sz1998 wrote:JohnnyStick wrote:sz1998 wrote:UA has added hundreds of jobs this year at ORD, WT, and the Ops Center. These adds signal an even larger investment in Chicago. Keeping in mind, ORD remains their flagship hub.
They're not going to Denver no matter how much you stamp your feet lol.
The majority of hiring has been at ORD. UA has also hired hundreds of employees at each of UA's other hubs as well.
How do you know UA won't move their HQ to denver? Logically it would make sense. There isn't a location in the vicinity of ORD to build a large corporate campus like other airlines have. Maybe they can purchase AH racetrack from the bears, but property taxes would be insane. Renting from the willis tower isn't exactly ideal.
I work for a metropolitan agency in Chicago that works closely with regional stakeholders -- I would consider myself to be "in the know" about these discussions. United has never stated that they intend to leave Chicago, and when rumors were flying months ago, they repeatedly said to us and to the Governor that they have "zero intention or desire" to decamp from Chicago. The last three companies that "decamped" from Chicago didn't even do that -- Citadel, Boeing, and Caterpillar all kept their offices + full staffing levels here. Citadel and Boeing still have several C-Suites here, with no intention to move. Tyson, which closed all their national offices with forced relocations to Arkansas, lost all of their Chicago talent. Not one employee out of 900 took the paid relocation. Talent in Chicago, contrary to what you might think, does not relocate. The college educated population in Chicago is growing faster than anywhere else in the entire nation - it is the legitimate center of Big10 graduates. Corporations like UA know this -- and there's no amount of tax credits that could lure them away. Chicago's metro has double the population of the state of Colorado. UA cannot, and would not, be able to force relocate their talent from Chicago to Denver. They would suffer significant talent attrition and Denver lacks the talent pool to replace it. Sorry, just the facts.
Also, United does not need or want a "shiny corporate campus". Their corporate offices are spread across 15 interconnected floors in Willis Tower, which is among the most high-end and prestigious office spaces (and addresses) on the entire planet. In the age of hybrid work, more and more corporations prefer smaller geographic footprints like those offered at Willis Tower. The "shiny corporate campus" that might be common in suburban CO is dead -- those are not coming back, ever. If you think urban cores have depressed CRE values, boy do I have some suburbs to show you.
"There aren't any spaces within the vicinity of ORD for them to build a new campus." ...... O'Hare is surrounded by office towers + lots to the immediate east of the airfield. Please be serious. The Arlington Racetrack is ginormous site that not even the Chicago Bears (if they built a stadium there) could fill completely. It is borderline hysterical to think that you would even assume that a corporation like United Airlines would be interested in acquiring it.
As UA grows, it is more than certain that they will continue to add jobs in Denver, much as they continue to do in Chicago. There is nothing wrong with them doing this, and it won't come at the expense of Chicago. Delta has corporate offices in Minneapolis and Salt Lake City, but we never hear about them ditching ATL. UA having added staffing levels at DEN is not the end of their CHI HQ, if anything it is indicative of a healthy business continuing to grow.
Ya ok, i'm "in know too" lol. Whatever that means brah. Use some common sense. Unless youre in the C-suite at United all you're hearing is lip service. Nobody here knows what theyre going to do until they do it. Your points about Chicago have some merit but youre completely under weighing the benefits of moving to Denver which enjoys less crime, lower taxes and more real estate in close proximity to an airport with more expansive opportunities in the middle of the country. There are plenty of educational institutions in Colorado.
AA HQ's is roughly 300 acres.. so is arlington heights former race track that the bears own. It be a perfect location for United as it would allow them to create a large campus to house all of their company functions in one location like many other airlines have, and better allows coordination between different departments. But of course, United ain't dumb enough to do that, the property tax rates are insane in illinois. So much so that even the Bears are balking at it.
You mention "prestigious" commercial property.. you really think renting from Blackstone is in United's best financial interest long term versus owning their own land? You also mention the population differences between Chicago and Denver, yet Delta has no problem hiring talent in smaller Atlanta, Frontier has no problem in Denver, Alaska has no problem in Seattle, Spirit has no problem in Fort Lauderdale. Even a mega cap corporation like Amazon who's MAIN headquarters is located in Seattle with a population of only 4 million, less than half of chicago.
My point is, we dont know what united will do. but you certainly can't say it ain't gonna happen cause you think chicago is so great. it ain't great anymore and people are voting with their feet. United might too, and it doesn't help your cause when they file commercial projects paperwork for a campus accommodating 5,000 people in denver.
This whole notion that united needs more flight training space is hogwash. The peak hiring wave is over. Going forward, the airline will only need to hire roughly 1,000 pilots per year max. Theyve already hired enough pilots to cover retirements through the rest of the decade, everything going forward is growth only, which as we know, is heavily constrained atm by aircraft supply.
