My offer is this....NOTHING! (on the tax break-i dont care about the park access)
Why would Chicago give a 11mil tax break? If SF thought they could accomplish their hiring goals elsewhere they would do so. They have a building in Indianapolis. Chicago's assets should be enough. And the prime riverfront real estate should not be compromised to a low ball offer. |
Hmmmmm... this is a lot to digest. I guess if it means anything, it does show how much people want this lot. I'll wait to see how this develops, because I don't want to promulgate half-baked opinions about something that we might only have half the story for, such as this video wall.
I don't understand the tax incentives though... Definitely expect the city to give in there and give them some, but that just pure greed. :/ |
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I'm usually pretty cynical when it comes to announcements, but if this and One Chicago actually get built, then this will be such a remarkable time for Chicago architecture.
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Besides, this should not be a big deal. Even public parks get closed off from time to time for private events |
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I'm guessing they will settle on something as far as tax break - maybe not full $10M, but at least a few if not handful of millions. I just saw a rendering for what they want to do at the SF tower. If that's what they want to do here, then that's not bad at all. Only thing I find weird about their demands is about usage of the land that's supposed to be public. That's kind of over the edge IMO. If they want to hold private events on this stuff, they should have to go through the same process everyone else has to go through with the city.
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The more I think about this, the more I think that SF’s requests won’t be that hard to fulfill, perhaps with a bit of negotiating here and there. We do need to keep the riverfront tasteful, after all |
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But if not, then whatever. I don't think their stuff is crazy and I don't think that $10M tax abatement is a massive deal when you have 5000 new decently well paid to well paid people coming (let's say half come in from elsewhere though). I think they can make it work where the city and/or state doesn't get screwed. It's also a hell of a lot better than what everyone wants to throw at Amazon in terms of tax breaks. |
What is the likelihood of the design being changed with Salesforce?
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I swear I could be mayor of this place, we’d already halfway through constructing their new tower by December with me doing the negotiating :D |
If the "Video Wall" an art installation like what's at the top of their San Francisco tower then I am down with that.
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BTW, the Tribune article states that the city already refused their $10M abatement request. It also says that they're considering the fire station site at Dearborn & Illinois and that they wanted to go to the new Bank of America Tower, but B of A got naming rights instead. Sounds like Sales Force really wants their name on things. I'm wondering if the fire station redevelopment might win out..
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...822-story.html |
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Either way, this is pretty huge - 5000 workers. I mean even if just 1/10th of that is new to the city, it could easily justify development of a new residential high rise or two. |
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I would argue the naming rights + prominent landmark tower at Wolf Point, even without a sign or video wall, are better for Salesforce's branding than a middle-height tower covered in Salesforce logos that gets lost in the shuffle. |
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1) The walk from Union Station to WPS would be 1 mile. From Ogilvie it's around 3/4 of a mile. I would bet money that if they had enough people coming into those stations, they'd just run some shuttle service. There are people who would walk that, but I don't think it's as close as you think maybe. If they don't have a lot of people coming from the suburbs, then the Fire Station is arguably a better site only because it's in between the Red, Brown, and Purple lines. Although I think WPS is better in terms of statement making, beauty (i.e. the river), and the potential to advertise if they were allowed to. My office in Chicago was at the Hyatt Center (Wacker & Monroe). Straight shot walk to the Red Line was a half mile. Great when it was nice out, but it was kind of pushing it for that walk during winter. I would hate to walk double that in winter. Personally from a pure location standpoint, I would love to work in a tower at WPS with an amazing view though. 2) The current Salesforce Office in Chicago is at 111 W Illinois. The Fire Station redevelopment is at 444 N Dearborn, which is basically around 50 W Illinois. This is literally less than 500 feet east of their current office, where they have over 1000 employees. |
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I have no problem with them shutting down the park for private events but they should be careful to not let them find a loop hole to make it private year round. As far as the taxes, they'll definitely get something out of it but not the original ask. Just my opinions. |
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