CHICAGO—Officials of Peoria, IL-based Caterpillar Inc. made a big splash last week by announcing they would soon relocate to suburban Deerfield. Instead of leasing a new office in the CBD, Caterpillar reached a multi-year leasing agreement with Corporate 500 office park, and expects about 100 employees to relocate this year, with about 300 people in the new headquarters by mid-2018.
The move is a bit against the grain, as so many suburban firms have recently decided to shift their operations downtown. But it is probably a mistake to read too much into the decision, or to believe it's the start of anything like a trend.
“It is an old line, industrial manufacturing company, and its millennial population is probably limited,” Richard Gatto, Oak Brook, IL-based executive vice president of Alter, tells GlobeSt.com. Many companies base their real estate decisions on whatever will best attract and retain employees, and unlike for Caterpillar, usually that means millennials. “They also probably have a lot of executives who want to live on the North Shore.”
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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.
