CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[Randomguy34]

Humboldt Park project lands big chemistry design company deal

A Northwestern University spinout developing new ways to store and sort chemicals is expanding and moving its operations to Humboldt Park, a major growth story for the local landscape of science-focused companies and a landmark deal for the Joe Mansueto-backed real estate firm building out modern workspace in the West Side neighborhood.

NuMat Technologies has signed a lease for around 62,000 square feet at the Terminal at 1334 N. Kostner Ave., where it will relocate later this year from its longtime home at the Illinois Science & Technology Park in Skokie, sources familiar with the deal said. The new space will be close to three times larger than its current one and makes the 10-year-old company the largest tenant to date to plant its flag at the Terminal, a $50 million redevelopment of a cluster of old Humboldt Park warehouses led by Chicago developer IBT Group and Mansueto, the billionaire founder of Morningstar.

NuMat's lease provides a big validation point for that project as IBT tries to draw tenants to a location that is wholly unproven as a destination for companies and lacks public transportation access. While developers of new lab buildings in the trendy Fulton Market District or at Lincoln Yards are on the hunt for tenants that want research space with the amenities of modern office buildings, NuMat is moving to a neighborhood that rarely draws companies like it and a building considered an underdog in the pursuit of such science-focused tenants. The company's move could help draw other similar tenants to the Terminal and provides an impactful boost for Mayor Lori Lightfoot's effort to promote economic development and jobs in blighted neighborhoods on the city's South and West sides.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...t-park-project

[CaptainJilliams]

Saw this on Reddit today:

Chicago has recently added about twice as many high-income renter households as the second place city, San Jose. Next on the list, San Diego, Seattle, Boston and Austin.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...cost-us-cities

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by CaptainJilliams

Saw this on Reddit today:

Chicago has recently added about twice as many high-income renter households as the second place city, San Jose. Next on the list, San Diego, Seattle, Boston and Austin.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...cost-us-cities

Interesting. Curious how household growth of the income band $150K+ has grown here vs other cities.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Interesting. Curious how household growth of the income band $150K+ has grown here vs other cities.

It's specifically for renters, but there is definitely a segment here that indicates an actual growth via migration from elsewhere.

[marothisu]

A little bit of positive news for The Loop office market

Logistics company planting flag at Marshall Field building

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...field-building

A fast-growing logistics company planning to hire 200 people in Chicago over the next two years is opening its first local office at the redeveloped Marshall Field building, a win for the building's owner and the vacancy-plagued downtown office market.

Indianapolis-based third-party logistics provider Spot has leased 31,000 square feet on the 11th floor in the landmark Loop property at 24 E. Washington St., where it plans to move into its newly built space by the end of this year, the company announced. The office will be Spot's sixth location nationwide.

..

Spot co-founder Andrew Elsener said he wants to tap into Chicago's logistics labor pool to help fuel the company's growth and stressed the importance of finding an office building chock full of employee perks to help reinforce its "in-office" culture.

"These buildings that we (lease) have amenities for employees, character in the walls and the entrance. That really drives us to a building," he said. On the revamped floors above the Macy's flagship store on State Street, "it was something we felt was there."

..

But Brookfield has been making progress in the building, which is now roughly 50% leased with the Spot deal, according to leasing brokerage Telos Group. Tenants include consumer-insights company Numerator, online ticket marketplace Vivid Seats and candy maker Ferrero. New York-based Industrious also operates co-working space in the building. Brookfield was close to luring Morningstar last year as its largest tenant, but the investment research firm instead opted to sign a five-year renewal at its longtime office nearby.

[CaptainJilliams]

More good news from the Loop:


There are more people living downtown now than before the pandemic
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/resi...dents-pandemic

On a side note, you would not believe (or maybe you would) the number of knee-jerk responses that claimed the news couldn't possibly be true, despite having no evidence to back their arguments up.

If anything the news isn't a surprise, this has generally been the trend for years now, and it's encouraging to see the numbers are still positive.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by CaptainJilliams

More good news from the Loop:


There are more people living downtown now than before the pandemic
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/resi...dents-pandemic

On a side note, you would not believe (or maybe you would) the number of knee-jerk responses that claimed the news couldn't possibly be true, despite having no evidence to back their arguments up.

If anything the news isn't a surprise, this has generally been the trend for years now, and it's encouraging to see the numbers are still positive.

Hopefully business will follow. State Street looks awful.

[VKChaz]

Am not sure what to make of the methodology for measuring CBDs used in the Berkeley study linked from the article.

The figures are surprising for a central business district that’s faced a slower recovery than many other parts of the country. A University of California study that analyzed cellphone data across 62 cities in North America put Chicago’s recovery at just 50%, behind places including New York City; Washington, DC; Los Angeles; Houston and Boston.

From the study:

For the purpose of this study, downtowns are defined as the locations with the greatest employment density, based on a Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) and rules-based definition method by Sergerie et al (2021) from Statistics Canada.15 This report defined downtowns as a set of Dissemination Areas (DAs) by using an appropriate initial boundary from KDE analysis, as well as contextual boundaries from water bodies, arterial roads, freeways, or other natural landmark boundaries. We used these boundaries for Canadian downtowns. For United States downtowns, we used employment data from the United States Zip Code Business Patterns to replicate this method at the Zip Code Tabulation Area level. Figure 1 shows the POI locations and downtown definitions of Toronto, New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco.

And how well it provides an apples to apples comparison between city "downtowns."

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Hopefully business will follow. State Street looks awful.

If you think State St looks awful, you'd hate to see the major skipping streets in most downtown cores. Other than a very few cities, major urban shopping corridors are hurting across the board.

And yes, I agree that a number of blocks look bad. Thankfully there have been some new openings to help alleviate the closings of several large chain store locations.

Aaron (Glowrock)

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Hopefully business will follow. State Street looks awful.

33-50% of it looks awful. The other half looks completely normal still.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by VKChaz

Am not sure what to make of the methodology for measuring CBDs used in the Berkeley study linked from the article.



From the study:


And how well it provides an apples to apples comparison between city "downtowns."

1) That Berkeley study is not good as some cities had upticks in business center activity after that study was performed. There was also a very, very noticeable uptick in proper "The Loop" activity after that study. I am down there 3 days a week and the difference between now and April/early May is actually pretty big. I noticed another uptick in activity in the early fall. Previous to October-ish (IIRC), my trains in the morning and evening had a nice amount of activity but rarely PACKED. Since then, every single day I commute, the trains are packed like old times. Part of this has to do with CTA running reduced schedules, but it's the same schedules as before. The number of people commuting at least via Brown Line has seemingly doubled at those peak hours. It's just a palpable increase of ridership because it's to the point of being annoyingly packed again. There have been many times where people could not get on our trains because they were so packed.

2) The Loop goes down to Roosevelt because it's the community area. Most people live south of Ida B Wells in the CA. The study definitely was not going down there.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by glowrock

If you think State St looks awful, you'd hate to see the major skipping streets in most downtown cores. Other than a very few cities, major urban shopping corridors are hurting across the board.

And yes, I agree that a number of blocks look bad. Thankfully there have been some new openings to help alleviate the closings of several large chain store locations.

Aaron (Glowrock)

This is why I am really excited about the LaSalle effort. If you get more people living there instead of empty office space, businesses will come in and fill in those empty store fronts.

[ebitdadada]

Originally Posted by marothisu

1) That Berkeley study is not good as some cities had upticks in business center activity after that study was performed. There was also a very, very noticeable uptick in proper "The Loop" activity after that study. I am down there 3 days a week and the difference between now and April/early May is actually pretty big. I noticed another uptick in activity in the early fall. Previous to October-ish (IIRC), my trains in the morning and evening had a nice amount of activity but rarely PACKED. Since then, every single day I commute, the trains are packed like old times. Part of this has to do with CTA running reduced schedules, but it's the same schedules as before. The number of people commuting at least via Brown Line has seemingly doubled at those peak hours. It's just a palpable increase of ridership because it's to the point of being annoyingly packed again. There have been many times where people could not get on our trains because they were so packed.

Second time poster long time lurker . I work for a company where return to office across the country has a huge impact on our sales. It's not perfect but the best indicator we've found is Kastle Systems. You can grab / subscribe to their data here.

I check the total # for my job and the Chicago # for personal interest every week. Jist is, as you said, Chicago has been moving up in the rankings and its a consistent trend. I also recall Chicago having a bigger dip from Spring Break vacations than other major cities in March / April 2022 so if that's the period Berkley did their study Chicago would have been negatively impacted.

Apparently I can't upload an image but here is the "All Day" Index from the last week in March 2022 and last week (in Feb 2023)

100% = Pre-pandemic Level

Last week of March 2022
Austin: 61.7%
Houston: 54.3%
Dallas 51.4%
Los Angeles: 39.9%
Washington: 38.3%
Phili: 37.7%
New York: 36.9%
Chicago: 35.0%
San Jose: 33.5%
San Fran: 31.8%

Week ending Feb 17 2023
Austin: 65.3%
Houston: 60.4%
Dallas: 53.2%
Chicago: 49.3%
LA: 48.1%
New York: 47.8%
Washington: 46.0%
San Fran: 44.6%
San Jose: 42.1%
Phili: 41.3%

They also now have "High / Low" data that shows the highest (usually Wednesday) and lowest day occupancy (Friday). Chicago is now in 3rd place for highest day (which I think translates to 3rd place in "# of people who have to live there to do their office job vs. pre-pandemic"). Chicago and NY seem to have the biggest gap between high and low day so they do better here than in the all days ranking:

Week ending Feb 17 2023
Austin: 74.4%
Houston: 69.4%
Chicago: 60.7%
Dallas: 59.0%
New York: 58.7%
LA: 55.8%
DC: 53.6%
SF: 52.5%
Phili: 49.2%
San Jose: 49.0%

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by ebitdadada

Second time poster long time lurker . I work for a company where return to office across the country has a huge impact on our sales. It's not perfect but the best indicator we've found is Kastle Systems. You can grab / subscribe to their data here.

I check the total # for my job and the Chicago # for personal interest every week. Jist is, as you said, Chicago has been moving up in the rankings and its a consistent trend. I also recall Chicago having a bigger dip from Spring Break vacations than other major cities in March / April 2022 so if that's the period Berkley did their study Chicago would have been negatively impacted.

Apparently I can't upload an image but here is the "All Day" Index from the last week in March 2022 and last week (in Feb 2023)

100% = Pre-pandemic Level

Last week of March 2022
Austin: 61.7%
Houston: 54.3%
Dallas 51.4%
Los Angeles: 39.9%
Washington: 38.3%
Phili: 37.7%
New York: 36.9%
Chicago: 35.0%
San Jose: 33.5%
San Fran: 31.8%

Week ending Feb 17 2023
Austin: 65.3%
Houston: 60.4%
Dallas: 53.2%
Chicago: 49.3%
LA: 48.1%
New York: 47.8%
Washington: 46.0%
San Fran: 44.6%
San Jose: 42.1%
Phili: 41.3%

They also now have "High / Low" data that shows the highest (usually Wednesday) and lowest day occupancy (Friday). Chicago is now in 3rd place for highest day (which I think translates to 3rd place in "# of people who have to live there to do their office job vs. pre-pandemic"). Chicago and NY seem to have the biggest gap between high and low day so they do better here than in the all days ranking:

Week ending Feb 17 2023
Austin: 74.4%
Houston: 69.4%
Chicago: 60.7%
Dallas: 59.0%
New York: 58.7%
LA: 55.8%
DC: 53.6%
SF: 52.5%
Phili: 49.2%
San Jose: 49.0%

Yeah, Crains has been tracking with the same data too. Are you able to see the images for every week? When I look at Crains data, it shows that Chicago on 9/7 was 41.8% then jumped up 45% a week later on 9/14. On 1/11 it was 48.1% and then 2/7 it was 50.7%. I think this is for the entire metro, but if it's about the same percentage jump downtown then we're probably look at something like +45,000 people physically in the office since early September downtown. A year earlier it was 29.5% - so an increase of 105K+ people downtown perhaps for work

Also what's interesting is that Chicago wasn't above the top 10 US city average until January this year. And now it's pulling ahead. It's actually not that far behind Dallas, surprisingly.

[left of center]

Great news! The more workers we can get back into downtown, the better. That said, the Loop is still very lively and buzzing on the weekends and holidays. People still want to go downtown more than ever, they just don't want to work there (or in any office, really). Time to start zoning some supertall residential in the Loop in order to pump up those weekday pedestrian numbers.


Impressive that Austin (as well as Houston/Dallas) have maintained such a high in office %, even during the height of the omicron variant in early 2022. I wonder how they were able to pull that off.

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by left of center

Time to start zoning some supertall residential in the Loop in order to pump up those weekday pedestrian numbers.

The Loop has the densest zoning districts in the city, along with the option to purchase unlimited FAR. Costs, financing, and land availability are the main reasons why we don't see much new construction in the Loop. That said, the area is perfect for office-to-residential conversion. With all the class B and C office space, I wouldn't be surprised if more than 10k units are developed over the next decade.

[ebitdadada]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Yeah, Crains has been tracking with the same data too. Are you able to see the images for every week? When I look at Crains data, it shows that Chicago on 9/7 was 41.8% then jumped up 45% a week later on 9/14. On 1/11 it was 48.1% and then 2/7 it was 50.7%. I think this is for the entire metro, but if it's about the same percentage jump downtown then we're probably look at something like +45,000 people physically in the office since early September downtown. A year earlier it was 29.5% - so an increase of 105K+ people downtown perhaps for work

Also what's interesting is that Chicago wasn't above the top 10 US city average until January this year. And now it's pulling ahead. It's actually not that far behind Dallas, surprisingly.

Yep its been pretty cool to see. Unfortunately, the Kastle website only shows the current week. I only have historic info as its in my inbox (weekly subscription). If you're interested / want the data & are willing to share your email ha I'd be happy to forward. Just PM me

[bnk]

the good old site selection magazine data will be coming out soon.

Will we lead in that measure again?

I would expect tops again but we will see and I will report again regardless of the ranking.

[ardecila]

It's definitely noticeable how people are returning to the Loop.

Unfortunately it seems like restaurants and business are still closing, I see more and more empty storefronts. Probably businesses choosing not to renew their leases to end the bleeding, and nobody feels comfortable signing any new leases yet.

What is interesting is Chicago had the biggest increase - 14 percentage points - from March '22->Feb '23. And the top cities on that list like Austin, Houston, Dallas, LA are all highly decentralized, so lots of car commuters. Chicago's recovery is more impressive since we have a dominant massive CBD and commuters have to rely on transit which is still unreliable (and scary to some folks).

[bnk]

We did it again



https://siteselection.com/issues/202...-can-trust.cfm


TOP METROS OF 2022
From Site Selection magazine, March 2022


Places You Can Trust

That’s a strong indicator across the Top Metros of 2022.

by Adam Bruns

If winning back-to-back championships establishes dynasties, what do you call it when you win 10 years in a row?

In Chicagoland, they hand the ball to the ref and they act like they’ve been there before. Because they have.

The 2022 data on corporate facility investment nationwide indeed tell a familiar tale: The multi-state Chicago metro area is No. 1 (with 448 projects) and the next three metro areas in the rankings also repeat their rankings from last year: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is No. 2 (426 projects); Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land is No. 3 (255 projects) and New York-Newark-New Jersey is No. 4 (246 projects). The biggest upward mover in the Top 10 is Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California, with 150 projects, just ahead of repeat No. 6 metro Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia.
...

A noteworthy recent statistic from Kastle Systems (based on building access control data) finds that among 10 major cities analyzed by how many office workers had returned to the office during a week in February, Austin, Chicago and Houston were the only cities with returned-worker percentages higher than 50%. Michael Fassnacht, CEO and president of World Business Chicago and chief marketing officer for the City of Chicago, says his city’s downtown is doing just fine.

“Young talent, post college, they want to be in an urban center,” he tells me, for the entertainment, night life and diversity of people and experiences. “We have not seen a dropoff. We have seen an influx from the coasts because it’s more affordable and there are more opportunities.”

That influx is coming from companies as well as talent. Despite the rise of Los Angeles this year to No. 5 from No. 8 last year among our Top Metros, Fassnacht says he learned during a trip to L.A. early this year that “a lot of L.A.-based companies are interested in expanding into the Midwest and it looks like Chicago is the gateway. In 24 hours we met 50 companies and 12 are seriously interested.”




...