CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[Handro]

Originally Posted by sentinel

New Editor-In-Chief of Chicago-based AV Club has told editorial staff to relocate to LA or leave their jobs/get fired.

https://www.gawker.com/media/av-club...ose-their-jobs

Chicago cultural erasure continues..

The film industry here is rapidly growing—that says a lot more than a staff of seven being forced to relocate.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by Handro

The film industry here is rapidly growing—that says a lot more than a staff of seven being forced to relocate.

I feel like these small news and entertainment outlets come and go. Whether it’s print or website or YouTube channel. They have a handful of staff and the original founder will move on / get promoted / sell to another company and the outlet eventually dies out.

They can be replaced by another news and entertainment source

[galleyfox]

Deere details its Fulton Market tech plans
As the maker of tractors and construction equipment goes high-tech, Deere seeks deeper pools of talent—and looks to hire 300 tech workers in Chicago.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/john...orkers-chicago

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by galleyfox

Deere details its Fulton Market tech plans
As the maker of tractors and construction equipment goes high-tech, Deere seeks deeper pools of talent—and looks to hire 300 tech workers in Chicago.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/john...orkers-chicago

paywall. anyone have the text?

[Randomguy34]

Deere plans to hire up to 300 tech workers for its new office in Fulton Market.

Immediate plans call for the Moline-based maker of farm and construction equipment to hire 150 technology workers within two years, with a goal to double that amount in three to five years.
....
Deere chose Chicago over other U.S. hot spots including the Bay Area, New York, Atlanta and Austin, Texas, says Andrez Carberry, Deere’s global head of human resources. Chicago has the sixth-largest tech labor pool in the country, according to real estate brokerage firm CBRE.

“We started this process a little over two years ago,” Carberry says. “As we went through the process, taking into account a number of factors, including connectivity and proximity to our headquarters, Chicago just stood out. It’s got a great talent pool. It’s the big city in the Midwest. It provides the capabilities we need.”

If Deere meets its hiring goals, the company will receive $4.9 million in tax credits over 10 years, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity.
....
Deere will be hiring workers with skills in data and analytics, e-commerce, cybersecurity and cloud computing—areas where Chicago has deep pools of talent coming from tech companies, as well as aviation, insurance, health care and finance. It also will look to tap the pipeline of new talent coming out of Chicago’s universities and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as schools across the Midwest.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/john...orkers-chicago

[marothisu]

The statewide employment data from the BLS came out on Friday, which means some metropolitan divisions as well. The Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights metropolitan division is one of those. For November 2021, the number of employed persons in it was only 6000 fewer than March 2020 and about 51,000 fewer than November 2019. From its low (April 2020), there's 632,862 more employed persons.

[jboy560]

Originally Posted by marothisu

The statewide employment data from the BLS came out on Friday, which means some metropolitan divisions as well. The Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights metropolitan division is one of those. For November 2021, the number of employed persons in it was only 6000 fewer than March 2020 and about 51,000 fewer than November 2019. From its low (April 2020), there's 632,862 more employed persons.

That’s awesome news. Looking at the BLS data, the household survey data appears much rosier than the payroll survey data. Is this likely just a mismatch due to the weirdness of COVID? Looking at the household survey, Chicago looks to be doing really well, but if you look at the payroll survey, Chicago seems to be lagging significantly. Is one better than the other? Or is the truth somewhere in the middle?

[bnk]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...cago-expansion

Software firm signs Loop lease for big Chicago expansion



Publicly traded Braze subleased 50,000 square feet on State Street, a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy year for the downtown office market.


December 20, 2021 12:11 PM |

Danny Ecker  


A marketing software company that went public last month leased a big new office in the Loop as it plans to bulk up its headcount in Chicago.

Braze, whose platform is used by companies to help reach consumers, subleased about 50,000 square feet at 1 N. State St. from software maker Showpad, a Braze spokeswoman confirmed.



New York-based Braze is slated to move in early 2022 to the 10th floor of the 16-story building from a small co-working office at the Civic Opera building. The spokeswoman did not immediately provide specifics on hiring plans or Braze's current headcount in the city, but the size of the office could easily accommodate more than 200 employees. The headquarters is not moving to Chicago.


...

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by jboy560

That’s awesome news. Looking at the BLS data, the household survey data appears much rosier than the payroll survey data. Is this likely just a mismatch due to the weirdness of COVID? Looking at the household survey, Chicago looks to be doing really well, but if you look at the payroll survey, Chicago seems to be lagging significantly. Is one better than the other? Or is the truth somewhere in the middle?

I don't know enough to make a comment on that, to be honest. I think the truth is in the middle per some of my data in a prior post. Chicago and the area is doing better than cities/areas like NYC, LA, Boston, DC, SF, etc but it's not doing as well as cities in Texas (which some aren't as good as people believe), Florida (again, some aren't as good as people believe), and others like Seattle, Portland, etc.

[marothisu]

Amazon inked a new 67,000 sq ft lease at 222 W Adams St adjacent to their current office. It plans to add 450 new tech jobs there over the next "several" years. They have 250 job postings in Chicago currently.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...s-add-450-jobs

[jboy560]

I saw this article in Crains talking about the boom in condo sales. Thought it was a good reflection of the real estate market and general health of the city. Given that a number of cities show cooling interest lately (e.g. DC), this is welcome news!

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/resi...housing-market

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by jboy560

I saw this article in Crains talking about the boom in condo sales. Thought it was a good reflection of the real estate market and general health of the city. Given that a number of cities show cooling interest lately (e.g. DC), this is welcome news!

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/resi...housing-market

some text from the article..

In November, 2,338 homes sold in Chicago, up 15.9% from the same month a year ago. That’s saying a lot, because in November 2020, the pandemic-era housing market was on fire, and home sales at that time were up 20.8% percent from November 2019.

That is, November 2021 grew by double digits over a month that was already up by double digits. More homes sold during the month than in any other November in Illinois Realtors’ records, which go back to January 2008.

The median price of homes sold in Chicago in November was $327,000, up 10.8% from a year earlier. Here too, the increase is on top of a strong year-ago figure: The median in November 2020 was up 9.3%.

That was a time when downtown home sales were struggling under the weight of pandemic shutdowns and spasms of social unrest. In 2021 the condo market came roaring back, and it’s having a notable impact on citywide real estate figures.

Taken by itself, the city’s condo market was considerably stronger than its overall housing market. In November, 1,405 attached homes—meaning condos and townhouses—sold in the city, up 32.4% from the same time a year ago.

Year-to-date at the end of November, attached home sales were up 43.3%, compared to an increase of 29.2% for sales of all types of homes. This is according to separate data released Dec. 14 by the Chicago Association of Realtors.

..

Home sales in a nine-county metropolitan area totaled 10,321 in November, up 1.2 percent from a year earlier. This may seem slight, but consider that it’s on top of November 2020, when home sales were up more than 33% from November 2019, before the pandemic rocket-fueled the housing market.

Like the city figure, the metrowide sales figure is the largest number of homes sold in any November going back to at least 2008.

..

Nationwide, home sales fell by 2% in November from a year earlier, according to data released separately today by the National Association of Realtors. The median sale price of existing homes was up 13.9%.

[SIGSEGV]

I've also been noticing some downtown condos have been going for above list price, which was never happening last year (crazy how once you buy a place, you start paying attention to this sort of thing...). Of course it could just mean they were listed too low, but still!

[OhioGuy]

Tech economy comes up big despite Chicago’s trials
Sun-Times: "Venture capital rolled in during 2021, and startups and young companies added jobs as a result."
By David Roeder | @RoederDavid | Dec 27, 2021, 5:30am CST

In an overall nerve-wracking year for Chicago businesses — whether the trouble is pestilence, inflation, worker and supply shortages, or simply do-I-open-the-office-or-not — there’s been one unmistakably upbeat trend: The region is having a banner year in tech company formation.

It’s seen more than anywhere else in the continued vitality of Fulton Market, which benefits from having the “cool factor” as an office location and where developers continue to place heavy bets. It’s also starting to help the Loop, which almost qualifies as a bargain for those needing office space. The tech boom bodes well for job creation here in the years ahead.

Chicago closes 2021 having birthed 12 “unicorns,” the industry’s name for companies that reached a billion-dollar valuation based on the capital they’ve raised and the stakes awarded to the funders. The number comes from Pitchbook data tracked by World Business Chicago, the city’s economic development promoter, and is a record. In 2020, Chicago raised two new unicorns.

Behind that is the success Chicago startups have had in raising money, $7.9 billion in venture capital this year, a billion more than in 2020, World Business Chicago said. The group crows that Chicago now plays in the top-tier tech league of San Francisco, New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

Twin brothers Michael and Thomas Elnick founded Tegus in San Francisco but brought it to Chicago in its early days in 2018. Casey said Chicago has made all the difference. “It’s been an incredible accelerant to our business,” he said. “We’ve found unbelievable talent.”

Not to mention low turnover. Casey said tech workers on the coasts job-hop in search of stock-option riches. In Chicago, there’s more commitment to building something. “We needed to be where we could build an organization with the values and culture we wanted,” he said.

Tech companies that have left the coasts for Chicago, and there are several, also find lower costs. Illinois’ flat-rate income tax benefits most tech employees, especially compared with New York and California, and office rents here are about half the rate in San Francisco, Casey said. Despite higher property taxes, the cost of living here is lower than in other tech hubs.

Those are facts for Chicago-bashers to get their heads around.

Casey’s enthusiasm for the toddlin’ town is so great the civic boosters should bottle it.

[jboy560]

Good news: The Chicago Business Barometer (PMI) rose to 63.1 in December from 61.8 in November. Anything above 50 is growth and above 60 is considered exceptional. The Chicago-area economy shows no signs of slowing down.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ch...onomy-politics

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by jboy560

Good news: The Chicago Business Barometer (PMI) rose to 63.1 in December from 61.8 in November. Anything above 50 is growth and above 60 is considered exceptional. The Chicago-area economy shows no signs of slowing down.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ch...onomy-politics

The Chicago metro area gained nearly 75,000 employed persons from October to November, and has 300,000 more employed persons than last November. Compared to February 2020, Chicago MSA in November has a little less than 1% fewer employed persons. This is much better than NYC, LA, DC, Boston, SF, Seattle, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, etc areas. Actually it's better than both Houston and Miami too. Miami is still under their Feb 2020 employed persons count (be skeptical of the hype...the major employment growth areas compared to Feb 2020 in Florida is Jacksonville and Tampa). Most metro areas are actually below their Feb 2020 numbers still. The areas leading the charge by percent increase are Austin, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Tampa, etc. Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Columbus, and Kansas City all had small increases too.

If Chicago area gained another 75K employed persons for December then it'll be above its Feb 2020 number.

So not as good as those cities I mentioned but compared to its peer or semi peer cities its actually doing much better than all of them except for basically Dallas, Phoenix, and San Antonio. If you only consider peer cities as NYC, LA, and Houston then Chicago is actually doing better than those 4 as far as getting back to Feb 2020 employed person numbers.

[tjp]

I was on Michigan Avenue yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and the foot traffic looked to be almost at 2019 levels. Very encouraging to see. The loss of some major retailers is definitely concerning, but I think 10x more people go into that Starbucks Roastery everyday than ever went into that POS Macy's

[galleyfox]

Originally Posted by tjp

I was on Michigan Avenue yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and the foot traffic looked to be almost at 2019 levels. Very encouraging to see. The loss of some major retailers is definitely concerning, but I think 10x more people go into that Starbucks Roastery everyday than ever went into that POS Macy's

The numbers are being tracked in the Loop at least. The November report is not too bad, and December should be better. My impressions are that evening and weekend local and regional traffic must be close to normal. Weekday mornings are still unusually quiet because WFH and hybrid are dragging down the overall commute numbers.

There’s a lag at hotels and supporting venues because conventions and business travel still haven’t recovered, but it isn’t apocalyptic.

https://loopchicago.com/assets/Novem...he-Numbers.pdf


Even for casual visitors, the Loop is registering as relatively normal compared to other downtowns that seem to be really struggling.

On Wednesday, a couple of friends and I went out for a bite to eat in downtown San Francisco. (I think it was near Chinatown, but my friend was leading me on a zigzagging walking tour and I might be off by a neighborhood.) It was a beautiful evening in an ostensibly bustling city. Yet as we walked around, the streets were sparsely peopled and cars passed sporadically. Jaywalking was a snap. At the restaurant, we were one of just three occupied tables. After a slice of cheesecake by famed, 88-year-old Sam Zanze, we stepped out into the night to discover a largely deserted city.

This seems typical in America in the autumn of 2021. In the past month, I’ve spent time in downtowns throughout the country, and they seem to range from sort-of normal (Chicago) to eerily post-apocalyptic (Minneapolis).

https://www.beervanablog.com/beervan...mpty-Downtowns

[tjp]

^ Interesting - thanks for sharing that study from the Loop Alliance. It basically aligns with what I've experienced. I'm typically downtown twice during the week and sporadically on the weekend - I'd say the workday is at like 30-40% of pre-COVID levels, weeknights are maybe at 60% (I suppose due to loss of business dinners, happy hours, etc.) and that weekends are around 75%.

[SIGSEGV]

I live in the loop and it's definitely felt more crowded in December, likely a result of Christkindlmarkt and the Christmas Tree. I've only lived in the loop for a bit over a year though, so I can't compare to 2019 levels very well.