CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[twister244]

Originally Posted by tintinex

My company grew a lot during the pandemic and we currently have way more people than desks but have been managing the space with hybrid work, however we are finally looking into new space in our building to expand. I bet several financial firms are in a similar situation

I think it's a combination of a few factors. Some companies are probably mandating return to office, but it's going to be a hybrid approach at best. Also, it's summer, so there's probably several people who just want to be in downtown because it's Chicago in the Summer. Who doesn't want to join colleagues at a rooftop after work for happy hour?

In any event, I take this all as really good news for the city. It will help mitigate some of the post-covid problems that are really plaguing cities like SF right now.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by tintinex

My company grew a lot during the pandemic and we currently have way more people than desks but have been managing the space with hybrid work, however we are finally looking into new space in our building to expand. I bet several financial firms are in a similar situation

Same. It's a shirt show sometimes and my company requires us to be in now with repercussions if someone is almost never in. We are looking at various people coming in different days because of how much over the desk number we are but it won't fix everything. We are looking at new office space but it's been slow..

[Steely Dan]

I've been 5 days/week in my office in the central loop for the past 5 months now and I 100% agree that the loop the past handful of weeks has been busier than any time I've seen it since the pandemic started. I went out for a 30 minute walk around the loop at lunch today and the place was hopping with people! It seriously felt like the loop of the before times. One popular sandwich place near my office even had a line of about 40 people coming out the door and down the sidewalk, just like the olden days. If you wiped my memory of the past 3 years and plunked me down in the loop this afternoon, I would have no idea that stupid fucking covid ever happened.

[sixo1]

Peoria Packing (which is, in my opinion, an awesome wholesale meat market) is moving to North Lawndale. The move/expansion will create 30 new jobs. Source. The site does not make sense, so I think the article has the wrong address.

And Gulfstream Aerospace is expanding in Metro East (downstate) with 200 new jobs. Source.

[pullmanman]

A couple of food industry expansions in the Chicago area that were in the news recently.

World's top dairy maker plans Chicago expansion after $3.2B Kraft deal

The world’s largest dairy maker, France’s Groupe Lactalis, is expanding in Chicago after a $3.2 billion deal to acquire cheese brands from Kraft Heinz Co.

The family-owned company plans to hire almost 100 people at its offices in the Windy City over the next year, according to Peter Cotter, chief executive officer of Lactalis Heritage Dairy — the business that runs the natural cheese brands bought from Kraft.

Lactalis, founded in 1933 and known for its President cheese, is now hiring to build out those areas and expects to have more than 850 employees at its Chicago offices by the end of the year. Lactalis Heritage Dairy represents 39% of the group’s total US business.

Lactalis says hiring is still challenging in engineering, manufacturing and other technical areas, but the company is confident it can continue bring in employees from firms that have decided to leave the city.

Parts Town Unlimited Ranks on Crain’s Chicago Business Fast 50 List for 10th time

Parts Town received its rank by reporting more than $1.83 billion in revenue in 2022, a 366% increase from 2017.

Parts Town is the leading, technology innovation-driven distributor of genuine OEM (original equipment manufacturer) foodservice, residential appliance and HVAC equipment repair parts. When there’s a hiccup with any piece of equipment, Parts Town is ready to jump in and help with the most in-stock parts on the planet, innovative technology, and an unmatched customer experience.

Parts Town is quite possibly the most generic business name you could pick, and of course restaurant part supply isn't an exciting industry. But they make a ton of money and have a lot of openings on their website! And Lactalis has a ton of engineering and analyst job openings posted as well. And to add to the in-office discussion that's been going on here, nearly all of Lactalis's postings are Hybrid, for their office space in 540 West Madison.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by bnk

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/empl...ars-record-low


Unemployment nearing record low around metro Chicago

By Greg Hinz

June 27, 2023 01:09 PM UPDATED 9 HOURS AGO

The Chicago metropolitan area is approaching a record-low unemployment level, according to federal survey data released by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. But at the same time, other federal data shows the state and metro area still haven't quite regained all the jobs they lost during the COVID-19 pandemic — a sign of the tighter-than-tight nature of the current

...

The city residents is above 2019 levels of employment . They could have easily said this in the article and didn't. Just sayin'..

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by marothisu

That's a big thing actually. If the Census doesn't know about an address bring a residence then it won't reach out and count it/potentially include it in their sample for ACS. There was a lot of work done in NYC and Chicago on this because there were tons of addresses unknown to the Census and thus not counted.

It was a mess in 2020. Down here we have *a lot* of quasi-official multi-unit buildings with more "households" than might appear from the outside, and mismatches between e.g. number of utility accounts, number of post office addresses, permit history, etc. We tried to communicate all of this and provide local insight on blocks and buildings that needed special attention for enumeration to the regional liaisons at the Bureau, and got crickets. Historical and current block level counts are suspect, in a place full of nosy neighbors who know the backstory and residents of every building on the block. It's impossible to get a straight answer on exactly what methods and sources they use for estimates let alone for even planning the mailings and in-person follow-ups for the decennial counts. Any and all communities with lots of semi-formal and informal housing stock and lower-income transient populations was almost assuredly undercounted in 2020, potentially by as much as 5% or more.

[jboy560]

More positive news published recently: Chicago ranks #2 for home price growth. In April, home price growth here was the second fastest among 20 major U.S. cities for the first time in memory. It’s been a very long time since we’ve ranked well on a list like this and, mixed with all the other positive news, anecdotes, etc. I’ve read on here, reinforces the feeling I have that something good is happening here. It seems the city has some solid momentum lately and it seems to be building.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/resi...e-price-growth

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by jboy560

More positive news published recently: Chicago ranks #2 for home price growth. In April, home price growth here was the second fastest among 20 major U.S. cities for the first time in memory. It’s been a very long time since we’ve ranked well on a list like this and, mixed with all the other positive news, anecdotes, etc. I’ve read on here, reinforces the feeling I have that something good is happening here. It seems the city has some solid momentum lately and it seems to be building.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/resi...e-price-growth

thats really not the full story. this is based on MSA data, which is metro. the real story is these gains are being fueled by the suburbs, while the City has seen multiple months of price declines. the below article uses a different data set (illinois realtor) as opposed to Schiller in your article but worth looking at these in tandem as it seems to reach a different conclusion for April

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/resi...inois-realtors

Home prices in the Chicago area finally lost their power to exceed those of the boom years, dropping in April for the first time in more than 10 years.

The median price of a home sold in the nine-county metropolitan area in April was $320,000, according to data released this morning by Illinois Realtors, a statewide professional group. That’s down 1.5% from the same time a year ago.

While prices were flat compared to their year-ago counterparts in the previous four months, the decline in April is the first clear sign that buyers aren’t going to continue meeting the highs they reached during the housing boom.

Although small, the 1.5% April decline is the first monthly year-over-year drop in Chicago-area median home prices since August 2012. At that time, as Chicago and many other metro areas were still struggling to pull up out of the 2008 housing crash, local home prices were down 4% from August 2011.

In the city, prices have been dropping for most of the past eight months and have now essentially wiped out all the gains made during the housing boom.

The metro-area price decline is about the same as the national figure. Home prices nationwide were down 1.7% in April, according to data released separately this morning by the National Association of Realtors.

In the city, the median April sale price was $340,000, down 8.1% from April 2022’s median, $370,000. It’s tied with December for the biggest year-over-year decline in city prices since February 2012, when prices were down 8.9%.

The city’s April 2023 median home sale price is just 0.6% above that of April 2020. The COVID pandemic was young then, and most home sales that closed that month would have been deals buyers and sellers made prior to or very early in the shutdown period. Prices at that time were up 9% from April 2019.

City median home prices have been down in seven of the past eight months compared to a year earlier and flat in the other month, September.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

thats really not the full story. this is based on MSA data, which is metro. the real story is these gains are being fueled by the suburbs, while the City has seen multiple months of price declines. the below article uses a different data set (illinois realtor) as opposed to Schiller in your article but worth looking at these in tandem as it seems to reach a different conclusion for April

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/resi...inois-realtors

I think we discussed this on here already but there's some major flaws in this article. They're comparing sale prices without looking at price per square foot, how many beds/baths, type of place, neighborhood, etc. No comps. Its looking at sale prices overall. I woukd expect this type of analysis out of a high schooler, not a supposed real estate expert. Theres 2 properties on my block to sell above list price and last sale price in the last 1.5 months. Both had bidding wars. Both last sale before was in the last year. Same unit as our condo in our building sold for over 6% higher than what we purchased it for last Spring too.

Comparing sale prices means jack shit if you aren't looking at all the above things. This is simple and im not sure why anyone is taking such a basic analysis as a gospel here. A year ago in some area, there could have been a bunch of 3 bedroom properties.selling, and now it's 1 bedroom properties. Sale price would be down in that case and had no bearing on actual property values because comps were not taken into account.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I think we discussed this on here already but there's some major flaws in this article. They're comparing sale prices without looking at price per square foot, how many beds/baths, type of place, neighborhood, etc. No comps. Its looking at sale prices overall. I woukd expect this type of analysis out of a high schooler, not a supposed real estate expert. Theres 2 properties on my block to sell above list price and last sale price in the last 1.5 months. Both had bidding wars. Both last sale before was in the last year. Same unit as our condo in our building sold for over 6% higher than what we purchased it for last Spring too.

well, in fairness your anecdotal examples dont carry much weight either. i live in south lawndale. i can promise you i havent seen what youre describing in my neighborhood. properties are sitting on the market for months even with price cuts

how is the Case Schiller data in the contrasting article any different? either way id prefer to isolate suburbs vs city to tease out any trends there

[galleyfox]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

well, in fairness your anecdotal examples dont carry much weight either. i live in south lawndale. i can promise you i havent seen what youre describing in my neighborhood. properties are sitting on the market for months even with price cuts

how is the Case Schiller data in the contrasting article any different? either way id prefer to isolate suburbs vs city to tease out any trends there

The Crain’s Illinois Realtor data doesn’t have enough information to even make a comparison to the Case Schiller, because they don’t have comps. A change in condo to house sales ratios could have radically changed the result.

Chicago is 1/3 of regional sales which would heavily impact regional trends in Case Schiller. But Case Schiller comps indicate that “city decline, suburbs grow” is too simplistic.

The median price of a home sold in the nine-county metropolitan area in April was $320,000, according to data released this morning by Illinois Realtors, a statewide professional group. That’s down 1.5% from the same time a year ago.

That’s according to data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices released this morning for April. Chicago-area single-family home values rose by 4.1% that month from a year earlier, according to the index, second only to Miami, where prices were up 5.2%.

Not really seeing many price cuts or egregious times on market for Cook County, which Chicago should dominate.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzuonEsXsAIKs_p.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzuqN4xXgAASFs5.jpg

South Lakefront sales look promising overall, which usually doesn’t happen in a catastrophic Chicago city housing market. Lots of new renovations coming to the market and selling in good time.




[ImG] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzuUq8NX0AQ0lKq.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzuWLyRX...jpg&name=large[/IMG]

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

well, in fairness your anecdotal examples dont carry much weight either. i live in south lawndale. i can promise you i havent seen what youre describing in my neighborhood. properties are sitting on the market for months even with price cuts

how is the Case Schiller data in the contrasting article any different? either way id prefer to isolate suburbs vs city to tease out any trends there

Agree about anecdotes but it was meant to illustrate that Chicago market depends on the neighborhood. I've looked at hundreds of recent sales for my area and prices are in fact increasing.

Case shiller looks at more than just overall sale price. it's about SFH and consistent quality. How is it different? Case Shiller looks at the sale prices of the same house between 2 arms length sales. That's not what Crains did or even close. They saw median sale price of Chicago was $N in this month and $X in this other month. They aren't looking at the price history of a given condo or house that didn't undergo any major work. The C-S Index is way more accurate than whatever Crains attempted to do. Although it's only for SFH. A year ago could have been dominated by sales resulting in renovation or newer luxury places where as today might be more diversified which leads to a lower price. They aren't looking at every single condo and looking back a certain number of sales, and looking at all that info on the whole.

Crains methodology can be explained in 2 sentences max. The Case Shiller methodology doc is 37 pages.

[Randomguy34]

South Korean Government To Back Two Logistics Centers Near Chicago, One in New Jersey

The South Korean government and a Seoul-based logistics company plan to invest $457 million on two new warehouse facilities near Chicago and another in New Jersey that would be used to store their country’s imports and exports.

CJ Logistics announced the strategic partnership with Korea Ocean Business Corporation, a South Korean government entity, in a statement Wednesday, which described it as a first-of-its-kind collaboration. The new logistics centers will prioritize handling import and export cargo of global and South Korean companies including online retailers, CJ Logistics said.

After the initial three projects, CJ Logistics and KOBC plan to invest together on logistics infrastructure elsewhere in the U.S. and in other countries, according to the statement.
....
One of the sites is in Des Plaines, Illinois....The other two sites are in Elwood, Illinois, southwest of Chicago and near BNSF and Union Pacific train terminals, and in Secaucus, New Jersey, with access to New York Harbor and John F. Kennedy International Airport.

https://product.costar.com/home/news/shared/1613833533

[sixo1]

This person used to post real-estate news and stats about Chicago on ChicagoNow, but that site no longer exists. So, now he posts data on his personal site: lucidrealty.com/blog/. I recall him often stating that the Illinois Realtor data being flawed. Maybe it is worth looking into his data.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by sixo1

This person used to post real-estate news and stats about Chicago on ChicagoNow, but that site no longer exists. So, now he posts data on his personal site: lucidrealty.com/blog/. I recall him often stating that the Illinois Realtor data being flawed. Maybe it is worth looking into his data.

Like the fact that looking at overall median sale price of 2 dates without respect for what the same properties sold for previously and/or comps is about as dumb as you can get with this?

[marothisu]

The BEA released their personal income stats by state last week for Q1 2023. Illinois is #5 for highest increase of per capita personal income Q1 2023 vs. Q1 2020 and also #5 for highest aggregate increase of personal income for those same dates, comparing. Again, anecdotes don't mean shit and the IRS data you see in various news articles is literally 3 years old right now.

Source: United States Bureau of Economic Analysis
https://www.bea.gov/data/income-savi...ncome-by-state

Changes in personal income Q1 2023 vs. Q1 2020 by state
1. California: +$424.83B
2. Texas: +$364.69B
3. Florida: +$293.61B
4. New York: +$179.75B
5. Illinois: +$125.01B
6. Pennsylvania: +$120B
7. Georgia: +$114.62B
8. North Carolina: +$112.78B
9. New Jersey: +$101.96B
10. Ohio: +$98.2B
11. Virginia: +$93.88B
12. Washington: +$89.88B
13. Massachusetts: +$87.69B
14. Arizona: +$83.78B
15. Michigan: +$81.68B
16. Colorado: +$76.93B
17. Tennessee: +$74.59B
18. Indiana: +$59.61B
19. Minnesota: +$59.46B
20. Maryland: +$57.6B

Changes in personal income per capita Q1 2023 vs. Q1 2020 by state
1. Massachusetts: +$13,045
2. Washington: +$11,946
3. California: +$11,904
4. Nebraska: +$11,358
5. Illinois: +$11,350
6. New York: +$11,348
7. New Jersey: +$11,131
8. Colorado: +$11,111
9. Connecticut: +$11,069
10. Oregon: +$10,619
11. North Dakota: +$10,601
12. Florida: +$10,493
13. New Hampshire: +$10,474
14. South Dakota: +$10,361
15. Virginia: +$10,208
16. Minnesota: +$10,168
17. Iowa: +$10,103
18. Maine: +$10,046
19. Nevada: +$9869
20. Utah: +$9830

[Randomguy34]

It seems like they'll want a larger space in the long term. That would jumpstart construction for either 315 N May or 400 N Elizabeth.

Chan Zuckerberg biohub will move to new space in Fulton Market

The new Chan Zuckerberg Biohub just moved into a new home in Fulton Market, but it's already planning for new digs.

The bioresearch hub, which was announced in March, quickly leased 25,698 square feet in a lab building at 1375 W. Fulton St. But now it's looking to occupy 28,200 square feet of space at 400 N. Aberdeen St.
....
“We’re going to build out a facility from scratch,” says Shana Kelley, president of the Chicago biohub. “We’ll have a clean room specialized for our purposes. We also want to have space to grow and to host visitors.”
....
Kelley, a Northwestern University researcher, says she has hired a half-dozen staffers and expects to “be up to 10 to 15 pretty quickly.” It will have 50 to 60 people by 2025. She plans to move into the new space in January.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...n-market-space

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

It seems like they'll want a larger space in the long term. That would jumpstart construction for either 315 N May or 400 N Elizabeth.

Chan Zuckerberg biohub will move to new space in Fulton Market

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...n-market-space

Wouldn't it make more sense to migrate to Lincoln Yards? If Sterling Bay wants to replace the office space with more residential and life sciences, this seems like a perfect fit to help jump start one of the new buildings there?

Obviously, this is good news either way as it's economic growth in the city. Just curious why these guys are more focused on the West Loop when we have a mega development trying to target these types of groups.

[Chi-Sky21]

Originally Posted by twister244

Wouldn't it make more sense to migrate to Lincoln Yards? If Sterling Bay wants to replace the office space with more residential and life sciences, this seems like a perfect fit to help jump start one of the new buildings there?

Obviously, this is good news either way as it's economic growth in the city. Just curious why these guys are more focused on the West Loop when we have a mega development trying to target these types of groups.

Where would you rather want to live work? Until Chicago defines and FUNDS some better transportation mode to LY AND just has a more livable environment...why would you go there?