CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[SIGSEGV]

Suburban office campuses were a huge mistake so it's good that they're moving downtown no matter what.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

We want a vibrant downtown, but that doesn't mean we want everywhere else to be declining, or viewed as unlivable.

Another way to put it is, when we view a corporate relocation we often focus on the attributes of where the company is moving to. But lets not forget that with the same movement said company is moving from, and hence rejecting, another community.

Ok, but let's also not forget that the only reason a lot of these communities exist in the first place is that some bigwig got the bright idea to bail on downtown so he could have a shorter drive from his Lake Forest villa to work. Many of the communities you are lamenting only exist because of the flight of corporates from the city to begin with.

I'm watching this hilarious TV show right now called "The Marvelous Ms Maisel" about a 50's housewife whose husband cheats on her and then she ends up falling into the world of standup comedy in a time when the industry was just starting and women were nowhere to be seen.

There is a scene where she had just gotten back together with her husband and slept with him again. A few days later his mistress shows up at the wife's job at a department store to chew her out. The mistress is like "how dare you sleep with your husband, that's just cruel!"

That's basically what you are saying here. "How Dare McDonald's leave it's mistress Oakbrook for it's wife Chicago! That's just cruel!"

None of this is to say that people can't or shouldn't live or work in the suburbs if they so choose, but it is to say that competition giveth and competition taketh away. If suburban locations are less beneficial than they were purported to be, then no one has the right to demand they stay put to subsidize what was ultimately a matter of:

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Suburban office campuses were a huge mistake so it's good that they're moving downtown no matter what.

This, building job nodes in far flung places was never a good idea. No one can complain when a bad idea fails due to it's own insufficiency.

[the urban politician]

^ I'm not advocating for suburban campuses--at all. I'm cheering downtown's resurgence as the center of all greatness for the region.

All I"m pointing out is that we need more success stories in the Chicago region, not fewer.

Dallas and Houston, Atlanta, etc etc are growing everywhere and pumping at all cyclinders. We seem to be pumping pretty much with only one (central area of Chicago), and that's one HUGE cylinder, don't get me wrong.

At the end of the day I would hope that at least some of these suburban campuses survive to play some role to provide employment for residents in their respective towns, and hence keep people from fleeing the region. I wouldn't want them all to decay into blight.

The Bay Area proves that you can still have an internationally recognized, urban city that pumps way above its weight (SF), while still having a huge source of jobs outside that core (Silicon Valley). We don't want to stomp out any opportunities in our region. The next Uber or Google could very will start out, at least, in some office park in Downers Grove, for all we know.

[Leveled]

The sunbelt will pay for its sprawl.

[galleyfox]

San Francisco and Houston and other such cities have never faced deindustrialization and economic collapse like the Midwest has dealt with. The only way to keep off decline is to ensure the health of the core, and that means consolidation. The suburbs just are not productive enough by themselves to fuel any new growth or recovery. They will decline with or without their current campuses.

It's like the death of a star. After the initial fuel runs out, it can either fade away into nothing, a mere white dwarf. Or we can consolidate into something so dense that nothing can escape our gravity.

And frankly, I want Chicago to be at the center of the economic universe so if it's a zero-sum game between Chicago and the suburbs, Chicago's gotta win out until it has enough gravity to attract investment from the outside.

[the urban politician]

^ Love the Astrophysics analogy

[moorhosj]

Originally Posted by galleyfox

San Francisco and Houston and other such cities have never faced deindustrialization and economic collapse like the Midwest has dealt with. The only way to keep off decline is to ensure the health of the core, and that means consolidation. The suburbs just are not productive enough by themselves to fuel any new growth or recovery. They will decline with or without their current campuses.

It's like the death of a star. After the initial fuel runs out, it can either fade away into nothing, a mere white dwarf. Or we can consolidate into something so dense that nothing can escape our gravity.

And frankly, I want Chicago to be at the center of the economic universe so if it's a zero-sum game between Chicago and the suburbs, Chicago's gotta win out until it has enough gravity to attract investment from the outside.

I had the same thought recently and decided to pull some data from the 5-year ACS Census to compare different types of cities (rust belt, coastal, sun belt). I was surprised at how different these cities are from eachother. Chicago seems most like Atlanta and Philadelphia. It is sorted by median income and you can see the cities go from Rust Belt to Sun Belt to Coastal as incomes increase.

[Steely Dan]

with the mondolez move downtown, i believe that puts 13 F500 HQ's in downtown vs. 22 out in the burbs.

we still have a ways to go to centralize corporate chicago.

[the urban politician]

The suburban office market is actually not doing too badly:

https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2019...n-2018-report/

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

The suburban office market is actually not doing too badly:

https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2019...n-2018-report/

Well, at least the O'Hare region (which is doing the best, apparently) is kind of in the city. I wouldn't be surprised to see the area around Cumberland/Rosemont growing as a compromise between city and suburbs.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Love the Astrophysics analogy

Unlike stars, we are not limited by the tyranny of nuclear binding energies

[the urban politician]

Common Spirit Health will be the name of the combined hospital system that will shortly be based in Chicago. Office will be in the West Loop.

This is a non-for-profit Catholic “ministry” ( ), but if it were a publicly traded company it would definitely be in the Fortune 500. A good gain for Chicago

https://www.advancinghealthcaretogether.org/

[Randomguy34]

^ I can imagine the new HQ being a good bridge between West Loop and the IMD. Do we know the address of their building?

[pullmanman]

Trunk Club to add about 175 jobs
Brianna Kelly
Crain's Chicago Business
1/15/2019

Trunk Club is adding about 175 full-time jobs to the company’s customer service and styling teams, including about 120 new positions in Chicago, where the company is based.

Trunk Club is a personal styling service offering online and in-person shopping options. The company was founded in Chicago’s River North neighborhood in 2009 and purchased by Nordstrom for $350 million in August 2014.

A Trunk Club spokeswoman said in an email that "we feel very confident in our growth trajectory.

It currently has more than 520 employees in Chicago apart from the approximately 120 it plans to add this year, compared to about 460 at the end of 2016, around the time former CEO Brian Spaly left the company.

The more jobs downtown (River North, technically) the better. Even if these are mostly low- to mid-level service jobs, I think they're a much needed replacement for some of the jobs lost at dying department stores.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

The suburban office market is actually not doing too badly:

https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2019...n-2018-report/

20% vacancy in the longest post war economic expansion in the history of the greatest economy in human history is not "not doing too badly", just for reference high cube warehouse space in Chicago is clocking in at 4-5% vacancy despite a wave of speculative construction. That 20% number is DESPITE the demolition of 750,000 SF or so of suburban office space and includes O'Hare which is really a hybrid market and is doing far better than the other far flung markets. Schaumburg is still at 25%+, that's downright miserable.

The vacancy rates went up in the burbs in the recession and haven't looked back since.

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Common Spirit Health will be the name of the combined hospital system that will shortly be based in Chicago. Office will be in the West Loop.

This is a non-for-profit Catholic “ministry” ( ), but if it were a publicly traded company it would definitely be in the Fortune 500. A good gain for Chicago

https://www.advancinghealthcaretogether.org/

Man the West Loop is definitely not a good office market, all these companies are making terrible decisions, am I right Sam?

[the urban politician]

^ Where did anyone say that the suburban office market is thriving? You’re comparing office space to warehouse space? I mean, the downtown area’s office vacancy alone is often in the low teens, so 20% in that context isn’t too bad.

All that article said is that it’s not in a state of total collapse. It’s treading water despite a lot of HQ decamping for downtown, and has actually still had steady absorption.

[galleyfox]

Go to their website where they explain the full details. Two organizations based in San Francisco and Denver merged, but they operate in 28 states.

Their rationale for Chicago is the following (though Chicago's growing healthcare industry and large Catholic population surely played a role.)

"The combined organization will establish its corporate headquarters in Chicago, a new location for a new organization. This decision was made because Chicago is centrally located, has convenient access to all parts of the country where our ministries are located, and offers good infrastructure to support a national organization."

[galleyfox]

"Catholic Health Initiatives, a nonprofit, faith-based health system formed in 1996 through the consolidation of four Catholic health systems, expresses its mission each day by creating and nurturing healthy communities. As one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems, Englewood, Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives operates in 18 states with 101 hospitals, including two academic health centers and major teaching hospitals as well as 30 critical-access facilities; community health services organizations; nursing colleges; home health agencies; senior living communities; and other facilities and services. In fiscal year (FY) 2017, Catholic Health Initiatives provided $2.1 billion in charity care, community benefit, and unpaid cost of government programs."

"Dignity Health, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health care systems, is a 22-state network of more than 9,000 physicians and other advanced practice clinicians, and 63,000 employees. The faith-based organization was formed in 1986 when two congregations of the Sisters of Mercy joined their ten hospitals together to form Catholic Healthcare West. Six congregations of women religious now sponsor the organization under the name Dignity Health, which now includes over 400 care centers, including hospitals, urgent and occupational care, imaging centers, and primary care clinics. Headquartered in San Francisco, Dignity Health’s mission is to emphasize providing compassionate, high-quality, and affordable patient-centered care with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable, in partnership with the communities it serves. In fiscal year (FY17), Dignity Health provided $2.6 billion in charity care, community benefit, and unpaid cost of government programs."

[the urban politician]

They have an internal memo posted online that addresses our questions:

Questions & Answers about CommonSpirit HealthTM Headquarters Location For Internal Purposes Only |

November 19, 2018


1. Where in Chicago will our new national headquarters be?
We signed a multi-year lease for space in the River Point office building, located at 444 West Lake Street in the West Loop area of Chicago. This office location is adjacent to the Chicago River and near the city’s extensive network of public transportation.
2. Who will be relocating to our new national headquarters and when?
There are no plans to relocate national staff to Chicago at this time, so nearly all employees will continue to work from their current locations. Some administrative staff will be hired locally, as this office will host governance and leadership meetings, including the Board of Stewardship Trustees, Executive Leadership Team, Senior Leadership, and national meetings. The Office of the CEOs will also be located in this new space. Once the new Executive Leadership Team is formed, we will determine how to best use the leased space as well as the future use of current national offices
3. How does this space meet our needs?
The River Point space is ideally suited for us in a number of ways.
• We’re taking over a lease from a company that recently relocated its headquarters.
Because of that, the space is fully furnished and meets our technology needs
without costly upgrades.
• The lease we negotiated will cost less per square foot than we had planned to pay.
• Should the day come when we do require more space, we are confident the River
Point building will meet our needs.
4. How many total staff will be located there?
We don’t know yet. Once the new Executive Leadership Team is formed, we will determine how to best use the leased space as well as the future use of current national offices.
-continued-
5. When will we have a plan for which functional areas and staff will be located in Chicago? How will that be decided and when do we expect to begin making those announcements?
Once the new Executive Leadership Team comes together, we will determine how to best use the leased space as well as the future use of current national offices. Until then, all current employees will continue to work from their current locations.
6. Will we maintain our Denver, San Francisco and other corporate office locations in addition to establishing a new headquarters in Chicago?
The new ministry will have a national headquarters and office structure designed to support our ongoing operational needs effectively. All existing national (CHI) and system (Dignity Health) offices will remain open for the foreseeable future. We will develop a plan to address the long-term future for all existing office locations and support services for the new ministry. As these decisions are reached, we will inform employees of any proposed changes.
7. Will remote corporate team members continue to be able to work remotely?
We value the contribution of corporate staff who work in our headquarters, within our markets, and remotely. We do not have plans to change our current approach to remote work, and it will be addressed as part of our longer-term look at how we provide support services for the new ministry.
8. Who was involved in the space selection?
The Office of the CEOs, Transformation Executives, and CHI and Dignity Health Real Estate and Legal Teams were all involved in the selection and negotiation.
9. How can I ask questions or share my thoughts and suggestions for the new ministry?
You can find more information, ask questions, and provide feedback by using the Contact Us page on AdvancingHealthCareTogether.org.
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[Vlajos]

^ I've read about this new Healthcare HQ from the combining of CO and CA based comoanies a few times now, but I have not seen any mention of jobs. Anyone know anything about that?