CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[the urban politician]

Or perhaps it's untrue?

Updated from Crains:

"CME Group denies all rumors that is in conversations to acquire Cboe Global Markets," the release said. "The company has not had any discussions with Cboe whatsoever. While the company does not typically comment on rumor or speculation, today's inaccurate information required correction."

[sentinel]

^^Curious, why the obsession with creating one, giant behemoth of a company, when it just makes it easier to potentially pick apart and sell off in the future, to deep pocketed outside players no less? I remember the bullshit that ICE out of Atlanta was trying to sell when they made a bid for CME back in 2006-07, saying that they were gonna keep it in Chicago, it would always be a 'local institution' blah blah blah bullshit bullshit, thankfully, none of the local players bought into it, which actually helped strengthen CME's reputation and position globally.

I'd rather both the CME and CBOE continue growing as individual companies, instead of one devouring the other, thus leaving a single, behemoth market place...successful global financial hubs like NYC or London have multiple financial institutions or markets, and that diversification is what keeps them on top. Being known only for 1-2 mammoth institutions isn't the best way to stay competitive, desirable or even relevant sometimes. Diversity and strength in numbers should be the goal, not single-source consolidation..

For the record, here is the latest Global Financial Centres Index ranking, Chicago is 15th, below San Fran, DC and even LA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global..._Centres_Index

[Klippenstein]

Yes, it is behind SF, LA and DC, but they are all ranked one after the other and they are separated by one or two points. They are all ranked as global leaders and in the “trading” section Chicago is ranked second in the US. It also seems we jumped up 5 positions since the last ranking. This all seems positive to me.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Klippenstein

Yes, it is behind SF, LA and DC, but they are all ranked one after the other and they are separated by one or two points. They are all ranked as global leaders and in the “trading” section Chicago is ranked second in the US. It also seems we jumped up 5 positions since the last ranking. This all seems positive to me.

As long as CBOT, CBOE, etc is in Chicago...it will be #2 in the US. Not even a question.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by marothisu

As long as CBOT, CBOE, etc is in Chicago...it will be #2 in the US. Not even a question.

Citadel is easily more important than CBOE these days. Hell Citadel has built such a huge position clearing trades that they may be as important as CME at this point...

Citadel is the #1 market maker for retail trades clearing 40% of all retail trading:

https://amp-ft-com.cdn.ampproject.or...7-e743a3ff609b

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Citadel is easily more important than CBOE these days. Hell Citadel has built such a huge position clearing trades that they may be as important as CME at this point...

Citadel is the #1 market maker for retail trades clearing 40% of all retail trading:

https://amp-ft-com.cdn.ampproject.or...7-e743a3ff609b

Very true, especially as more retail trading apps come online they usually do not have their own tech at this level. They rely on companies like Citadel to execute orders. Pretty much the story of a lot of the new apps and digital banks - tech wise they're just using big institutions still and making people believe they aren't LOL.

From a perspective on who owns the most important markets it's NYC and then Chicago quite easily.

Also GDP is fun to look at. In 2019 dollars for year 2019 and by MSA. Unfortunately insurance is combined in here:

1. NYC: $341.7B
2. Chicago: $74.2B
3. LA: $61.9B
4. Boston: $52.1B
5. Dallas: $47.6B
6. Philadelphia: $46.6B
7. San Francisco: $45.6B
8. Atlanta: $37.6B
9. Minneapolis: $30.3B
10. Charlotte: $28.1B
11. Houston: $28B
12. Miami: $24.4B
13. Phoenix: $23.4B
14. Hartford, CT: $21.2B
15. Cincinnati: $20B
16. Bridgeport, CT: $17.8B
17. Columbus, OH: $16.7B
18. Seattle: $16.5B
19. Cleveland: $16.4B
20. Des Moines: $16.3B
21. Detroit: $16B
22. Denver: $15.8B
23. St. Louis: $15.3B
24. Tampa: $14.4B
25. San Antonio: $14.1B

[SIGSEGV]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/arts...time-high-year

Chicago TV and film production on track to hit an all-time high this year
Productions currently filming in the city include AMC’s "61st Street," Showtime’s "The Chi" and a new Apple TV show starring "Handmaid's Tale" actress Elizabeth Moss.



After half a year of COVID shutdowns, the city and state’s film industry was already back on track in March. Now it looks like 2021 will be a record year, exceeding the highs hit in 2019.

Through June, the city had already cleared 938 filming permits—nearly 80 percent for television series—in 2021. That edges out the 734 approved by the same time in 2019. The state film office also reports getting more tax credit applications in the first half of the year than it did in 2019.

[marothisu]

Tegus, a company who relocated their HQ from San Francisco to Chicago in 2018, is subleasing 47K sq ft of space in The Loop from CareerBuilder. They are more than tripling their current space.

Crain's article states that it doubled its headcount to 230 in the last 7 months and plans to over double again by the end of 2022. Its plans are to hire 100 people in Chicago by the end of this year. When the pandemic hit, they had less than 50 employees and now by end of 2022 they're looking to be at 500.

Their product connects customers to experts in a given field. These customers, usually institutional investors and companies, pay $20,000 per user and can do phone consultations that usually cost $500/hr.

They have only taken was than $10M in funding but are profitable now with thousands of firms using them. Customer count and revenue nearly tripled in the last year.

[marothisu]

Always interesting to look at the employment numbers. July 2021 numbers for the Chicago-Naperville- Arlington Heights metro division is similar in employment to early 2012 now but with a few percentage lower unemployment rate today vs. then.

By the way, it was 2014 when the city and region really started to see a big decrease in unemployment.

[marothisu]

Inc 5000 is out which is a ranking of the 5000 fastest growing companies in the US. Companies have to submit themselves to the list but many do.

I took a list at some major metro areas and they have a metric for jobs added from these companies basically on a 1 year time frame. Again, it's by MSA:

Los Angeles: 138,521 jobs added
Washington DC: 64,619
Atlanta: 51,676
NYC: 35,635
Chicago: 25,771
San Francisco: 15,971
Dallas: 15,407
Philadelphia: 15,012
Boston: 13,411
Denver: 11,542
Miami: 10,857
Austin: 8312
Seattle: 7530
Nashville: 7102
Phoenix: 5968
San Diego: 5819
Minneapolis: 4656
Houston: 4456
Tampa: 3869
Baltimore: 3468

Total revenue (most recent year) of these companies in MSAs:

Los Angeles: $23.5B
Washington DC: $18.5B
NYC: $15B
Chicago: $12.2B
Phoenix: $11.7B
Dallas: $10.7B
Arlanta: $8.7B
Houston: $7.3B
Philadelphia: $7B
San Diego: $7B
Miami: $6.9B
Denver: $5.3B
Boaton: $4.9B
San Francisco: $3.9B
Austin: $3.8B
Seattle: $3.5B
Tampa: $3.2B
Nashville: $3B
Baltimore: $1.8B
Minneapolis: $1.8B

For Chicago MSA specifically, here's broken down by industry for jobs added:

Business products and services: 6276
Security: 2934
Food and beverage: 2419
Logistics and transportation: 1973
Financial services: 1968
Health: 1495
IT Management: 1348
Software: 1344
Human resources: 1178
Education: 897
Construction: 886
Advertising and Marketing: 715
IT Systems Development: 545
Environmental Services: 541
Real Estate: 364
Consumer products and services: 187
Insurance: 187
Manufacturing: 152
Retail: 72
Engineering: 66
Telecommunications: 60
Government services: 58
Computer hardware: 50
Energy: 39
Travel and hospitality: 17

[the urban politician]

^ Nice, but what's up with LA's disproportionately high showing in these lists?

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Nice, but what's up with LA's disproportionately high showing in these lists?

LA is massively benefiting from the unsustainable cost-of-living (and poor quality-of-life) in San Francisco. I know a few tech-oriented people who have recently or will soon make the move.

It could also be some anomaly in the data collection kinda how Chicago is #1 in Site Selection magazine for 50 like years running.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

LA is massively benefiting from the unsustainable cost-of-living (and poor quality-of-life) in San Francisco. I know a few tech-oriented people who have recently or will soon make the move.

It could also be some anomaly in the data collection kinda how Chicago is #1 in Site Selection magazine for 50 like years running.

Which is funny because LA is NOT cheap and it hasn't been for at least 20 years. There are some areas with apartments that cost just as much as expensive ones in Manhattan or SF. I guess the difference is that LA is large and they could live elsewhere.

I guess tho if they want to live in the valley which can get to 115F in the summer or not be in a hugely walkable area....

Just another reason why Chicago is "underrated " in the grand scheme of things relatively.

[the urban politician]

^ Considering how much larger NYC is than Chicago, I would say Chicago is WAY outperforming NYC in this category

Take that, New York!

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by sentinel

For the record, here is the latest Global Financial Centres Index ranking, Chicago is 15th, below San Fran, DC and even LA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global..._Centres_Index

^ Yeah, that's a huge fall for Chicago. Chicago used to be 6th or 7th for several years. It was in the mid-late 2010's that it began to slip.

My guess is that the way GFC's are measured has changed. VC has grown, perhaps, in its importance, whereas being a center for financial trading of derivatives isn't as important as it used to be? Who knows, just a guess...

[TR Devlin]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Always interesting to look at the employment numbers. July 2021 numbers for the Chicago-Naperville- Arlington Heights metro division is similar in employment to early 2012 now but with a few percentage lower unemployment rate today vs. then.

Here's some more job numbers, taken from "Where Workers Work" reports published by the Illinois Department of Employment Security:

• Jobs in the Metro Chicago area (I'm not sure if this is synonymous with MSA) increased from 3,192,426 in 2012 to 3,574,346 in 2020. This is an increase of 381,920 or 12%

• Jobs in the city of Chicago increased from 1,034,196 to 1,205,294 - an increase of 171,098 or 16.5%

• Jobs in downtown Chicago increased from 487,057 to 631,757 - an increase of 144,700 or 29.7% in the past eight years.

Now a lot of people on this board have said that Chicago is stagnating and needs better PR to attract more people and jobs.

I don't see it that way at all. I think that by focusing on MSA numbers you miss what's happening downtown. I see a booming downtown that could easily add 200,000 to 300,000 jobs over the next twenty years. And I see a transportation infrastructure that's completely inadequate to deal with that.

So what I think Chicago needs is a large investment in infrastructure; say $60 billion over the next 30 years. Assuming the feds pay for half and the state pays a chunk, then the City's share would be $15 to $20 billion spread over 30 years. This would require a significant tax increase but I think it would be healthy for the City.

[Kngkyle]

Downtown apartment market breaking records again
After shifting abruptly into reverse in 2020, the market has pushed the accelerator to the floor this year, recovering everything it lost and then some. The recovery has been "stunning," says a consultant.

...

Landlords have already leased a staggering number of apartments. Absorption, or the change in the number of occupied apartments downtown, exceeded 3,300 units in the second quarter, according to Integra. That’s roughly how many downtown apartments are absorbed in an entire year typically.

DeVries forecasts that downtown absorption for the year will total 6,500 units, the highest annual figure going back to at least 1999. In 2018, at the peak of the most recent boom, absorption totaled about 3,900 units.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...-records-again

[left of center]

^ Good news! Looks like the pandemic was basically a blip in the radar for downtown living. All the crying from the typical anti urban crowd about the end of cities were wrong once again.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by left of center

^ Good news! Looks like the pandemic was basically a blip in the radar for downtown living. All the crying from the typical anti urban crowd about the end of cities were wrong once again.

I'm sure some of our loyal forumers will find some way to misconstrue/misrepresent the data to fit a personal narrative on how Covid and CiVil UnResST just says it isn't actually the case.

[the urban politician]

Argonne once again at the forefront of supercomputers:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/john...r-race-argonne