CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

KG fled chicago because he tried to purchase the governor's office, and then his preferred candidate came in last place in the Republican primary (thanks to a whole bunch of Prtitzker meddling).

Realizing that his vast sums of money were never going to buy him the political clout that he craved, he left, of course saving face by throwing the city and state under the bus.

Even better - Then Ken can go 🞵🞵🞵🞵 right off. It's a dumb reason to pick up and leave town just because you didn't get the candidate into office you wanted. It's a short-sighted strategy that seems immature and naive.

If he was smart, he would figure out ways to extract things from governors, regardless of what political party they are a member of.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by twister244

Random pilot? This is a project with upwards of $1 billion in investments from both public and private sources. IBM, and other major players have indicated their own investments in to the initiative.

This isn't a "random pilot".

*sigh* you're misreading my comment

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by twister244

Even better - Then Ken can go 🞵🞵🞵🞵 right off. It's a dumb reason to pick up and leave town just because you didn't get the candidate into office you wanted. It's a short-sighted strategy that seems immature and naive.

If he was smart, he would figure out ways to extract things from governors, regardless of what political party they are a member of.

Well, at least we got a 4-lane lakefront trail out of Kenny boy before he left town.

[left of center]

Was NYSE Chicago all that big of a employer overall? As the Chicago Stock Exchange (before Intercontinental Exchange bought it and rebranded it in 2018), it had a pretty low trading volume. The CBOT/CME and CBOE are *vastly* larger players with global significance and matter much more to this city's financial industry.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by left of center

Was NYSE Chicago all that big of a employer overall? As the Chicago Stock Exchange (before Intercontinental Exchange bought it and rebranded it in 2018), it had a pretty low trading volume. The CBOT/CME and CBOE are *vastly* larger players with global significance and matter much more to this city's financial industry.

All the financial bigwigs care about is deregulation, and where else to find that than in the financial Wild West of Texas/Dallas. Not surprising, until the economy tanks, bank assets liquidate or they go under because of a recession or worse.
Doesn’t this affect NYC more?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w...BAgQEAE&usg=AOvVaw3mIO-Ur146YxkjuGXdxzO2

NYSE Chicago to reincorporate in Texas

Not good. This city is falling as a financial hub and Texas is rising. I think last year or 2023, Dallas surpassed Chicago in financial workers

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w...ECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2XZxYMf38zK9lZ7jIsl7OP

I work in the general field in Chicago. I didn't even know there was an NYSE Chicago office or whatever, if that tells you anything.

There's a bunch of important things centered in Chicago that most people wouldn't have a clue about. Chicago has tons of workers but people should realize even more now, in 2025, that numbers of workers doesn't translate to "importance" in terms of overall landscape.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

True. But we can't sit here and act like these constant articles about companies fleeing Chicago isn't damaging to Chicago's already bruised PR. I would argue that this specific piece of news is independently not that big of a deal, but the continued signaling that Texas is full court press on financial firms is very concerning.

What was the last big organization that made headlines for moving to the city?

Well then, why don't you do something about it?

[left of center]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

What was the last big organization that made headlines for moving to the city?

The last time I recall large firms moving to the city was mostly during Rahm's two terms (Google taking over the Thompson Center is a notable outlier, but they have had a large presence in the city for some time now). Lightfoot was not all that great at selling the city to corporate America, although certainly better than Johnson, who at best is inept at engaging corporate interests, and at worst straight up hostile to business in general.

Until we have a change of administration at city hall, I don't expect much of anything to change in that regard unfortunately.

Originally Posted by Garynewman

There's nothing one person can do. Voters in this city need to actually elect competent leadership, not economically illiterate stooges like Johnson. I voted for Vallas, he had the business/development community behind him.

We did not have this problem with Rahm. Companies were moving in enmass. And now the opposite is occurring. Investment, jobs, and capital are fleeing Chicago, that is a fact. I mean this is a development forum, we all witnessed the massive slowdown in development news lately.

And no, it's not a national issue. I keep up with development in other cities and those cities are BOOMING like its prepandemic. We can blame interest rates, but then why aren't other cities being effected then? They're still managing to build. This is a CHICAGO problem. Nothing about the current political and economic environment in this city is attractive to investors. And of course Trump being in office again doesn't help.

With all that said, I do wish for a turnaround. Maybe in 2027 with the next mayoral election we do better.

There's a lot of macro economics at play for why development is currently ebbing in Chicago, not simply just the mayor's office alone. But you are right that the uncertainty and lack of outreach from Johnson, whether it be purposely or simply lack of experience and knowhow, is certainly having a chilling effect when it comes to both corporate and real estate investment in the city. That said, remember that there are plenty of cities that are not necessarily booming right now. Development in all cities follows different cycles that are specific to their local economies. Not every city is Miami and NYC when it comes to skyscrapers going up.

[marothisu]

I did a small amount of digging and "NYSE Chicago" is/was the Chicago Stock Exchange. Extremely small time player - akin to the defunct Pacific Stock Exchange in California that went away around 20 years ago. There's about 80 employees there impacted, so this is not a huge thing at all like if the CME or CBOT/CBOE moved.

It was pretty much a proxy exchange for others at this point, and volume was pretty low at only 10 or so million a day volume. By comparison, NYSE is over 1B volume a day.

Obviously not good to lose this, but I think a few people are blowing this way out of proportion. I work in tech in the finance/banking industry and my company hired somewhere between 1000 and 2000 workers, almost all exclusively 6 figure income each, since 2021 in Chicago alone. It's not even in the news. There's a lot of things that never make it to the news, FYI.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

Well they're doing the city a major disservice then if they're not publicizing that (from a PR perspective). Cause all I see and read is of companies fleeing this area. Last major company I heard of moving to Chicago was Kellanova and that was in 2022.

I'm all for companies moving here HQ wise but these are typically small offices and there's a lot larger measure of success than moving through HQ and a dozen C Suite execs, which is usually what it is.

There have been many companies to move and expand here, and continue to do so. The issue is either it doesn't get publicized at all or much. Or people do not truly understand the scope or how these things add up.

I have worked with Crains before, and I know how they operate. They basically don't know 🞵🞵🞵🞵 unless someone tells them or someone else figures it out and then they latch onto it.

In terms of my company, we are a multi national corporation. It does piss me off that we never publicized it because it would be major national news. We expanded so much and due to who we are, we don't need marketing for it. With that being said, there is something in the news about us and it can be implied about our growth with that news. I

Also, there are always people coming and going here with money and their jobs. I know of multiple decently high up execs in my company who moved here from out of state with our expansion and some are definitely making over $1M/yr. I know of multiple execs who have moved here from the coasts for Google and I know of a CIO of a publicly traded tech company who moved from the Bay to Chicago last year. Many other such cases. I have personally moved a handful of people from the coasts to Chicago, fornthe job, all making $150K+ in the last few years. My wife and I moved to Chicago from NYC (I used to live here) because of an expansion and let's say we make enough to have bought a $1M condo here while sending our kid to a preschool that costs as much as a luxury apartment downtown. And my wife and I have met multiple people at our kid's school who moved here in the last few years from LA, NYC, DC, and Boston who are expanding their company or just relocated here for whatever reason.

I will tell you 1 more tidbit until I dig up some actual articles. This comes from a friend of mine who is high up at Amazon. They have expanded here quietly because of their RTO mandate. A bunch of remote workers for them who were all around the midwest were told to move to Chicago or find new jobs. I actually interviewed one of them who had moved here from Michigan because of it. Again not in the news but they've been building out multiple floors quietly in The Loop to accommodate this.

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

Well they're doing the city a major disservice then if they're not publicizing that (from a PR perspective). Cause all I see and read is of companies fleeing this area. Last major company I heard of moving to Chicago was Kellanova and that was in 2022.

I put this more on city leadership... It's not the company's job to promote the city. If city leadership had actual relationships with business like Rahm did then perhaps we would see more announcements of things like this. Instead our Mayor shuns the business community so what incentive do they have to give him some PR he can latch onto and claim credit for?

[twister244]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I'm all for companies moving here HQ wise but these are typically small offices and there's a lot larger measure of success than moving through HQ and a dozen C Suite execs, which is usually what it is.

There have been many companies to move and expand here, and continue to do so. The issue is either it doesn't get publicized at all or much. Or people do not truly understand the scope or how these things add up.

I have worked with Crains before, and I know how they operate. They basically don't know 🞵🞵🞵🞵 unless someone tells them or someone else figures it out and then they latch onto it.

In terms of my company, we are a multi national corporation. It does piss me off that we never publicized it because it would be major national news. We expanded so much and due to who we are, we don't need marketing for it. With that being said, there is something in the news about us and it can be implied about our growth with that news. I

Also, there are always people coming and going here with money and their jobs. I know of multiple decently high up execs in my company who moved here from out of state with our expansion and some are definitely making over $1M/yr. I know of multiple execs who have moved here from the coasts for Google and I know of a CIO of a publicly traded tech company who moved from the Bay to Chicago last year. Many other such cases. I have personally moved a handful of people from the coasts to Chicago, fornthe job, all making $150K+ in the last few years. My wife and I moved to Chicago from NYC (I used to live here) because of an expansion and let's say we make enough to have bought a $1M condo here while sending our kid to a preschool that costs as much as a luxury apartment downtown. And my wife and I have met multiple people at our kid's school who moved here in the last few years from LA, NYC, DC, and Boston who are expanding their company or just relocated here for whatever reason.

I will tell you 1 more tidbit until I dig up some actual articles. This comes from a friend of mine who is high up at Amazon. They have expanded here quietly because of their RTO mandate. A bunch of remote workers for them who were all around the midwest were told to move to Chicago or find new jobs. I actually interviewed one of them who had moved here from Michigan because of it. Again not in the news but they've been building out multiple floors quietly in The Loop to accommodate this.

This is great to hear - Thanks for sharing.

Indeed, I feel like what we hear in the press versus what's actually happening on the ground always feels disconnected. Anecdotally from my neighborhood in Logan Square, I continue to see multiple new housing developments taking place, even in this environment.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

I put this more on city leadership... It's not the company's job to promote the city. If city leadership had actual relationships with business like Rahm did then perhaps we would see more announcements of things like this. Instead our Mayor shuns the business community so what incentive do they have to give him some PR he can latch onto and claim credit for?

If the company doesn't want to publicize it then the government won't, unless they want to get their asses sued. For the record for my company, we worked closely with both Lightfoot and Johnson. They're well aware of our expansion but I'm pretty sure that it was us saying to not publicize it (yet).

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by twister244

This is great to hear - Thanks for sharing.

Indeed, I feel like what we hear in the press versus what's actually happening on the ground always feels disconnected. Anecdotally from my neighborhood in Logan Square, I continue to see multiple new housing developments taking place, even in this environment.

There is always a disconnect. I know of other companies that expanded a bit and you just won't find it on the news. It 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 because people rely on news to stay informed but theres just a lot going on behind the scenes. Like nobody is going to make news about the CIO of a multi billion dollar tech company moving to Chicago from the Bay. Or like literally why I moved back to Chicago - i had to hire 10 people because some of my tech moved from the Bay Area to Chicago. And due to reasons, it was a net new 10 hires. There's another org I work with in Chicago who just got approved for like 200+ new hires. I don't think all will be in Chicago but even if 50 are, that may make the news for some smaller companies but it's just BAU non newsworthy for us.

[marothisu]

For the record, here are the things that I guess are missed around here nowadays.

This is a company that went from 21 employees to 188 in the matter of 2 years in Chicago, and the lease implies they will hire multiple hundred more most likely. They started to hire a few people in Chicago in 2021 or so. I know someone who went there - just a few years out of school and they were paying him almost $200K.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commerci...irm-adyen-opens-big-fulton-market-office

From November:
Dutch fintech company opening big Fulton Market office

Adyen formally announced its lease Nov. 22 for 96,715 square feet at 333 N. Green St. The company will initially occupy 55,983 square feet on the sixth and seventh floors, "with plans to later expand into an additional 40,732 square feet."

Adyen also said in a statement that the company had 188 employees in Chicago as of June and "plans to continue to invest and grow the team in Chicago in the coming years."

..

Adyen announced last year that its Chicago office had grown from 21 employees in mid-2022 to 96 employees a year later.

For fun, I looked up some salaries at NYSE Chicago on Levels. My company and even the one above here pay just as much if not more. Again, 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 to lose it but these are the things people apparently miss around here.

[ebitdadada]

One rather important piece of good news and one piece that's great if it keeps up / isn't an outlier. All may not be lost in our humble metropolis.

Thing 1
American Airlines makes a big move at O'Hare
By John Pletz
Crains Chicago
February 20, 2025 06:01 AM updated 6 hours ago

American Airlines isn’t giving up on O’Hare International Airport.

The Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier says it will operate 22% more flights with 25% more seats from O’Hare this summer than last year. It will have 480 peak daily departures, the most since 2019, when the airline had 540 flights....

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airlines-airports/american-airlines-makes-

Later in the article it clarifies that, given they'll be flying larger planes, the number of American seats will equal 2019. There was another article earlier this month about United (their volume surpassed pre-pandemic levels at O'hare a while ago) looking to grow this year / generally being bullish on O'hare.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airlines-airports/united-airlines-looks-add-six-gates-ohare-airport

Thing 2
Big increase in local homebuilding could help plug inventory gap
Crains Chicago
By Dennis Rodkin
February 10, 2025 11:51 AM

Homebuilding firms in late 2024 started the largest number of new-home communities in the Chicago area in more than a decade, which could soon help ease the tight inventory that has plagued the housing market. In the fourth quarter of 2024, builders launched 40 new communities in the region, according to a new report from Tracy Cross & Associates, a housing industry consultancy based in Schaumburg. The typical amount in recent years has been 10 to 15 new communities....

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/resident...o-area-homebuilding-could-help-inventory

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

https://archive.ph/BjX8i

50 new jobs on the way...nothing major but good to see nonetheless

The major part about this is that it's going to be a new public company in Chicago that is Fortune 500 sized (same revenue as Molson Coors), and the 50 jobs increase is to support the break away from their company at an HQ type of level. Some of these may be high paying jobs apart from those who are already in Chicago.

I'm not sure if I'd call it "nothing major" - it's great news. Also the 50-100 range is about equivalent with a lot of the real movement when companies move HQ in the last decade.

[Kenmore]

anecdotal but seeing TX plates everywhere these days

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Kenmore

anecdotal but seeing TX plates everywhere these days

You know, even before I saw your post, I had been thinking about the same thing as early as last week. I have seen a LOT of Tx plates, recently. I also have 2 colleagues (unrelated) that recently moved to Chicago. One from Dallas and one from San Antonio. The former is gay and moved up with her girlfriend because they didn’t feel safe on TX any longer (her words).

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by sentinel

You know, even before I saw your post, I had been thinking about the same thing as early as last week. I have seen a LOT of Tx plates, recently. I also have 2 colleagues (unrelated) that recently moved to Chicago. One from Dallas and one from San Antonio. The former is gay and moved up with her girlfriend because they didn’t feel safe on TX any longer (her words).

Yep. In Lincoln Park and Lakeview we see a lot of plates not only from Texas but also a lot from New Jersey, New York, California, etc and ample amount from Massachusetts, Florida, Virginia, Washington, Tennessee, Colorado, etc. Seeing some from Oregon, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi too. Even some from smaller states like Delaware, New Mexico, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and even Alaska.

Some may be rentals but most aren't. I can see the actual residential tags on them from those states and often times customized plate frames or dealer frames (i.e. a New York plate with a New York dealer frame on it).

I know of multiple people from southern states or ones like Ohio who recently moved to Chicago for political reasons. One of them is a director I work with who recently moved here and needless to say is making at least $500K/yr by himself.