Chicago Living - Relocation Guide 2008 - (Page 71)

World Business ChiCago offers this snapshot of ChiCagoland: • Home to 124 corporate headquarters, second only to New York City • Home to 30 Fortune 500 company headquarters • Home to 12 Fortune Global 500 company headquarters • No. 1 city for air travel: 134 domestic and 69 international nonstop destinations can be reached via either O’Hare International or Midway Airports • Trader Monthly magazine named Chicago its No. 1 trading city in the world in 2007 the Chicago region also boasts a strong scientific base, with at least five major employers operating research and development facilities in the area. All this economic and business diversity is definitely beneficial for area workers, particularly newcomers. “Chicago is a pretty easy place to move to because it’s basically America’s most diverse economy, Marker says. “That’s good ” news for the relocating employees’ accompanying individuals, because it means they have lots of choices, too. ” The Chicago area’s 10 largest companies (ranked by 2006 revenue) are all household names: BP America; J.P . Morgan, Chase & Co.; Zurich Financial Services; Boeing Co.; Mittal Steel; Sears; Robert Bosch GmbH; Walgreen Co.; Motorola, Inc. and ALDI Group. Other top companies based within 2008 Chic a go L i ving the city limits of Chicago include AON Corp., Tribune Co. and Global Hyatt Corp. Many leading companies are based in the suburbs, including Baxter International, Inc. in Deerfield and W.W. Grainger in Lake Forest. To the west, Naperville hosts Office Max, Inc., while Rosemont is home to Reyes Holdings LLC, a major food and beverage distributor. And to the south, a large regional office of the Canadian National Railway Co. is located in Homewood. The Chicago region also boasts a strong scientific base, with at least five major employers operating research and development facilities in the area. These include Alcatel-Lucent (telecommunications) and BP America (chemicals and petrochemicals) in Naperville, the Argonne and Fermi National Laboratories (government-sponsored science) in Argonne and Batavia, and Pfizer (pharmaceuticals) in Skokie. According to Marker, the Chicago area’s broad range of housing stock is an important consideration for companies considering relocation. “When we talk to companies about relocating here, they tend to be very concerned about where their employees would live, he ” says. “We realize our housing diversity gives us a strategic advantage in attracting businesses to the region. ” Nowadays, as the national housing market has softened considerably, the housing prospects in Chicagoland will be tops on any potential relocating employee’s list. According to Marker, the Chicago housing market wasn’t nearly as over-inflated as many others, so is suffering less. “Chicago is still an excellent housing market in terms of value for your money and choice of housing stock and neighborhoods available, especially compared to places like New York, Boston, San Francisco or Los Angeles, he says. “When you ” compare the quality of life and available amenities and what you have to pay for housing, Chicago remains an exceptional value. That fact may only get better moving forward. ■ ” The 2007 Fortune 500 list includes 33 firms based in Illinois. Only New York, Texas and California have more Fortune 500 companies. — Source: Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity c h i c a g o l i v i n g m a g. c o m 71 http://www.chicagolivingmag.com

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Chicago Living - Relocation Guide 2008

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