McDonald's Is Moving Headquarters To Chicago's West Loop
By Mae Rice in News on Jun 13, 2016 6:19PM
International Egg McMuffin powerhouse McDonald's is moving its headquarters to Chicago, the company announced Monday. McDonald's has signed a lease in the West Loop, at 1045 W. Randolph St., and the company to have fully relocated its Oak Brook, IL headquarters to the new building by spring of 2018.
McDonald's CEO, Steve Easterbrook, said in a statement that the "world-class environment" of Chicago would help the company by, among other things, "ensuring great talent is excited about where they work." (Subtext: No one liked working in Oak Brook.)
The move will kick off McDonald's second stint in Chicago. The company was also headquartered here from 1955 through 1971; hence Mayor Rahm Emanuel's statement, which began "McDonald's, welcome back to sweet home Chicago."
“I'm proud to welcome [McDonald's] to our dynamic city, and proud that their new headquarters will be part of the growing West Loop dynamo," Rahm continued, concluding, extremely thirstily, "I can't wait to break ground and cut the ribbon.”
Okay, dude.
So far, plans for the West Loop site—which once housed Oprah's Harpo Studios—include offices and one of McDonald's seven talent development centers worldwide, all of which are called Hamburger Universities.