CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[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.

[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.

[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....

[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

[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

[jboy560]

“Chicago area named best spot for corporate investment for 11th year in a row”

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/econ...te-selection#/

[bnk]

Originally Posted by jboy560

“Chicago area named best spot for corporate investment for 11th year in a row”

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/econ...te-selection#/

yep I am famous for posting this here.



https://siteselection.com/issues/202...y-for-more.cfm

From Atlanta based Site Selection magazine, March 2024


Hungry for More: Chicagoland Claims No. 1 Spot for 11th Year in a Row
by Adam Bruns

...












Power Players

Chicagoland claims a narrow win over No. 2 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas, which tallied 452 projects, edging out fellow Texas metro Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, which had 413 projects. From there it’s a significant drop-off in project totals to the 215 tallied by metro New York and 141 in metro Atlanta. The Top 10 finish out with Phoenix, Boston, Indianapolis and Austin — Phoenix and Indy jumping into that elite group from outside the Top 10 last year.

...


Chicagoland Economic Partnership (GCEP). In Site Selection’s inaugural “America’s Best Counties” rankings last summer, four GCEP counties were among the Top 20. Cook County was No. 2 with 231 projects, DuPage County was No. 9 with 91 projects. Kane and Will counties ranked 14th and 16th spots with 52 and 48 projects, respectively. It also doesn’t hurt that the city, Cook County and the suburbs host a total of 894 tax-increment financing districts.

“One-third of growth capital investments in the first quarter of 2023 went to startups located in the suburbs,” says Andrew Hayes, vice president and director of marketing and communications for World Business Chicago, a sign of the spread of Chicago’s legendarily robust entrepreneurial ecosystem. “Our critical status as an industrial market and international trade hub for the Midwest is reinforced by historic low vacancies, growing rents and strong leasing demand,” he says, “driven by our competitive advantages, including excellent transportation infrastructure.”

...


In a recent report called “The Bright Side of Office,” Cushman & Wakefield noted, “Chicago’s diverse labor pool, central location, infrastructure and quality of life combine to make the city an economic powerhouse. Chicago is a top destination for recent Midwest college graduates, regularly contributing to the 44.3% of the city’s population having a bachelor’s degree or higher.” Moreover, not only does that young talent tend to reside near the city’s core, thus encouraging infill development of retail and multifamily, but Chicago was live-work-play by instinct, before it became a thing. “These attributes combined with a relatively low cost of living when compared to other major markets makes Chicago a prime candidate for both residential and business growth,” Cushman & Wakefield stated...




...

Chicagoland Economic Partnership (GCEP). In Site Selection’s inaugural “America’s Best Counties” rankings last summer, four GCEP counties were among the Top 20. Cook County was No. 2 with 231 projects, DuPage County was No. 9 with 91 projects. Kane and Will counties ranked 14th and 16th spots with 52 and 48 projects, respectively. It also doesn’t hurt that the city, Cook County and the suburbs host a total of 894 tax-increment financing districts.





...


11 years in a row!!!

[Randomguy34]

Lol I hope Chicago never drops in ranking cause Crain's will write dozens of articles saying the city is doomed

[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%