CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

Where would you rather want to live work? Until Chicago defines and FUNDS some better transportation mode to LY AND just has a more livable environment...why would you go there?

Well - For starters, SB built a shiny new life sciences building ready to move in. It was designed exactly for companies like this. Also, as I said, these are the sorts of tenants SB probably wants filling out the life sciences component of Lincoln Yards. I'm not familiar with the occupancy of their first building, so maybe there isn't space in there right now and this company needs something sooner than later.

However, it's not like LY is in the middle of nowhere. I understand the West Loop is "more livable". Obviously compared to many other parts of the city, but SB has stated they want life sciences to be a significant component of LY, so I am just curious why they aren't trying to lure this company over there as an anchor to 1229 Concord, or some new building that could get built as the next phase of LY.

Trying not to make this a LY discussion, but I just thought it was interesting a life sciences company is expanding in the West Loop right after we got an update on where SB wants to take LY.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by twister244

Wouldn't it make more sense to migrate to Lincoln Yards? If Sterling Bay wants to replace the office space with more residential and life sciences, this seems like a perfect fit to help jump start one of the new buildings there?

Obviously, this is good news either way as it's economic growth in the city. Just curious why these guys are more focused on the West Loop when we have a mega development trying to target these types of groups.

They are a brand new operation, it doesn't make sense to "migrate" anywhere yet. Still in the very early days of their leases.

Both of these buildings are Trammell Crow. It's possible that they signed a lease for 1375 W Fulton and then got a package deal for more space at 400 N Aberdeen, and they are close enough that people can walk between the two.

Why didn't they look at Lincoln Yards initially? I dunno, but it's possible that SB's delivery date was not early enough.

[marothisu]

Sorry but how does anyone know that they didn't go to SB or SB didn't try?

[twister244]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Sorry but how does anyone know that they didn't go to SB or SB didn't try?

Per ardecila's reply, maybe they did, and SB couldn't deliver something in time for the growing needs. Doesn't mean the company can't go to LY in the future though if they can foster a good relationship with SB moving forward.

[Busy Bee]

Per Crain's....

Data center developer to buy Sears headquarters in Hoffman Estates

Brave new world.

[sixo1]

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois is opening a service center in Pilsen (+300 jobs). Source.

But, TTX is moving its HQ to Charlotte from Chicago (-150 jobs).

[jboy560]

Alight moving HQ downtown from Lincolnshire

They’re downsizing their office space, but nice to see more jobs moving downtown.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...n-lincolnshire

[sixo1]

I have been following news related to the old Motorola plant in Harvard, IL for quite sometime. Hopefully, this becomes a reality, and the place is put to use again. Source.

[VKChaz]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Per Crain's....

Data center developer to buy Sears headquarters in Hoffman Estates

Brave new world.

Seems like a waste if it is all demolished

The former Sears site includes seven office buildings and 120 acres of undeveloped land. Its assessed value was $50M as of 2021, down two-thirds over about a 10-year span.

Should the sale complete, Compass would likely raze the site to make way for warehouse-type structures capable of housing numerous servers, Crain's reported. The outlet noted such a project could represent billions of dollars in revenue, but far fewer jobs than its office predecessor.

https://www.bisnow.com/chicago/news/...-campus-119895

[galleyfox]

Originally Posted by bnk

120 acres of undeveloped land and they are going to demolish the buildings.
Not sure why its not some brown field in the city. Are not Data Centers best located to down town as you can get. SE Chicago is closer to DT Chicago and NYC then Hoffman Estates. Pico seconds count. What about using some of the old office buildings in DT for space rather than thinking of taking them down?

Because the area around O’Hare has its own industry cluster to serve the Northern and Western suburbs, and it’s already a very popular area for data centers? With a reliable power supply to get them hooked up?

Data centers are not some arcane technology only used by the government and financial corporations. Streaming movies and playing video games also rely on timely response from data centers, and the suburbs have their own separate demand.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by galleyfox

Data centers are not some arcane technology only used by the government and financial corporations. Streaming movies and playing video games also rely on timely response from data centers, and the suburbs have their own separate demand.

Yeah picoseconds matter for the traders on LaSalle St, but that's not the intended market for the Hoffman Estates project. Most of the usage these days is from consumer-level technology or cloud computing, etc which is less sensitive to latency than the financial industry.

Also, major telephone and fiber lines tend to co-locate with major roadways and rail corridors, and the Poplar Creek area is adjacent to several (I-90, EJ&E RR, Higgins Rd, etc).

[Chi-Sky21]

United also sold their property in mount prospect for data center space also not very far from this.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Yeah picoseconds matter for the traders on LaSalle St, but that's not the intended market for the Hoffman Estates project. Most of the usage these days is from consumer-level technology or cloud computing, etc which is less sensitive to latency than the financial industry.

Also, major telephone and fiber lines tend to co-locate with major roadways and rail corridors, and the Poplar Creek area is adjacent to several (I-90, EJ&E RR, Higgins Rd, etc).

Speaking of latency-sensitivity, a bunch of Chicago HFT firms hiding behind the "Coalition for Shortwave Modernization" recently filed an FCC petition (https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/1042840187330/1) to open up more of the HF (hah!) spectrum to them. I objected to this via comment on the grounds that they are asking for up to (checks notes) 20 kW into an antenna (so... with a high gain antenna, that can be close to a MW EIRP) into an already noisy HF spectrum that I want to use for radio astronomy and particle detection (yes... I have my own biases here).

Also they've pissed off hundreds of HAMS: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/sear...22rm-11953*%22))

The reason they would want such a loud link (they have experimental links at more reasonable 100 W EIRP right now) is presumably for reliability under many ionospheric conditions, so they can be sure to arbitrage between Lasalle St and Wall Street and probably European exchanges too...

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Yeah picoseconds matter for the traders on LaSalle St, but that's not the intended market for the Hoffman Estates project. Most of the usage these days is from consumer-level technology or cloud computing, etc which is less sensitive to latency than the financial industry.

Also, major telephone and fiber lines tend to co-locate with major roadways and rail corridors, and the Poplar Creek area is adjacent to several (I-90, EJ&E RR, Higgins Rd, etc).

All of the above, plus the Prairie Stone Business Park has its own substation, so the infrastructure for the new electrical load is already in place and probably needs little upgrading for the first phases of development.

[marothisu]

Chicago is now the #1 market for home price gain via Case-Shiller Index of 20 most major markets. More of a healthy percentage than the craziness of various areas (Tampa, Austin, etc) had a year or 2 ago.

[pip]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Chicago is now the #1 market for home price gain via Case-Shiller Index of 20 most major markets. More of a healthy percentage than the craziness of various areas (Tampa, Austin, etc) had a year or 2 ago.

Chicago area or just the city of Chicago?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by pip

Chicago area or just the city of Chicago?

C-S Index is for metro areas. No idea what the city is, but as we've talked about on here ....looking at what Crain's puts out is amateur hour. I can't even believe their editors allow it to be honest. All I know is that my condo has already increased over 5% in value from last spring based on a sale of the same unit in our building recently. I have a friend whose partner is a successful real estate agent with his own company/group and said property values in many parts of the city are DEFINITELY increasing.

[galleyfox]

Originally Posted by marothisu

C-S Index is for metro areas. No idea what the city is, but as we've talked about on here ....looking at what Crain's puts out is amateur hour. I can't even believe their editors allow it to be honest. All I know is that my condo has already increased over 5% in value from last spring based on a sale of the same unit in our building recently. I have a friend whose partner is a successful real estate agent with his own company/group and said property values in many parts of the city are DEFINITELY increasing.

I mean, Crain’s could use some basic common sense.

How could Chicagoland have robust price growth if most of the city, a mere third of the metro population, was having major price declines?

I first came to Chicago in the depths of the recession in 2009, and a lot of things are just humming right now economically in the city.

Here are some July 2023 rent growth figures from Apartmentlist.







Also for a super local update, a new cafe is opening by the Cheltenham/79th Metra station. I’ve been waiting for this area to pick up, and now there are the first signs.

[Coastal Elitist]

Originally Posted by marothisu

C-S Index is for metro areas. No idea what the city is, but as we've talked about on here ....looking at what Crain's puts out is amateur hour. I can't even believe their editors allow it to be honest. All I know is that my condo has already increased over 5% in value from last spring based on a sale of the same unit in our building recently. I have a friend whose partner is a successful real estate agent with his own company/group and said property values in many parts of the city are DEFINITELY increasing.

First time poster here. Just to back up what marothisu is saying, I graphed all of the S&P Case-Shiller Condo Price Indices (Chicago, Boston, NYC, LA, and SFO) using the St. Louis Federal Reserve's FRED website where the S&P data is updated monthly. I'm going to assume that the vast majority of condos are within the city limits in each market, so this is probably the best proxy we have for the housing market in each city proper.

Here are the results. The Y-axis is the percent change from a year before for each respective month. As you can see, Chicago is currently topping the "percent change from a year ago" statistic at 2.82%. Feel free to open up the link and play with the data yourselves.

Direct Link: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=17p18

[twister244]

Super interesting chart - Thanks for sharing!

This just reinforces my long-time view of Chicago real estate. We don't go through the rapid rises coastal cities endure, but that also means we don't crash as hard as they do too. I much prefer that over a Denver/SanFran situation where people are getting priced out at a rapid pace.