CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[Randomguy34]

In surprising news, the city only spent $138 million to house and feed migrants, 60% LESS than expected: https://news.wttw.com/2024/01/04/chi...ojections-data

Seems like everyone is confused, myself included, on how we spent less than anticipated. I guess it's not too surprising, since Denver also received ~40k migrants and similarly spent ~$150 million.

[left of center]

Capital One acquiring Discover Financial Services, report says

Capital One Financial
is set to acquire Discover Financial Services
, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The deal could be announced Tuesday, the outlet said, citing sources.

It will be an all-stock deal and Capital One, which already uses Visa and Mastercard networks, plans to keep the Discover brand, the Wall Street Journal said.

...

The merger of the two companies, which are among the largest credit card issuers in the U.S., would expand Capital One’s credit card offerings and its deposit base. The company bought digital concierge service Velocity Black, a premium credit card and luxury market platform, in June of last year.

There aren’t many parallels for similar acquisitions in the financial industry, meaning that the Capital One-Discover deal will likely have broad implications for merger activity within the sector, said Schiff.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/19/capi...port-says.html

Probably not good news for the Chicago region. Sounds like will be losing a fairly large financial firm.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by left of center

Capital One acquiring Discover Financial Services, report says


Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/19/capi...port-says.html

Probably not good news for the Chicago region. Sounds like will be losing a fairly large financial firm.

Is there anything on here abour what.would happen from a person perspective after a potential merger? Other than "losing" a F500 on paper, I highly doubt there would be relocations. The only thing I'd worry about is layoffs after a merger.

[VKChaz]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Is there anything on here abour what.would happen from a person perspective after a potential merger? Other than "losing" a F500 on paper, I highly doubt there would be relocations. The only thing I'd worry about is layoffs after a merger.

Discover did a good thing with the Chatham call center.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by VKChaz

Discover did a good thing with the Chatham call center.

There's a great Freakonomics episode on this.

[munchymunch]

Discover has been struggling massively lately so acquisition or not I feel like layoffs were coming.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by munchymunch

Discover has been struggling massively lately so acquisition or not I feel like layoffs were coming.

They had some already a few years ago. One of my employees came from there and quit right before some layoffs.

[moorhosj1]

Crain's article about a battery startup spinoff from Northwestern research.

NanoGraf has leased a big warehouse just steps from its new Near West Side headquarters, where the battery technology company will build out a new research and manufacturing facility slated to bring 60 jobs to the city.

The fivefold expansion of the company's Chicago footprint is a milestone for the Northwestern University spinoff, which has grown recently on the back of multiple military contracts. The Army in December awarded NanoGraf an $8 million contract to boost the supply of its silicon anode-infused batteries for soldiers, and the company won another Army contract in January worth up to $15 million to develop cross-compatible batteries for soldiers in the field.

NanoGraf touts its silicon anode material as improving a lithium-ion battery's capacity to hold a charge by about 30%. Most anodes — the part of a battery that holds a charge — are made of graphite, a material produced predominantly in China.

[DetroitMan]

Not necessarily Chicago related, but Rivian announced today that they are pausing plans for the Georgia plant and planning the build their new R2 crossover at their existing Illinois plant.

Rivian pauses plan to build $5B Georgia factory

Rivian, the electric vehicle upstart that announced more than two years ago plans to build a $5 billion vehicle and battery plant with 7,500 promised jobs east of Atlanta, is halting the mammoth project.

The California company, which promised in late 2021 to build what was then considered Georgia’s largest-ever economic development project, said Thursday at an event introducing new models that it will now start production of its anticipated R2 crossover at its sole factory in Illinois instead of in the Peach State.

https://www.ajc.com/news/business/br...JMZWF3Q6IKN3Y/

[marothisu]

In keeping with the theme of my income via IRS filings stats, I put together the rankings for the 25 largest metro areas and their percent increases of combined resident income of 2019 to 2021 (the latest data available). This was done by zip code then rolled up to metro area.

Chicago comes in at the 4th best percent increase of any of the 25 largest metros. People really need to differentiate between propaganda/hype articles and the reality. Reminder that the on the book inflation rate from December 2019 to December 2021 was 8%. Chicago metro's rate is over that by 3.6X and it's over double what Houston's increase was percentage wise in the same period.

1. San Francisco: +34.77%
2. Miami: +33.98%
3. Boston: +30.15%
4. Chicago: +28.76%
5. Seattle: +26.46%
6. Phoenix: +25.74%
7. Denver: +24.31%
8. Dallas: +24.13%
9. San Diego: +23.78%
10. NYC: +23.72%
11. Los Angeles: +23.62%
12. Atlanta: +22.63%
13. Charlotte: +22.51%
14. Philadelphia: +21.24%
15. Tampa: +20.55%
16. Portland, OR: +19.99%
17. Orlando: +19.07%
18. Riverside, CA: +18.64%
19. Washington DC: +18.55%
20. St. Louis: +18.23%
21. Detroit: +17%
22. Minneapolis: +16.88%
23. San Antonio: +16.65%
24. Baltimore: +15.68%
25. Houston: +13.46%

[Via Chicago]

unfortunately i doubt that center will survive the merger given Cap1 does everything overseas and will be looking to trim expenses wherever they can

[OrdoSeclorum]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

unfortunately i doubt that center will survive the merger given Cap1 does everything overseas and will be looking to trim expenses wherever they can

I wouldn't bet on this merger being approved. There is going to be MAJOR antitrust pressure on these folks. I don't think either company expects it to go be approved. They're just taking a run at it. I'm a little curious about what would be next for Discover if and when the deal falls apart.

[bnk]

Not new news but Microsoft bought a chunk of that Foxconn project in Racine county. They are going to send over 1 Billion dollars on a data center. Not in the Chicagoland CSA per se but damn close. Easy commute for workers from Lake county.




https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/e...-in-wisconsin/

Microsoft significantly expands Mount Pleasant data center plans in Wisconsin
Cloud giant to buy 1,030 additional acres

November 13, 2023 By Georgia Butler

Microsoft is planning to purchase an additional 1,030 acres at its Mount Pleasant campus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

...

In addition to the Foxconn-owned land, Microsoft hopes to acquire 400 acres of privately-owned farmland.

...

"Microsoft’s injection of billions of dollars to expand its operations in Mount Pleasant....

[VKChaz]

Originally Posted by OrdoSeclorum

I wouldn't bet on this merger being approved. There is going to be MAJOR antitrust pressure on these folks. I don't think either company expects it to go be approved. They're just taking a run at it. I'm a little curious about what would be next for Discover if and when the deal falls apart.

Getting the card network is the win. They could work to spin that off with each owning a portion. They also may be waiting out the presidential race to see how that affects the appetite to allow these deals.

[Joliet_Julian]

Pretty interesting video showing Norfolk Southerns plans for their 47th St Terminal
https://youtu.be/BW_y3j96rAw?si=iFz9l6IwANF_HYfT

[Tom In Chicago]

I was up there over the weekend and saw that Foxconn thing. . . lots of civic infrastructure had been built to accommodate the expected boom in manufacturing, but little to show for it. . . I don't pretend to know much about why Microsoft picked this location, but I suspect part of it was the infrastructure is there, and the price was right. . .

. . .

[left of center]

Massive blunder by Wisconsin in trying to court Foxconn. I recall seeing that the cost of the tax breaks per job created would have had an ROI of something ridiculous like a century to pay back.

The data center is nice, but they don't typically employ all that many people. Its construction will be a nice economic boost, but that will be mostly temporary.

[marothisu]

The IRS individual filing data for tax year 2021 by zip code was released yesterday. Here's the top 25 zip codes in the entire country for total reported resident income increase from 2019 to 2021.

Remember, these would be people filing for year 2021 living in those zip codes, mostly before May 2022:

1. 94301 | Palo Alto, CA (San Jose): +$11.83B
2. 72712 | Bentonville, AR (Fayeteville, AR): +$10.59B
3. 33480 | Palm Beach, FL (Miami): +$8.15B
4. 94010 | Burlingame, CA (San Francisco): +$6.13B
5. 10013 | Manhattan (NYC): +$6.04B
6. 10128 | Manhattan (NYC): +$6.03B
7. 60045 | Lake Forest, IL (Chicago): +$5.92B
8. 94027 | Atherton, CA (San Francisco): +$5.89B
9. 02116 | Boston: +$5.46B
10. 94022 | Los Altos, CA (San Jose): +$5.37B
11. 94025 | Menlo Park, CA (San Francisco): +$5.31B
12. 60614 | Chicago: +$5.28B
13. 95070 | Saratoga, CA (San Jose): +$5.26B
14. 98052 | Redmond, WA (Seattle): +$5.25B
15. 10019 | Manhattan (NYC): +$5.24B
16. 60093 | Winnetka, IL (Chicago): +$5.23B
17. 89135 | Las Vegas: +$5.1B
18. 10024 | Manhattan (NYC): +$5.07B
19. 10583 | Scarsdale, NY (NYC): +$5B
20. 10021 | Manhattan (NYC): +$4.94B
21. 94062 | Redwood City, CA (San Francisco): +$4.93B
22. 10014 | Manhattan (NYC): +$4.86B
23. 06830 | Greenwich, CT (Bridgeport, CT): +$4.58B
24T. 10023 | Manhattan (NYC): +$4B
24T. 33160 | Sunny Isles Beach, FL (Miami): +$4B

[Chi-Sky21]

That is crazy that Manhattan is on there SEVEN times!

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

That is crazy that Manhattan is on there SEVEN times!

Yes. I think when people have talked about migration of wealth, they just aren't even considering the people who are already there and how much they've grown their own wealth. Or people who left getting replaced by someone who is richer, and there's no news/ado about it (i.e. Andy Weir moved to the North Shore from CA - not much ado about that one). There could be households moving into some city that literally replaced the income level of 5 or 10 households combined who left for elsewhere. Lot of factors.

Of the top 100 zip codes with the biggest changes in total reported income of residents, here's the totals by metro area:

1. NYC: +$73B
2. San Francisco: +$53.64B
3. Miami: +$37.1B
4. San Jose: +$33.43B
5. Chicago: +$26.98B
6. Boston: +$17.25B
7. Bridgeport, CT: +$16.66B
8. Seattle: +$13.63B
9. Los Angeles: +$11.38B
10. Austin: +$10.95B