Oak Brook Braces For Potential McDonald's Move To Chicago
(CBS) -- Oak Brook village officials say McDonald's has hinted at a move for some time. They conceded this week their green leafy suburb doesn't necessarily match the corporation's newer generation of workers.
"Young people like to be downtown for nightlife, and a lot don't have cars nowadays. It's a different lifestyle," Village Manager Riccardo Ginex says.
Millennials often reject jobs because of a business's location.
Stepped into a McDonald's lately? They're experimenting with fresh, not frozen, burgers.
The new all-day breakfast went from test market to nationwide rollout in just six months.
"Nowadays, it's a much more nimble, much more fast-paced company," says Morningstar's R.J. Hottovy.
It's a new management style that may not fit with McDonald's sprawling and expensive-to-maintain, 150-acre suburban campus in Oak Brook. Getting more of their 2,000 employees under one roof, say analysts, is key to the company's current goals.
Oprah Winfrey's former Harpo Studios in the West Loop is reported to be the new home for Mcdonald's. The 300,000-square-foot site was purchased for $30 million by developers planning a new urban-chic structure.
"It's definitely something we hoped wouldn't happen," Oak Brook's Ginex says.
Oak Brook property owners pay no municipal taxes, so the village doesn't face losing those types of funds. It has successfully brought in companies to relocated office parks before.
