CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[marothisu]

The 2019 ACS (5 year) came out a few weeks ago. I haven't had a lot of time to go over it but one thing I did recently look at was change in households making $100K+. There are a few community areas with some crossover in other CAs, but it's small. The geographic components being compared are the same.

In total, only 9 of the 77 community areas actually lost households in this category. Multiple areas actually lost overall occupied housing units but gained in $100K+ households: Lincoln Square, Forest Glen, Archer Heights, West Elsdon, Portage Park, Montclare, Belmont Cragin, Greater Grand Crossing, Mount Greenwood, Clearing, North Center, Armour Square, Dunning, Roseland, Jefferson Park, and Washington Park.

2018-2019 Change in $100K+ Households
1. Near North Side: +2006 households
2. Lincoln Park: +1831 households
3. West Town: +1684 households
4. Lake View: +1323 households
5. Logan Square: +1264 households
6. Near West Side: +1155 households
7. Portage Park: +898 households
8. Lincoln Square: +833 households
9. Avondale: +824 households
10. Near South Side: +760 households
11. Edgewater: +757 households
12. Lower West Side: +644 households
13. Austin: +470 households
14. Norwood Park: +464 households
15. Bridgeport: +452 households
16. South Shore: +432 households
17. West Ridge: +422 households
18. The Loop: +403 households
19. Hyde Park: +401 households
20. Chatham: +398 households
21. Uptown: +355 households
22. Rogers Park: +351 households
23. New City: +348 households
24. Humboldt Park: +340 households
25. Chicago Lawn: +335 households
26. West Lawn: +312 households
27. West Pullman: +284 households
28. Forest Glen: +282 households
29. Morgan Park: +281 households
30. Ashburn: +279 households
31. Albany Park: +269 households
32. North Center: +266 households
33. Irving Park: +263 households
34. Gage Park: +260 households
35. O'Hare: +257 households
36. Auburn Gresham: +250 households
37. Greater Grand Crossing: +227 households
38. Dunning: +218 households
39. Hermosa: +209 households
40. Archer Heights: +194 households
41. South Chicago: +172 households
42. Brighton Park: +160 households
43T. Garfield Ridge: +145 households
43T. North Park: +145 households
45. Kenwood: +140 households
46. Mount Greenwood: +123 households
47. Belmont Cragin: +115 households
48. East Side: +110 households
49T. East Garfield Park: +109 households
49T. Montclare: +109 households
51. West Elsdon: +108 households
52. Roseland: +102 households
53. Douglas: +98 households
54. Edison Park: +97 households
55T. Clearing: +85 households
55T. South Lawndale: +85 households
57. Armour Square: +77 households
58T. Oakland: +75 households
58T. West Garfield Park: +75 households
60. Jefferson Park: +74 households
61. Woodlawn: +46 households
62. McKinley Park: +41 households
63. Grand Boulevard: +35 households
64. Calumet Heights: +32 households
65. Riverdale: +26 households
66. South Deering: +19 households
67. Avalon Park: +5 households
68. Washington Park: +1 households
69. Fuller Park: -7 households
70. Pullman: -17 households
71. Burnside: -22 households
72. Beverly: -23 households
73. Washington Heights: -27 households
74. North Lawndale: -36 households
75. Hegewisch: -61 households
76. West Englewood: -78 households
77. Englewood: -116 households


2018-2019 $100K+ Households Percent Change
1. New City: +39.01%
2. Lower West Side: +33.25%
3. Chatham: +32.28%
4. Archer Heights: +29.17%
5. West Garfield Park: +28.2%
6. Greater Grand Crossing: +25.25%
7. Chicago Lawn: +23.83%
8. Gage Park: +23.68%
9. Avondale: +23.37%
10. Riverdale: +22.61%
11. Oakland: +21.55%
12. East Garfield Park: +19.85%
13. South Shore: +19.79%
14. West Pullman: +18.44%
15. Hermosa: +18.1%
16. South Chicago: +17.9%
17. West Lawn: +17.6%
18. O'Hare: +16.32%
19. Humboldt Park: +16.18%
20. Bridgeport: +15.92%
21. Auburn Gresham: +14.01%
22. Portage Park: +13.86%
23. Lincoln Square: +12.88%
24. Hyde Park: +12.3%
25. Lincoln Park: +11.25%
26. Logan Square: +11.2%
27. Austin: +11.13%
28. Brighton Park: +11%
29. Near South Side: +10.83%
30. Armour Square: +10.65%
31. Edgewater: +10.47%
32. East Side: +10.31%
33. Morgan Park: +10.02%
34. Montclare: +9.74%
35. Near West Side: +9.54%
36. West Town: +9.45%
37. West Elsdon: +9.26%
38. Rogers Park: +8.91%
39. Douglas: +8.25%
40. North Park: +7.72%
41. Ashburn: +7.57%
42. Forest Glen: +7.44%
43. Near North Side: +7.2%
44. West Ridge: +7.06%
45. Norwood Park: +6.55%
46. Albany Park: +5.96%
47. Kenwood: +5.82%
48. Lake View: +5.65%
49. South Lawndale: +5.56%
50. Roseland: +5.26%
51. Uptown: +4.55%
52. Dunning: +4.54%
53. Clearing: +4.2%
54. McKinley Park: +4.18%
55. Irving Park: +4.16%
56. Edison Park: +4.14%
57. The Loop: +3.73%
58. Mount Greenwood: +3.72%
59. Woodlawn: +3.57%
60. Garfield Ridge: +3.44%
61. South Deering: +3.44%
62. North Center: +3.26%
63. Calumet Heights: +2.95%
64. Belmont Cragin: +2.77%
65. Jefferson Park: +2.01%
66. Grand Boulevard: +2%
67. Avalon Park: +0.74%
68. Washington Park: +0.3%
69. Beverly: -0.62%
70. Washington Heights: -1.41%
71. Pullman: -4.17%
72. North Lawndale: -4.42%
73. Hegewisch: -7.05%
74. Fuller Park: -9.59%
75. West Englewood: -10.06%
76. Burnside: -17.74%
77. Englewood: -23.2%

2018-2019 100K+ Change to Total Household Change Ratio
i.e. for every change in 1 total housing, this many $100K+ households were added. Asterisk (*) next to the name means there was an overall reduction in occupied housing units but a gain in $100K+ households. CAs that lost $100K+ households not included:

1. Lincoln Square (*): 416.5
2. North Park: 72.5
3. Forest Glen (*): 25.64
4. Lincoln Park: 25.43
5. Morgan Park: 20.07
6. Archer Heights (*): 11.41
7. Gage Park: 9.29
8. West Elsdon (*): 7.71
9. O'Hare: 7.34
10. West Lawn: 7.09
11. Portage Park (*): 6.8
12. Montclare (*): 6.41
13. Ashburn: 6.34
14. Belmont Cragin (*): 6.05
15. Edison Park: 5.11
16. Chicago Lawn: 4.35
17. Bridgeport: 3.9
18. Norwood Park: 3.8
19. West Ridge: 3.77
20. West Garfield Park: 3.57
21. Avondale: 3.28
22. Lower West Side: 3.13
23. Garfield Ridge: 3.02
24. Logan Square: 2.93
25. Near West Side: 2.84
26. West Town: 2.46
27. Greater Grand Crossing (*): 2.36
28. Hermosa: 2.18
29. Mount Greenwood (*): 2.08
30. Albany Park: 2.05
31. Clearing (*): 1.98
32. Edgewater: 1.92
33. Lake View: 1.81
34. Brighton Park: 1.8
35. Irving Park: 1.74
36. Chatham: 1.69
37. Hyde Park: 1.64
38. North Center (*): 1.59
39. East Side: 1.57
40. Near North Side: 1.52
41. East Garfield Park: 1.51
42. West Pullman: 1.42
43. Near South Side: 1.41
44. Armour Square (*): 1.4
45. Auburn Gresham: 1.29
46. New City: 1.15
47. Austin: 1.07
48. Dunning (*): 1.05
49. Humboldt Park: 0.9
50. The Loop: 0.76
51T. South Shore: 0.72
51T. Woodlawn: 0.72
53. Douglas: 0.69
54T. Rogers Park: 0.64
54T. South Lawndale: 0.64
56. Roseland (*): 0.63
57. McKinley Park: 0.6
58T. Jefferson Park (*): 0.55
58T. Oakland: 0.55
60. Kenwood: 0.53
61. South Chicago: 0.5
62. Uptown: 0.46
63. Calumet Heights: 0.45
64. Riverdale: 0.32
65. Grand Boulevard: 0.21
66. South Deering: 0.19
67. Washington Park (*): 0.08
68. Avalon Park: 0.05

Top 25 Overall for Total $100K+ Households
1. Near North Side: 29,855 households
2. Lake View: 24,743 households
3. West Town: 19,496 households
4. Lincoln Park: 18,110 households
5. Near West Side: 13,263 households
6. Logan Square: 12,554 households
7. The Loop: 11,219 households
8. North Center: 8417 households
9. Uptown: 8165 households
10. Edgewater: 7987 households
11. Near South Side: 7779 households
12. Norwood Park: 7544 households
13. Portage Park: 7377 households
14. Lincoln Square: 7302 households
15. Irving Park: 6588 households
16. West Ridge: 6396 households
17. Dunning: 5021 households
18. Albany Park: 4780 households
19. Austin: 4691 households
20. Garfield Ridge: 4361 households
21. Avondale: 4350 households
22. Rogers Park: 4292 households
23. Belmont Cragin: 4264 households
24. Forest Glen: 4072 households
25. Ashburn: 3964 households

2019 Top 25 Overall Percentage $100K+ Households
1. North Center: 59.72%
2. Forest Glen: 58.41%
3. Lincoln Park: 55.9%
4. The Loop: 54.14%
5. Near South Side: 53.71%
6. Edison Park: 52.32%
7. Near North Side: 52.22%
8. West Town: 51.55%
9. Mount Greenwood: 51.3%
10. Beverly: 49.22%
11. Near West Side: 46.35%
12. Lake View: 46.27%
13. Norwood Park: 44.14%
14. Logan Square: 41.5%
15. Lincoln Square: 39.8%
16. Jefferson Park: 36.15%
17. Garfield Ridge: 35.45%
18. Portage Park: 32.81%
19. Dunning: 32.44%
20. Irving Park: 32.04%
21. Avondale: 31.89%
22. North Park: 30.86%
23. Ashburn: 30.2%
24. Morgan Park: 29.42%
25. Albany Park: 28.27%

2019 Top 25 Overall Total $200K+ Households
1. Near North Side: 14,065 households
2. Lake View: 9973 households
3. Lincoln Park: 8526 households
4. West Town: 7276 households
5. Near West Side: 4838 households
6. The Loop: 4372 households
7. North Center: 4020 households
8. Logan Square: 3980 households
9. Near South Side: 3146 households
10. Edgewater: 2273 households
11. Uptown: 2139 households
12. Lincoln Square: 2031 households
13. Norwood Park: 1890 households
14. Irving Park: 1888 households
15. Forest Glen: 1605 households
16. Portage Park: 1519 households
17. Hyde Park: 1494 households
18. West Ridge: 1420 households
19. Beverly: 1204 households
20. Avondale: 1073 households
21. Edison Park: 956 households
22. Albany Park: 954 households
23. Kenwood: 869 households
24. Rogers Park: 776 households
25. Bridgeport: 766 households

2019 Top 25 Overall Percentage $200K+ Households
1. North Center: 28.52%
2. Lincoln Park: 26.32%
3. Near North Side: 24.6%
4. Forest Glen: 23.02%
5. Near South Side: 21.72%
6. The Loop: 21.1%
7. Edison Park: 20.51%
8. West Town: 19.24%
9. Lake View: 18.65%
10. Near West Side: 16.91%
11. Beverly: 16.09%
12. Logan Square: 13.16%
13. Hyde Park: 11.24%
14. Lincoln Square: 11.07%
15. Norwood Park: 11.06%
16. Mount Greenwood: 10.04%
17. Irving Park: 9.18%
18. Kenwood: 9.08%
19. Avondale: 7.87%
20. Edgewater: 7.76%
21. North Park: 7.59%
22. Uptown: 7.01%
23. Portage Park: 6.76%
24. Jefferson Park: 6.73%
25. Morgan Park: 6.58%

[IrishIllini]

News around the Mag Mile has been very doom and gloom...

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

News around the Mag Mile has been very doom and gloom...

Um, care to elaborate?

[wchicity]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Um, care to elaborate?

Macy's at Water Tower Place, the flagship Gap, and Express all announced closings within the last week.

To be honest, when tourism rebounds, I think Mag Mile will rebound. The above brands weren't exactly high growth or trendy by any means pre-COVID. All were heavily reliant on tourism, as they all have other locations in other city neighborhoods.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by wchicity

Macy's at Water Tower Place, the flagship Gap, and Express all announced closings within the last week.

To be honest, when tourism rebounds, I think Mag Mile will rebound. The above brands weren't exactly high growth or trendy by any means pre-COVID. All were heavily reliant on tourism, as they all have other locations in other city neighborhoods.

Macy's is the only one there that truly "hurts" there - i wouldn't say they have much in the way of trendy things but they still carry a few good quality brands. Macy's hasn't exactly been great business wise in the last handful of years. Lost in this story is the fact that Macy's is closing 45 stores in 2021, with Water Tower Place being merely 1 of the 45.. and they closed nearly 30 stores in 2020.

[Chi-Sky21]

I wonder if they will update that part of the building, put in more windows maybe instead of giant blank slab facing the street above ground level? I think those floors are mostly retail and not mechanical.

[Chicago_Forever]

^ Exactly! I think this is an opportunity for the owner of WTP to do a facelift of the building which I hope would include getting rid of the blank walls.

[SIGSEGV]

yeah WTP is kind of lame to be honest.

[IrishIllini]

^^ Let use this as an opportunity to cut off the western half of the base and do something better.

[Kngkyle]

The exterior definitely needs a facelift. I hope whatever comes to replace it isn't more boring retail. An esports arena would be pretty cool.

Just googled to see if there was something like that in the Chicago area. Looks like there will be soon enough-
https://www.chicagotribune.com/colum...tz4-story.html

[SIGSEGV]

One thing WTP could potentially accommodate is a giant indoor climbing wall. Not sure what the economics of that are though!

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

^^ Let use this as an opportunity to cut off the western half of the base and do something better.

I was just thinking the same thing. . . punch out the walls and sub-divide the space for scenic dining opportunities?

. . .

[Rizzo]

WTP can no longer sit idle unchanged. Prior to the pandemic, the food levels were crazy and crowded with nowhere to sit. The upper retail levels in contrast were dead.

They can keep the lower levels of retail, but I'd like to see the blank box on top turned into a glass box with a large high end food court / winter garden. It would be a welcome place to shop and dine in the winter months. If you recall the old top floor of Chicago Place Mall, it was the only thing that functioned in that building. Something more architecturally striking could be a large attraction. I don't know if it's simply punching out some panels in the facade wall or something more structural. I have no idea how the office space above is performing.

[nomarandlee]

As important as a reutilization and redesign of WTP is there has been a lot of handwringing in the media about Michigan Ave in general. What do you think are the best things the city could try to push for in order to make it vibrant again.

Two things I've thought of are new pavers for the street, road diets on both Michigan Ave the E-W streets that cater more to pedestrians, and pushing public/private pedestrian plazas over Grand (east of Michigan) and hopefully finally getting pedestrian plazas built south of Nordstroms with a great new building so that the whole area becomes more of a district.

But there are cheaper or more imaginative things that could be done? Closing down the street (other than to buses) on Sundays? More trees? More street furniture?

[SIGSEGV]

North Michigan most drastically needs a bus lane, as anyone who has ever taken the 146 will tell you. It would help for ambulances getting to NM too.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

As important as a reutilization and redesign of WTP is there has been a lot of handwringing in the media about Michigan Ave in general. What do you think are the best things the city could try to push for in order to make it vibrant again.

Two things I've thought of are new pavers for the street, road diets on both Michigan Ave the E-W streets that cater more to pedestrians, and pushing public/private pedestrian plazas over Grand (east of Michigan) and hopefully finally getting pedestrian plazas built south of Nordstroms with a great new building so that the whole area becomes more of a district.

But there are cheaper or more imaginative things that could be done? Closing down the street (other than to buses) on Sundays? More trees? More street furniture?

All those ideas are good, but they don't fix the 2020/2021 problem. Post pandemic, tourism will return to Michigan Ave. It will not prevent the loss of those major retailers. That was always bound to happen. There's just alot of large buildings that need to be replaced or renovated into more suitable commercial spaces. I know it may not happen, but the old Apple Store, Gap, Saks should be redeveloped into taller mixed use structures. Also, new retail has opened in the Oak and Rush area that were vacant a couple years ago. The old Barney's is also under renovation at the moment into multi-tenant retail / event space.

[marothisu]

A few pieces of good news including 2 companies getting very recent major (and one major major) rounds


Chicago tech companies raised $2.8B in 2020 as pandemic doesn't slow VC funding

https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/...8-billion.html

The Covid-19 pandemic didn't slow down the amount of money flowing to Chicago's startups in 2020 as the city's tech scene raised nearly $3 billion in venture capital funding last year.

In an increase from 2019's decade high of $2.2 billion, Chicago tech companies raised $2.8 billion in 2020, according to a new report from Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association. It's the most raised in Chicago since Pitchbook began tracking VC statistics in 2006.

Despite new highs in Chicago VC funding, the majority of capital remained concentrated in the country's traditional tech hubs. The Bay Area ($61.5 billion), New York ($19.3 billion), L.A. ($19.3 billion) and Boston ($16.9 billion) were far and away the top cities for VC funding in 2020. Chicago also fell behind Seattle, which raised $4.5 billion last year, but outpaced cities like Austin ($2.3 billion), Denver ($2.6 billion) and Atlanta ($2 billion).

Siemens, Others Invest in Digital Transformation Leader ThoughtWorks

https://www.builtinchicago.org/2021/...es-720m-hiring

Global software consultancy ThoughtWorks announced Thursday it raised $720 million from GIC, Siemens AG, Fidelity Management and Research LLC and Mubadala Investment Company, which it will use to buy back equity from current investors and expand its international footprint.

In short, ThoughtWorks helps its clients design, build and execute digital products. Founded in Chicago in 1993, the company has become a leader in agile software development, spearheading the digital transformation of major brands like Delta, Porsche and the Australian Red Cross along the way.

Now, more than 25 years later, ThoughtWorks has more than 7,000 employees around the world, and is valued at $4.6 billion.

Enfusion Gets $150M Cash Infusion, Valuing Company at $1.5B

https://www.builtinchicago.org/2021/...estment-hiring

On Monday, Enfusion announced that it received a $150 million investment from ICONIQ Growth. This minority investment values the Chicago-based fintech company at $1.5 billion and sets it up for further growth.

..

In addition, the company also grew its team by 78 percent in 2020. Enfusion has offices across the world, and is currently hiring in several of them — including its Chicago HQ.

[twister244]

Seeing those VC numbers really puts things into perspective. I was reading an interesting discussion in City Discussions about Austin's "draw". With the amount of attention it gets, you would think it would be raising far far more than Chicago, yet it's behind. Also, maybe I just need to do my research, but why exactly doesn't Chicago have more VC pouring into it? Is it just legacy, tax policies, or otherwise?

Just curious.....

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by twister244

Seeing those VC numbers really puts things into perspective. I was reading an interesting discussion in City Discussions about Austin's "draw". With the amount of attention it gets, you would think it would be raising far far more than Chicago, yet it's behind. Also, maybe I just need to do my research, but why exactly doesn't Chicago have more VC pouring into it? Is it just legacy, tax policies, or otherwise?

Just curious.....

Well per capita obviously Austin is well ahead. I think it's mostly legacy in that Chicago is thought of more of a "corporate" place than a startup place. Though Motorola, which invented the cell phone and pioneered global communication a few decades to early would in an alternate universe would be dominating things instead of being bought by Lenovo, is a Chicago company, so there are some roots...

Attempts are being made to stem the flow of UIUC/NW/UW/PU/ND engineering talent and NW/ND/UC MBAs to SV, hopefully with some success.

[marothisu]

Yes, obviously Austin does well per capita. It beats most places in that category. A lot of what they have from a media perspective though is absolutely corporate. They are far more known as having offices for companies like Apple than being a top place for startup money. They punch well above their weight there, but still.

Chicago is definitely corporate too but in another sense. As I've written about for years, because I have experience in this...there's a ton of tech people in Chicago working as consultants doing some very well known work for well known clients all around the world, but you'll almost never know about it unless you are in that industry.

Actually Crains has an article about the company above who got the $150M funding. Same story there. Chicago has a ton of tech talent, but a bit of it is working as consultants or in the financial industry. People who are not exposed to the entire tech ecosystem are really none the wiser. There's a reason Chicago has top 5 (i think) tech work force in the US. And to be completely honest, I've worked for a tech giant and a financial giant ...the work for the financial giant was actually more challenging tech wise than the tech giant.