Omaha tore down an entire historic district in 1988, now it might regret it

[woodrow]

Originally Posted by mhays

Some of you seriously overestimate the value of "cheap" cities for HQs.

Being in a big, urban city can have huge benefits, like the ability to recruit the best talent, better flight connections, being close to synergistic relationships, etc.

Con-Agra sounds like a logical move based on what a lot of companies want. But the point is true that a company that moves once might not be terribly permanent.

This - it is easier to recruit talent to Chicago than to Omaha (or KC or Indy or or or). Plus the local talent pool is just deeper.

Oh. And in ConAgra's case, the newish President/CEO lives in Lake Forest, IL.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by woodrow

And in ConAgra's case, the newish President/CEO lives in Lake Forest, IL.

i think he lives in winnetka.

either way, six of one / half dozen of the other.

[UrbanNebraska]

I don't think anyone was arguing the decision behind the move was a necessarily bad one for the company. I think the issue is what the city gave up in order to meet their demands 25 years ago and now is left with neither the HQ or the building stock.

ConAgra is still keeping ~1500 employees in the city as well. Omaha will still be the largest collection of employees in the company. The HQ operations is taking 300 jobs from here and they are consolidating with their office in Naperville when they move to Chicago.

The biggest blow is the 1000 that are being completely laid off not moved. Those jobs will probably be outsourced. This CEO did the exact same thing when he was CEO at Hillshire and Sara Lee.

[woodrow]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

i think he lives in winnetka.

either way, six of one / half dozen of the other.

Potayto - Lake Forest - Chicago Magazine

Potahto - Winnetka - urbanrealestate.com

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by woodrow

Oh. And in ConAgra's case, the newish President/CEO lives in Lake Forest, IL.

And that's probably the main reason they're moving. Corporate relocations are almost tied to where the CEO lives. Very odd and illogical but true.

Researchers have mapped out corporation relocations over the last 50 years or so, and you can almost always predict the movement by looking where the CEO lives. It isn't a coincidence that as wealth moved to suburbia in the postwar era, corporations soon followed, and usually very close to the most affluent suburban areas that tend to hold upper management.

[PEORIA]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

with the recent news that caterpillar is planning to lay off ~10,000 people, i've heard that their snazzy new HQ plans in peoria have also been put in jeopardy....

We got duped in late January 2017.