Playboy HQ "Probably" Leaving Chicago

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 27, 2010 9:00PM

While promoting the Friday opening of Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel at the Siskel Film Center, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner told Metromix's Matt Pais that it's likely Playboy enterprises will consolidate all of its operations to the West Coast.

The news comes on the heels of a Crain's Chicagorealestatedaily.com story that Playboy put its headquarters on the 15th and 16th floor of the Playboy Building up for sublease. Playboy has seen declines in revenue and circulation for years, posting a net loss of $53.1 million in 2009. Playboy CEO Scott Flanders has said that reducing overhead expenses is imperative.

What goes unspoken there is that the biggest overhead expense Playboy can cut is Hefner's extravagant lifestyle, which the 84-year-old Steinmetz high school graduate regards as an earned right. Hefner told Pais that he feels Playboy Enterprises is undervalued and feels taking the company private with a new group of investors.could be just the tonic that ails the company's fortunes, if not keep Hef in Diet Pepsi, silk pajamas and women you can barely tell apart from afar.