Wave of company exits sends chill by way of Chicago’s enterprise elite
Google expanded its footprint in Chicago final Wednesday, asserting an settlement to purchase a postmodern landmark within the Loop in a much-needed jolt to the guts of the town’s central enterprise district.
The tech big’s intent to purchase the James R Thompson Middle constructing, designed by Germany-born architect Helmut Jahn, from the state of Illinois got here because the Chicago enterprise neighborhood takes on a momentous job: combating a story that firms are fleeing the area.
Boeing introduced in Could that it might commerce its headquarters in a tower in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood for its campus exterior of Washington, DC. In June, Caterpillar, recognized for its shiny yellow earthmoving tools, determined to shift its base from a Chicago suburb to a metropolis close to Dallas.
A 3rd blow landed the next week, when billionaire Ken Griffin introduced that his hedge fund Citadel would relocate its main workplace from a Loop skyscraper to Miami.
The string of high-profile exits has bruised Chicago’s repute as a big-shouldered capital of commerce.
“Chicago has a good enterprise neighborhood, so it is definitely disappointing that all of them left,” Roger Hochschild, chief government of suburban Chicago-based Uncover Monetary Companies, advised the Monetary Occasions.
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