That would be fantastic news if the Governor can get it done.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/morning_call/2011/05/will-sears-move-hq-to-ohio.html

Wow. That's just unthinkable.

 

Edit:

 

Here's a couple more reports....

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/print-edition/2011/05/13/wisconsin-likely-to-try-and-lure-sears.html

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0510-sears-headquarters-20110509,0,3780421.story

It's all about the tax incentives...

^Yeah, and I'm sure Sears is just trying to get Illinois to cough up. A company would have to hate money to not make a pretend move in this climate.

^Yeah, and I'm sure Sears is just trying to get Illinois to cough up. A company would have to hate money to not make a pretend move in this climate.

 

Exactly.  I dont see it as anything more than that. 

Although, I can see why Cincy would be an attractive market for a retail/CPG giant.  the amount of talent and support infrastructure in this region for these type businesses is considerable on a global scale.

 

EDIT:  If they were smart they would talk to Boone County.

W&S probably wants them in their new tower.

^In the latest snippet in the now-renamed thread, they hinted about a condo tower at 3rd and Broadway, no longer talking about a new W&S headquarters. Who knows what they are thinking.

 

Here is the first Sears HQ, later abandoned. It's in an absolutely terrif.... awful area of Chicago that is finally seeing some new investment, but much of the old HQ and plant surrounding it has either been demolished or is being rehabilitated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears,_Roebuck,_and_Company_Complex

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=building&lng=3&id=117500

 

In 1974, they moved from here into the new Sears Tower, and when that didn't work out, back into the suburban office campus they have today.

I don't get the excitement. Sears is a dying brand. Currently owned by a hedge fund. It could disappear tomorrow. The Gov must like the idea that Edward Lampert only pays 15% on this "income".

I think part of the excitement would just be winning one of these things, after seeing plenty of them (NCR, etc.) go the other way.

Would be a great addition to the already considerable amount of F500 HQ's in the region.

Illinois has become one of the most unfriendly business environments in the country. Sometimes companies will move the hq to reboot (rarely works - see NCR). Cincy does have the benefit of having the infrastructure that supports Macy's already (which is basically the dominant mid to up level department store right now). Sears is really two or three different companies going in different directions - the hedge fund part is all about extracting value from the real estate, the softer side of Sears is still a joke, while the hard side (Craftsman, Kenmore, et al.) still has a dominant place in the market even if it has been hurt by housing collapse. Sears remains big in Canada and don't forget KMart is part of the Sears family now.

Sears still does OK in online sales due to its heavy presence on Amazon, I would think.  But the stores themselves are a dying brand for sure.

Sears remains big in Canada and don't forget KMart is part of the Sears family now.

 

I think this will accelerate their decline. Kmart has been the big loser with Walmart and Target's growth, closing hundreds of stores since their bankruptcy around 2003. The number remaining in Ohio must be half of where it was at peak, if not more.

Kmart Sucks

If bringing a company like this to Ohio with incentives. Wouldn't that make other companies that here already want the same deal? Like AG?

What's AG?  (Not placing the initials.) 

American Greeting. The company itself is looking at Illinois. Kinda of ironic companies want to leave Illinois but companies like AG wants to move there where it has higher taxes. It's all about who's going to put up more money.

Kmart and Sears has to be the worst combo. I remember reading about the hedge fund takeover and it was a pure money grab. It involved huge bank loans. Like most hedge funds, they pile on the debt, take their cut then leave.

 

Unless MTS buys his shoes there I can't see a future for either.

Kmart and Sears has to be the worst combo. I remember reading about the hedge fund takeover and it was a pure money grab. It involved huge bank loans. Like most hedge funds, they pile on the debt, take their cut then leave.

 

 

Boy, that sounds just like what the Mafia would do in busting out a vulnerable business. Except they usually set the building on fire at the end and collect the insurance money.

The idea behind the merger was the KMart and Sears owned a lot of land that had value separate from the retailers themselves and the hedge fund would be able to extract value from the land (end: it hasn't worked all that well since too much of their land is in declining retail strips).

 

Sears has a very mid-century corporate culture - heavily unionized and hierarchical. It has had a hard time getting nimble.

 

 

Unless MTS buys his shoes there I can't see a future for either.

 

Boy if that doesn't get him back posting on UO, I don't know what will....

 

AG has written off the Illinois option. They're only looking in NEO at this point.

 

Sears looking for 1M square feet, maybe in Ohio

 

Sears Holdings Corp.bizWatch is circulating a request for proposals for more than 1 million square feet as it explores moving its corporate headquarters out of Chicago, according to sources familiar with the company’s search.

 

The Washington Business Journal reports that Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD) is eyeing a move to Ohio, North or South Carolina, New Jersey, Texas, Georgia or the Washington, D.C., area as tax breaks in Illinois expire. A company spokeswoman cautioned that the process is in its early stages and Sears has made no decisions, the paper reported.

 

cont

Corporate extortion.

No better than when Georgia offered better incentives than what Ohio offered for NCR in Dayton. Or the lack of incentives that Ohio offered. A company is no longer tied to a physical location, or to a city seemingly, especially if they compete on a global scale. It's all about the bottom line - incentives, tax breaks. Corporate giants can always afford to relocate given a strong enough reason - sentiment rarely plays into it anymore, unfortunately.

 

If Ohio wants to play hardball, offer all it has got for Sears. It's corporate extortion, but if it isn't Ohio, then it may be North Carolina. Or Georgia...

No better than when Georgia offered better incentives than what Ohio offered for NCR in Dayton. Or the lack of incentives that Ohio offered.

 

My understanding has always been that the package NCR received to stay in Ohio was more generous than what Georgia offered.

In 2009, Ohio offered NCR $31.1 million to stay in Ohio.

 

Ohio Job Retention Tax Credit, $28,613,813

Rapid Outreach Grant $2,000,000

Workforce Guarantee Grant $500,000

 

Georgia offered $60 million :(

It goes both ways, though. No one wants a bad corporate citizen. One that is likely to pack up and leave the second a massive tax break expires may simply not be worth having around, and not worth offering incentives. Unfortunately, as corporations get more bold in their demands, too many states and municipalities aren't catching on and play the game for a quick & fleeting "win".

Is this still the case: "The Business Courier recently reported that Ohio Gov. John Kasich was working with Western & Southern Financial Group CEO John Barrett to lure an Illinois company to Cincinnati."

 

It'd be amazing to have Sears in Cincinnati, especially if it reinvented itself.

 

And though I hate the "corporate extortion" thing, it's nice to see Ohio fighting back in an aggressive way. The NCR deal was not aggressive at all. Georgia sniped them, plain and simple.

 

Maybe Sears would build a new tallest tower in Cincy?

Don't get your hopes up too much... :shoot:

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-report-sears-considering-washington-dc-area-for-headquarters-20110620,0,7253494.story

A new tower would have to be built where it chooses to relocate. I don't think there is 1M SF of space under one building in any of Ohio's downtowns. The next question is. Who would take the risk of building a tower if the company ends up leaving again after their incentives have ended?

this project would be a perfect fit for jacob's cleveland public square property  :wink:

What makes you all so sure that they want a tower.... or even a downtown location?

My guess is that they don't.  Pleasant surprises are welcome though.

Sears learned the hard way that an office tower may not be the most efficient for a commercial operation. Their Sears Tower was a debacle for the company.

I'm actually not a fan of towers. Sears would be smarter to buy a few blocks in OTR and make their HQ there.

 

:laugh:

Hey, one can dream :-D ... I just hope any place in Ohio can land Sear's since other states especially ILL likes poaching from us :shoot:

they moved out of the sears tower to the burbs in 1992. the current hq is 2.5M/sq ft of suburban office park hell:

 

http://www.searsholdings.com/careers/about/corporate-headquarters.htm

 

doubting dc will get this -- ohio has a chance. it would fit right in with high volume retailers like the limited in cols and macys in cinci. beyond the bribery, i think that kind of 'synergy' might be an attractive incentive to bolt.

A new tower would have to be built where it chooses to relocate. I don't think there is 1M SF of space under one building in any of Ohio's downtowns. The next question is. Who would take the risk of building a tower if the company ends up leaving again after their incentives have ended?

  Key Tower. 1.5M SF.

I thought Cincinnati was the only place under consideration in Ohio because of that one developer guy there was was on top of it....

 

Oh yea here from the first post:  "The Business Courier recently reported that Ohio Gov. John Kasich was working with Western & Southern Financial Group  Western & Southern Financial Group Follow this company  CEO John Barrett to lure an Illinois company to Cincinnati. Read that story here."

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/print-edition/2011/04/29/kasich-western-southern-chief.html

 

 

In 2009, Ohio offered NCR $31.1 million to stay in Ohio.

 

Ohio Job Retention Tax Credit, $28,613,813

Rapid Outreach Grant $2,000,000

Workforce Guarantee Grant $500,000

 

Georgia offered $60 million :(

 

I bet NCR spent more than $29.9 million moving.

A new tower would have to be built where it chooses to relocate. I don't think there is 1M SF of space under one building in any of Ohio's downtowns. The next question is. Who would take the risk of building a tower if the company ends up leaving again after their incentives have ended?

  Key Tower. 1.5M SF.

 

Tower City Center -- 2,852,000 square feet all under one roof

Key Center -- 2.07 million square feet under one roof (1,537,847 SF in Key Tower, 385,000 SF in Marriott Hotel, and 147,089 SF in Society for Savings)

Huntington Building -- 1.3 million square feet

200 Public Square -- 1.2 million square feet

Tower at Erieview & Galleria -- 1 million square feet all under one roof

 

So there.

A new tower would have to be built where it chooses to relocate. I don't think there is 1M SF of space under one building in any of Ohio's downtowns. The next question is. Who would take the risk of building a tower if the company ends up leaving again after their incentives have ended?

  Key Tower. 1.5M SF.

 

Tower City Center -- 2,852,000 square feet all under one roof

Key Center -- 2.07 million square feet under one roof (1,537,847 SF in Key Tower, 385,000 SF in Marriott Hotel, and 147,089 SF in Society for Savings)

Huntington Building -- 1.3 million square feet

200 Public Square -- 1.2 million square feet

Tower at Erieview & Galleria -- 1 million square feet all under one roof

 

So there.

 

Looking back I think unusualfire may have meant 1m sf of contiguous space available for lease in Ohio's downtowns. True in that case.

Sears (and Motorola) is featured in this article about how having an insular campus in a far flung burb makes companies go soft and get less competitive as their workforce is less in touch with trends and changing times.  And how it is harder to attract young bright talent.  This is one of the reasons they state for abandoning their current digs....so Sears may have seen the error of their ways..  The biggest problem with Sears Tower was the huge lower floors designed for catalog call center stuff (that probably should have been off site in a campus type building)....they are a nightmare to re-purpose as the windows are so far!  They still have problems renting it.

 

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110528/ISSUE01/305289984/crains-special-report-corporate-campuses-in-twilight

Interesting...what timing.  It looks like it will be Huntington's new headquarters in Cleveland...but I wonder how much space is avail and how much is coming on the market in the next couple years.

 

http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=cincinnati&sParam=36796033.story

 

"A 41-story skyscraper in the center of downtown Cleveland is up for sale"

 

This from Wiki

"The building, located on Public Square in Downtown Cleveland reaches 45 stories and 658 ft (201 m) and holds 1.2 million square feet (111,000 m²) of office space."

well, wont the Huntington building be completely empty soon? and sears could buy it for an astonishingly low price, considering what the last people bought it for.

Interesting...what timing.  It looks like it will be Huntington's new headquarters in Cleveland...but I wonder how much space is avail and how much is coming on the market in the next couple years.

 

http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=cincinnati&sParam=36796033.story

 

"A 41-story skyscraper in the center of downtown Cleveland is up for sale"

 

This from Wiki

"The building, located on Public Square in Downtown Cleveland reaches 45 stories and 658 ft (201 m) and holds 1.2 million square feet (111,000 m²) of office space."

 

200 Public Square is also 90 percent occupied, so Sears won't be going there.

 

 

well, wont the Huntington building be completely empty soon? and sears could buy it for an astonishingly low price, considering what the last people bought it for.

 

Not at all. The 1.3 million-square-foot Huntington Building is 74 percent occupied right now. True, its occupancy will certainly drop after Ernst & Young as well as Tucker Ellis & West move out of the Huntington Building. Ernst & Young has 1,200 employees and 226,000 square feet in the Huntington Building, 917 Euclid Ave., while Tucker Ellis & West has 200 employees and about 90,000 square feet. When Huntington Bank moved out of the Huntington Building, it opened up only about 100,000 square feet.

 

So according to this graphic...

 

http://media.cleveland.com/pdgraphics_impact/photo/9046029-large.jpg

 

....the Huntington Building's occupancy will fall below 50 percent after the office component of the Flats East Bank project is completed in 2013. I don't think Sears is willing to wait that long and I don't think the Huntington Building will offer enough space for Sears.

 

However the 21-story East Ohio Building is completely vacant, and the 23-story Key Bank Center across East 9th Street will soon be 18 percent vacant. So if these buildings could be updated and connected, the East Ohio Building's 340,000 square feet and the Key Bank Center's 477,000 square feet could provide more than 800,000 square feet to someone like Sears.

If Sears was even looking at Dayton or Cleveland, which from the article posted, is not. I'd take it in any city - no preference, so I'm curious as to why they are looking at Cincinnati for Ohio when there are plenty of other potential choices.

 

And a corporation need not be all in one building. Before the completion of Queen City Square in Cincinnati, Great American Insurance was spread over four buildings!

Great American Insurance was spread over four buildings!

 

Five (really six as Dixie Terminal consists of two buildings)

If Sears was even looking at Dayton or Cleveland, which from the article posted, is not. I'd take it in any city - no preference, so I'm curious as to why they are looking at Cincinnati for Ohio when there are plenty of other potential choices.

 

And a corporation need not be all in one building. Before the completion of Queen City Square in Cincinnati, Great American Insurance was spread over four buildings!

 

It appeared from the initial article that Kasich was pushing Cincinnati