rahm and Rauner are playing it cool. Interesting that these two seem to get along until a certain someone enters the picture...

[bnk]

Not sure why this has been released now? Rahm has always been non disclosure on this process.

• Video Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xNykwxI_p0

[Halsted & Villagio]

^ Could be a sign of good news... or even bad news... or (and this is the one that I think it is) he is getting out front on this thing in case other cities try to do the same thing. From here on out, Chicago will be the first to build on the Star Trek theme with its video presentation. Others will be mere copycats.

[marothisu]

I'm 99.99% sure there is a much longer video and this is just part of the intro or the trailer. It's not really telling anybody anything that isn't already out there in the open - essentially says nothing beyond that Chicago bid on Amazon (duh) and that it's been built by makers and doers (duh - if you know the history at least).

I'd be way more interested to see the full video but there's no chance of that happening anytime soon. This is neither good nor bad news IMO. It would be worse news if all of a sudden we heard city officials talking about the bid and visit in specifics. Until then, it's just Rahm trying to build a small amount of hype after getting the OK from Amazon to release 90 seconds of a larger video.

[Halsted & Villagio]

^ Makes sense. We are all guessing at this point but I like this explanation as good as any. Here's hoping it ultimately means good news

I do have a feeling that all parties involved would not have released this video if they did not feel good about the meetings that took place. It could be wishful thinking on my part, but you can almost sense that Rohm was downright giddy when this was released.

[the urban politician]

I have no idea what this company is but it’s making the West Loop it’s North American HQ:

https://www.digitalsignagetoday.com/...rs-in-chicago/

[the urban politician]

This company moved HQ to Chicago from Korea in 2015 and now announces an expansion of its R&D team:

https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...Chicago-Global