From the Saturday, Aug. 8, editions of The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …
The WISCH LIST
By Dave Wischnowsky
With the announcement that Kraft will uproot its headquarters from Northfield to the Loop, Chicago clearly has established itself as Illinois’ Big (Mac and) Cheese when it comes to attracting business these days.
But for our state, is this trend of corporations decamping from suburbia to for Chicago’s soaring skyscrapers just a hunk of Swiss?
As in, it has a bunch of holes?
Last week, following the Aon Center lease agreement signed by the recently merged Kraft Heinz, Chicago Tribune columnist Melissa Harris decreed this “The Decade of the City,” writing, “The suburbs are so over.”
Harris went on to list 34 reasons why the Windy City is blowing up, including the recruitments of Motorola Mobility and Sara Lee from Schaumburg and Downers Grove respectively, as well as Walgreens’ talks last year to uproot its HQ from Deerfield to Chicago.
That corporate flirtation wasn’t consummated, but plenty of others have been. Since 2007, at least 46 companies based in the suburbs have relocated part or all of their operations to Chicago gobbling up 3.4 million square feet of office space, according to data from real estate firm CBRE.
Other corporate heavyweights on that list include McDonald’s, Sears Holdings, Catamaran and Medline, all of which have opened satellite offices in the city. Data shows 2012 as the peak year for these moves with 13 companies migrating downtown from the suburbs to establish a 1.2 million square foot footprint in only 12 months.
“The trend is definitely downtown, without question,” Paul Reaumond, a senior vice president at CBRE, told the Tribune. “The goal is to be able to attract the younger workforce. It’s a shift in trends in how people work and urbanization.”
Now, there’s no doubt that the influx of jobs and tax dollars is a boon for Chicago – and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget. And as a city dweller who formerly commuted out of the city for work, sometimes driving as much as 2½ hours round-trip each day, I can appreciate the appeal of downtown offices. Most young professionals I know prefer to live and work in the city, rather than wrangling daily with Metra or the expressways.
At the same time, however, this growing trend is inarguably a bust for the burbs, and as a whole it leaves Illinois – already drowning in red ink – fiscally treading water at best.
Last week, Crain’s editorial board billed this dynamic our “regional case of schizophrenia,” and wrote that, “Downtown continues to be a magnet for companies that want to lure a young and educated workforce. But there’s no net gain for the region, and the suburbs are left with potentially gaping holes in their tax base.”
Much has changed in Illinois in the past 30 years when big companies such as Sears bolted the city for tax breaks and inexpensive land for their sprawling corporate campuses. It’s a plus to see those types of jobs now return to the city as a vibrant downtown is crucial for the regional economy. But at the same time, vibrant suburbs are vital for the state. The same goes for every other population elsewhere in Illinois.
The good news for our civic coffers is Kraft is making its move downtown without any government incentives. But rather than seeing Chicago just poach corporations from the suburbs, Emanuel, Gov. Bruce Rauner and the rest of our state leaders need to focus on fostering a region to which out-of-state companies want to relocate, bringing new jobs, citizens and tax revenue.
Because, while it may be great for me to live in Chicago during the “Decade of the City,” I’d much prefer to live in the “Century of Illinois.”