CHICAGO—Motorola Solutions has decided to join the growing number of corporations that have traded their suburban headquarters for the convenience of a downtown tower. The global communications giant will soon occupy 150,000 square feet of space on six floors at 500 W. Monroe St., and bring about 800 jobs from Schaumburg to Chicago, a city it left nearly forty years ago.
“This location will help us attract talent that is critical to the Motorola Solutions of tomorrow,” Greg Brown, chairman and chief executive officer, said at a press conference held yesterday in the West Loop building. He was joined by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Although the company plans to keep a significant presence in Schaumburg, headquarters staff, data scientists, interface designers, analysts and many other technical workers will move downtown. Motorola will also locate its customer briefing center at 500 W. Monroe St., Brown added, bringing in a stream of customers, both domestic and international, as well as foreign dignitaries, saving them a trek out to the suburbs and helping the company showcase the city's downtown.
“This building is just steps from the major train stations,” he said, easing the commute for the many young city dwellers that firms like Motorola would like to recruit. The cell phone provider Motorola Mobility, for example, which was spun off several years ago into a separate company, recently moved from suburban Libertyville into space at Chicago's Merchandise Mart.
Katrin Reitsma, a research engineer with Motorola Solutions since 2009, is exactly the type of employee this move is meant to serve. “Working downtown makes sense for me because I live in the city,” the Wicker Park resident said at the press conference.
“I know exactly how long public transportation will take,” she said, “which isn't always the case with driving, especially in winter." She added that many of her co-workers “don't have cars.”
But that type of convenience is far from the only factor. “It's also important for me and my colleagues to network with other experts in the field,” she said, and downtown plays host to an array of conferences and meet-ups for engineers and software designers. The city is also home to 1871, the tech incubator in the Merchandise Mart, and many of the universities that will supply much of the company's future talent. “There is something about being downtown that inspires you.”
“It's clear that Chicago is where we need to be,” said Brown.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
