Tag Archives: Chicago

For Rent: Chicago Office Leasing Up Again

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Chicago office space

Entering Q3 of 2021, office rentals in downtown Chicago are beginning to fill up again. As businesses determine protocols for hybrid work models, more and more companies are seeking office space.

Chicago’s downtown firms leased 2.2 million square feet in Q3, nearly 20% more than 2020. Nevertheless, more than 20% of office space in downtown Chicago remained available for rent, mostly because tenants aren’t expecting to operate at full capacity and are not looking for big spaces. Some industry experts say that many of the leases being signed are for companies that gave up their rentals for the majority of 2020 and the beginning of this year. Lockdowns and cost-saving measures had these businesses working remotely; now they are looking to reopen an office and maintain a downtown presence.

The cost of rent also increased by 0.7%, with an average of $40.70 per square foot.

Balancing the Tech Workforce in Chicago

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As more and more investors ask companies to share the information reported to the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, the realities of workforce representation of minorities and women are gaining new attention. For many firms and businesses, including those in Chicago, increasing participation by Black and Latino workers in tech jobs is a top priority.

Diversity in Chicago Tech Jobs

Google, for example, has 1,200 workers in its Chicago offices; African Americans make up 2.2 percent of technical jobs. Latinos make up only 4.8 percent of these jobs in the tech-giants national employment base.

The executives at Chicago firms say they have all seen the benefits of diversity in their staffing schemes. A healthy sharing of opinions, constructive debates, and meaningful exchange of best practices are only some of the positives that come along with expanding the hiring base. Unfortunately, not all Chicagoans are optimistic. Carlton Gates, an African American recruiter for Yum! Brands based in Chicago, and a former employee of Oracle and Google, says the tech-verse has been “talking about diversity for 20 years, and not a single thing has changed.” According to Gates, there is a tribal vibe on engineering teams, where little to no cultural or ethnic crossover happens.

With all this in mind, local companies with open tech vacancies are looking for new resources and pipelines to identify talent. They are also taking measures to modify the interview processes to abate bias and address issues that might be unique to minority populations.

Diversity in Chicago Tech Jobs

Chicago is Reopening

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Chicago is open for business! After 18 months of Covid-19 concerns, Chicago’s museums, restaurants, and attractions are back.

Businesses across Chicago are reopening.

For many of the diners and eateries in the Loop, the reopening has been a nuanced blessing. Their primary customer base- employees and visitors of local companies- have not yet fully returned to the office. They need a steady stream of customers to supplement the delivery and take-out business that has kept them going thus far. And those professionals who are beginning to head back to the office favor these establishments for a quick coffee break,  lunchtime, or post-work meal.

Eateries and attractions in and out of the Loop are eager to welcome customers.

With many new restaurants to check out across Chicago, there are countless options for a long-overdue meet-up with friends, a business lunch with colleagues, or a romantic date night.

One Company’s Layoffs Is Another Company’s Hires

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Chicago skyline seen from Cortland Street Drawbridge. Photo courtesy of John G. Suhayda.

Computer hardware engineers who got the axe last September during a massive downsizing at Motorola’s Chicago headquarters soon found that they were in demand by some of the country’s most successful high tech companies.

It was only a matter of weeks before these newly unemployed engineers were fielding job offers from company’s like Google, Facebook and Apple, who held recruiting events. Amazon also made offers to several of the engineers.

What were these computer-high tech giants hoping for? Mostly to bring these highly skilled workers back home to Silicon Valley. In the case of Google, however, their goal was a bit different, and unique. The search engine giant used the Motorola layoffs to recruit hardware engineers, for the first time, to work in their Chicago office. Until this time Google’s only Chicago hires had been for jobs in software development.

Some of the former Motorola engineers who were at the meeting said that Google had organized a gathering within two weeks of being fired. There were at least 200 hardware engineers in attendance, all of which had been fired by Motorola. During an information session the Google reps demonstrated some of its new hardware products and then discussed bringing jobs in computer hardware development to their Chicago office for the first time.

Rumors Rising that Cake Boss Might Settle Down in Chicago

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Bartolo Buddy Valastro. Photo by Jen Knoedl
Bartolo Buddy Valastro. Photo by Jen Knoedl

Buddy Valastro, reality TV celebrity baker, is considering locating a new branch of Carlo’s Bakery in Chicago. Valestro, who is from New Jersey, has been enthralling his fans with his incredible baked creations at his bakeries all over the country, and he is now ready to bring his craft to the Windy City.

The headquarters of Cake Boss, Valastro’s own bakery, is in Hoboken, New Jersey, Valestro’s home state. There are now six New Jersey locations, one in Philadelphia, another in Las Vegas, and one in New York. He also owns nine bakeries on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

The reality TV show, called Cake Boss, takes place in the various Carlo’s bakery locations.
According to Nicole Valdes, Carlo’s spokesperson, “[Valastro] goes to Chicago multiple times a year and I think Buddy can’t travel anywhere without thinking of opening a bakery.”

This summer Cake Boss was stationed in Chicago for the TLC Summer Block Party at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Chicago Losing Lucas Museum

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George Lucas. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
George Lucas. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

George Lucas announced he was taking his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art project out of the Windy City due to objections to the project made by a city watchdog group.

Filmmaker Lucas, of Star Wars fame, could take his project back to California. The museum was first proposed for construction in San Francisco, but that city refused to give Lucas a site which overlooked the San Francisco Bay so Lucas brought the project to Chicago where he received support from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Friends of the Parks, a green area protection organization, filed a lawsuit to prevent the museum’s construction on valuable lakefront property next to Soldier Field. Mayor Rahm is a vehement supporter of the museum despite coming under criticism for the past several months for that support. Opponents of the museum say Emanuel has been spending too much effort on getting the Lucas Museum built when the city has much more important problems which should be dealt with. The Mayor answered his critics by saying the city is missing a great opportunity:

“This missed opportunity has not only cost us what will be a world-class cultural institution, it has cost thousands of jobs for Chicago workers, millions of dollars in economic investment and countless educational opportunities for Chicago’s youth.”

Lucas also expressed frustration with the city:

“No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot. The actions initiated by Friends of Parks and their recent attempts to extract concessions from the city have effectively overridden approvals received from numerous democratically-elected bodies of government.”

Chicago Number One on the Unemployment List

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Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff (2009-2010), Mayor of Chicago since 2011
Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff (2009-2010), Mayor of Chicago since 2011

February saw a rise in the City of Chicago’s unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, and increase of .3 percent over last year. This explains why Mayor Rahm Emanuel is working so hard to bring jobs to the city.

One explanation for the rise comes from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The IDES blamed the rise at least partly on the fact that more people are actively looking for jobs recently, as the economy seems to be improving.

The poor job situation is just one more crisis Emanuel has been dealing with lately. He has also been taking the heat for the high crime rate, the poor performance of the city’s schools, and the large pension debt, to name just three.

Businesses in Chicago have been feeling the pinch, and have expressed their unhappiness about the large property tax increase that arrived in Chicago this year to help alleviate the pension problem. There is a fear that this new tax could persuade some businesses to flee the city, or how much of a presence they choose to have in Chicago.

The greater Chicago metro area, including Naperville and Arlington Heights also saw a rise in unemployment: from 6.5 percent a year ago to 6.7 percent in February. The area ranks in first place of the 51 metro markets in the country with populations of one million or more with the highest unemployment rate, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Las Vegas comes in second with a 6.5 percent rate of unemployment.

Chicago Home Sales Up in 2015

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Despite a downturn in the rate the rest of the country is taking out mortgages, the Chicago area has seen an upward spike in home loans at the end of 2015 as compared to the same time period the year before.

In addition, area re-financing also grew during the fourth quarter of 2015, rising at a rate of over double the national average.

Chicago-region buyers received 20,870 mortgages to purchase homes during the last three months of 2015, representing an increase of 3 percent over the last quarter of 2014 when 20,275 mortgages were acquired. In the rest of the country the national average of purchase mortgages fell by one percent.

The number of mortgages taken by home buyers is not a direct measure of the total number of homes purchased, since some people do not use a mortgage to buy a home, if they have enough cash. The Chicago area experienced a 6.6 percent overall rise in home sales for 2015 as compared to 2014.

Redmoon Theater Lowering the Curtain

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static1.squarespace.comRedmoon Theater, a Chicago tradition for two and a half decades, announced last week that it was shutting down permanently. The performance company said they were no longer able to properly support their “unique artistic vision.”

The company stated in a letter to the public that:

“It has been an honor to serve the city of Chicago for the past 25 years. We have been blessed to work in and with over 40 of Chicago’s 77 official neighborhoods and to bring our unique brand of spectacle to some of our finest institutions; to many of the city’s most revered public sites; and most importantly to some of its most overlooked neighborhoods.”

Recent attempts to revitalize the flagging company ended poorly. The 2014 Great Chicago Fire Festival drew 30,000 people to the celebration at the shores of the Chicago River. Unfortunately, the main spectacle, which was supposed to “celebrate Chicago’s grit, greatness, and renewal following the fire of 1871” did not come off as planned. Floating sculptures on the river that were supposed to burst into flames failed to ignite due to cold and rainy weather. Redmoon was highly criticized for the failure.

The company also tried to start a rental business in its most recent venue. Complications and failures which led to a lawsuit for $62,082.22 for unpaid rent in September and October. Phillip Mumford, who is seeking those damages, is due to meet Redmoon in court later this week.

“Our consolation at this sad moment is that Redmoon is bigger than this non-profit institution,” the statement continued. “It is a spirit that survives us. It lives in you, our patrons and partners. It is a memory sown into each of the sites that have hosted us. Most of all, we are consoled that Redmoon’s mission to celebrate and uplift community is a shared concern powering amazing, if under-recognized, activity all over this great city.”