NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT MANAGERS
18
By Ken Robertson
Central Regional
President for KBS
FLIGHT TO
Downtown
" The employment market is
fiercely competitive for young
talent, especially in today's
hyper-connected world ..."
M
cDonald's is one of the world's most celebrated brands
with some 36,000-plus restaurants in more than 115
countries. While we may be talking hamburgers, Happy
Meals and McFlurries here, this fast food behemoth is now one
of the latest major companies taking part in sweeping trends
impacting the way advanced industries work.
This summer, McDonald's announced plans to move its 88-acre Oak Brook,
Illinois, headquarters where it's been since 1971 to Chicago's vibrant West
Loop neighborhood. This announcement comes on the heels of a recent
trend of companies relocating their operations from more generic, typically
suburban locations to bustling live, work and play city cores.
Early this year, General Electric announced that it plans to trek to one of
the hottest real estate markets in the country — Boston's Seaport District,
restyled the South Boston Waterfront, from its 20-plus-year home in Fairfield,
Connecticut. In late 2014, Toyota announced it would move its headquarters
housing nearly 5,000 jobs from Torrance, California, to Plano, Texas, and the
examples go on.