CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ That's because the city and county make it a point to rake you over the coals for more revenue to shovel to their cronies at every juncture. I just got two tickets thrown out in court today because they were both ridiculous. I was found totally not at fault for either. One was a sanitation citation for "overflowing dumpster" the other was a "truck parked on side street" parking ticket.

The "overflowing dumpster" was actually a construction dumpster filled to the brim with like one bag over the fill line. The city's "evidence" was pictures of this full dumpster with literally no trash on the ground anywhere around it. The judge himself said "that's the cleanest construction site I think I've ever seen in 30 years here". This was for $200 and was a total joke of an offense. Clearly this was just some inspector who needed to reach his quota going around and writing tickets for every dumpster he saw that was full.

The other was for parking my pickup, which has a cap and firefighter plates, both of which exempt you from this law, on a side street. I got the ticket in the mail a week after the original hearing date.

You'd think that, being found totally innocent in both cases, I would be off the hook for any fees. But no, since my building and my truck are owned by LLC's, the city won't let me represent myself in court because "LLC's are people too" and therefore I can't represent them since I'm not an attorney. So I had to pay an attorney $100 to get rid of the $200 ticket and $25 to get rid of the $75 ticket. So, even though the city was totally f'ing off base here, I still got fined $125 to defend myself against $275 worth of bullshit.

It's maddening. Frankly I'm going to start calling around to class action attorneys and see if we can't get a class action to shut down 400 W Superior for being blatantly unconstitutional. Guilty until proven innocent and even you are innocent you have to pay an attorney and can't recover fees. Like after I saw the pictures I was asking my attorney "are you sure I can't take this to circuit court and sue the city for your fees?", but it's not even an option in this dog and pony show.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

Lol, how many people have $100k to drop on a property? Seattle's housing is entirely unaffordable. If someone can't afford to or is unwilling to pay $50 per pay period to Illinois, moving to Seattle is going to be a rude awakening.
...

A significant number if people have $100k to spend on housing. Not a majority, but a significant minority. And if the question is really how many people have enough money to get into home ownership, then I bet a majority of families do, and the numbers back that up.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by emathias

A significant number if people have $100k to spend on housing. Not a majority, but a significant minority. And if the question is really how many people have enough money to get into home ownership, then I bet a majority of families do, and the numbers back that up.

I'd be surprised if more than 10% of Americans had the ability to put $100k down on a home no issue. For most, I would assume that means gutting their 401k and literally any other assets they've managed to acquire. No one wants to be house rich and cash poor.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

^^^ That's because the city and county make it a point to rake you over the coals for more revenue to shovel to their cronies at every juncture. I just got two tickets thrown out in court today because they were both ridiculous. I was found totally not at fault for either. One was a sanitation citation for "overflowing dumpster" the other was a "truck parked on side street" parking ticket.

The "overflowing dumpster" was actually a construction dumpster filled to the brim with like one bag over the fill line. The city's "evidence" was pictures of this full dumpster with literally no trash on the ground anywhere around it. The judge himself said "that's the cleanest construction site I think I've ever seen in 30 years here". This was for $200 and was a total joke of an offense. Clearly this was just some inspector who needed to reach his quota going around and writing tickets for every dumpster he saw that was full.

The other was for parking my pickup, which has a cap and firefighter plates, both of which exempt you from this law, on a side street. I got the ticket in the mail a week after the original hearing date.

You'd think that, being found totally innocent in both cases, I would be off the hook for any fees. But no, since my building and my truck are owned by LLC's, the city won't let me represent myself in court because "LLC's are people too" and therefore I can't represent them since I'm not an attorney. So I had to pay an attorney $100 to get rid of the $200 ticket and $25 to get rid of the $75 ticket. So, even though the city was totally f'ing off base here, I still got fined $125 to defend myself against $275 worth of bullshit.

It's maddening. Frankly I'm going to start calling around to class action attorneys and see if we can't get a class action to shut down 400 W Superior for being blatantly unconstitutional. Guilty until proven innocent and even you are innocent you have to pay an attorney and can't recover fees. Like after I saw the pictures I was asking my attorney "are you sure I can't take this to circuit court and sue the city for your fees?", but it's not even an option in this dog and pony show.

The whole law that one can not represent their own LLC in court is just pure evil. Attorneys write laws like this.

There aren’t enough class action lawsuits against the stupid and corrupt little things municipalities like Chicago do. I like where you’re going with this.

One lawsuit should be against the affordable housing ordinance. How does that pass muster when the State of Illinois has a ban on rent control?

[the urban politician]

https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/e...hiftgigHQ.html

[left of center]

^ I'll take it!

[bnk]

Just a shuffle but interesting none the less.



https://www.chicagobusiness.com/real...largest-office


January 30, 2018

Willis Tower snags big tenant

Willis Tower has landed financial services firm Morgan Stanley as one of its biggest tenants, adding more leasing momentum to the city's tallest building as it undergoes a major renovation.
The New York-based financial giant is finalizing a deal to lease about 125,000 square feet on four floors at the skyscraper, relocating its local private wealth management office from its longtime home at 70 W. Madison St., according to sources close to the deal.
The lease, which is slated to begin in mid-2019, does not include a consolidation of Morgan Stanley's other downtown offices.

...

organ Stanley is the largest new tenant at Willis Tower since private-equity firm Blackstone Group bought the building in 2015 for $1.3 billion and announced a plan to transform its lower floors and add amenities. The financial firm will be among the 110-story tower's largest tenants, joining a group that includes the parent of United Airlines, which leases 855,655 square feet, and law firms Schiff Hardin and Seyfarth Shaw.

...

Adding Morgan Stanley would bring the 3.8 million-square-foot tower closer to being fully leased as the owners move ahead with their nearly $550 million redevelopment. The overhaul will include a major expansion of retail space, a new fitness center, rooftop deck, tenant lounges and remodeled elevators.

...

Signing big tenants is crucial for the skyscraper before it begins that work. Not including the Morgan Stanley deal, Willis Tower is currently about 90 percent leased, according to Equity Office, which oversees Blackstone's office portfolio.
Recent deals at the building include rail car leasing company GATX and engineering firm ESD. Schiff Hardin renewed its lease with 181,000 square feet.
Locking up big tenants could also give the tower more leverage as it looks to fill the 300,000 square feet of retail it is adding to the building's lower floors.
It has snagged a couple of tenants so far: New York-based...


...


...


Meanwhile, the area along the Chicago River near Willis Tower is poised to add more major office tenants in the near future. Just south of the property, New York-based developer 601W is in the midst of turning the Old Main Post Office into a 2.8 million-square-foot modern office building. Up the river, Bank of America will be moving into a new 51-story building that developer John O'Donnell is planning to put up at 110 N. Wacker Drive, which will aim to lure other major tenants.


....

[bnk]

https://www.peoplespunditdaily.com/n...s-6-year-high/

Employment in MNI Chicago Business Barometer (PMI) Nears 6-Year High



The MNI Chicago Business Barometer, also known as the Chicago PMI, easily beat expectations as the Employment Index nears a 6-year high in January.

While the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) index fell 2.1 points from a previously revised 67.8 in December, which was an 11-year high, it crushed the 64.0 consensus and remained extremely strong.
....

“This was the best January result in seven years, capped off by the Employment indicator rising to its highest level in almost 6 years.”'

...

The Barometer was up 28.3% on last January and at 65.7, stands above the H2 2017 average of 63.7. The Employment indicator hit a near-six-year high, breaking past the 60-mark for the first time since late 2013.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

I'd be surprised if more than 10% of Americans had the ability to put $100k down on a home no issue. For most, I would assume that means gutting their 401k and literally any other assets they've managed to acquire. No one wants to be house rich and cash poor.

How old are you? That's not a poke, I'm genuinely interested. And you didn't say "no issue" to start with, so you're moving the goalposts.

[left of center]

Why housing may help Chicago in Amazon HQ2 race
Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...nt-in-hq2-race

The upside of being one of the nation's slowest-recovering housing markets might just be that it makes Chicago look good to Amazon, the online retail giant that plans to plant a second headquarters somewhere that isn't as overcooked as Seattle.

It's not only low prices, although Chicago has those. Large swaths of the region are ready for the makeover they didn't get during a decadelong lukewarm real estate market, meaning they're ready to help absorb what would be tens of thousands of future Amazon households with new or rehabbed homes.

Amazon's search committee "may find Chicago refreshing, coming from the West Coast, where Seattle and Silicon Valley are infamous for housing crunches, steep housing cost appreciation and excruciatingly long commutes," said MarySue Barrett, president of the Metropolitan Planning Council, a Chicago nonprofit that focuses on equitable development of the region.

...

At the same time, Chicago has considerable strength in the realm of housing and lifestyle: an extensive rail network that fans out to desirable neighborhoods and suburbs both close in and far out, a plentiful stock of homes for all tastes from historical to contemporary, and other key components of home life—good schools, parks and cultural attractions—sprinkled all over the map.

...

Several of the finalists have housing markets that look nearly as intimidating as Seattle's, where the median price of a house was more than $718,000 last year. In finalists Boston and Washington, D.C., the median was over $540,000, and in Los Angeles it was over $650,000, according to online real estate marketplace Zillow.

In Chicago, the 2017 median price was $221,000, putting it in the bottom half of the locations on Amazon's list. Of course many of Amazon's employees would be able to spend much more than the median on housing, but the low figure for Chicago indicates that they'd get more home for their dollar, or their millions of dollars, than they would in more than half the other contenders.

We already knew this, but good to see its being recognized. Hopefully Amazon is weighing this criteria heavily as well, as it would be in our favor.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by emathias

How old are you? That's not a poke, I'm genuinely interested. And you didn't say "no issue" to start with, so you're moving the goalposts.

I'm not going to argue semantics. Something like half of all Americans don't have $1,000 in savings accounts. 80 percent have less than $100,000 in savings and investments. That leaves ~20% of Americans who technically have at least $100,000 across all assets. It's impossible to know without polling each of these people, but I seriously doubt even the majority of these folks are going to leverage their life savings ($140k for 20% down) to buy a modest house for $700k+. Are there enough people of means to sustain 10%+ YoY appreciation indefinitely? History says no...

I know you're from Washington, but I'm not knocking Seattle. I was just sharing an experience I had about an individual complaining about Illinois' state income tax and announcing their departure for Seattle, which is going to increase their living expenses considerably. Again, if $50 to IL per pay period is $50 too much, how is an extra $300+ to your landlord or 3x as much for your mortgage payment any better? It's worse from my perspective.

In other news, great to see some new jobs.

[aaron38]

Urbanists call for a non-aggression pact among cities competing for Amazon's HQ2
https://www.treehugger.com/urban-des...azons-hq2.html

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by left of center

We already knew this, but good to see its being recognized. Hopefully Amazon is weighing this criteria heavily as well, as it would be in our favor.

I have a feeling the cost of housing and size of housing market is probably semi important to them. Not the most important, but yeah. Seattle is not a small city but it's also not big, and they are decently responsible for the rise in prices in parts of the area/city.

When they had the RFP, they stated they wanted metro areas of at least 1 million people. I don't think this just had to do with amount of talent and whatever. I think they fully know that putting 50,000 decently well paying jobs into a market that is too small will increase prices by a ton and potentially screw with some of the residents who are already there. Amazon is not going to have as big of an impact on the market in a place like Chicago or LA as it would in somewhere like Austin, Indy, or Columbus.

For some of these reasons, I think it'll essentially come down to the largest metro areas on the list.

[Chi-Sky21]

I have heard rumblings, reliable rumblings of All State moving, at least a somewhat large chunk of workforce out of Northbrook.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

I have heard rumblings, reliable rumblings of All State moving, at least a somewhat large chunk of workforce out of Northbrook.

Downtown?

[Chi-Sky21]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

Downtown?

They are looking at many different locations, not all in Illinois. Not sure on a timeline on this either.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

They are looking at many different locations, not all in Illinois. Not sure on a timeline on this either.

Well that's less than ideal. I've cancelled my policies with State Farm because they've moved literally thousands of middle class jobs to Dallas, Phoenix, and Atlanta. I know Allstate has a national presence, but splitting their HQ will certainly lead me to change providers again. I'm just one guy, but

[left of center]

Damn, that sucks. Allstate is HUGE. It would be a terrible loss if the HQ left Chicagoland.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by left of center

Damn, that sucks. Allstate is HUGE. It would be a terrible loss if the HQ left Chicagoland.

I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions at this point.

They might actually open a downtown office

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions at this point.

They might actually open a downtown office

That's what I'm hoping they'd do as well. It's a pretty big pain and a huge expense to set up shop in another state. I'd also assume that given their location, most employees are from Chicagoland. It'd be a huge loss for Glenview/Northbrook if they left. Great pick-up by the city if they go downtown. Anyone here have a direct line to Rahm? Queue him in...

Imagine a world where Chicago gets straight A's...Allstate, Amazon, and Apple