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The Sears Tower is easily one of the most recognized features in Chicago's skyline. Beyond being one of the world's tallest skyscrapers, though, the building is indicative of something else: the prosperity of the suburbs.

Back in 1989, the building's owner — Sears, Roebuck and Co. — announced plans to pack up and leave its sky-high home for a site that would cost less to operate. Following an eight-month search of 50 possible locations in and out-side Illinois, the company chose northwest suburban Hoffman Estates for its new, sprawling office park. By 1994, all of Sears' offices were based in the suburb.

To snare the company, village officials gave Sears some financial incentives, including a multimillion dollar property tax break to help pay for road improvements, land acquisition and other costs. In addition, the company was able to cash in on the deal by purchasing about 800 acres next to its campus to develop for profit, says Peggy Palter, Sears' spokeswoman.

Sears, which sold the tower after moving out, is not the only — nor the first — Chicago company to head for the 'burbs. Michael E. Ebner, professor of history at Lake Forest College, says most people think of businesses leaving Chicago for the suburbs as a recent phenomena, "but that really isn't the case at all.''

In fact, Searle, a pharmaceutical company now in Skokie, moved out of Chicago as early as 1942; in 1959, Motorola, now based in Schaumburg, left Chicago for the cheaper land and lower taxes in Franklin Park. More recent corporate mergers have spurred some movement, as well. BP Amoco, for instance, closed its Chicago office for new digs in DuPage County after Amoco merged with British Petroleum Co. in 1998.

And as the jobs moved to the suburbs, so did the people who had them.

Today, it would appear the suburbs are winning a tug-of-war for economic development, as Chicago's once-strong hold on the job market in the area is slipping. In 1972, Chicago offered 56 percent of all private sector jobs in the Chicagoland area, including Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties. By 1990, that had fallen to 39.3 percent. It was 34 percent in 1997, the most recent year figures are available, according to an Illinois Department of Employment Security study.

Further, between 1997 and 1999, 42 percent of all new office construction in the Chicago area occurred in western DuPage County, with 28 per-cent of new construction happening in Lake County, 17 percent in the northwest suburbs and the remaining 13 percent in Chicago and the south suburbs, according to the Metropolitan Planning Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan planning group.

But it would be wrong to predict that the suburbs will get all of the area's economic development. Chicago and its suburbs will always offer different attractions for different kinds of companies, says Ann Keating, an associate professor of history at North Central College in Naperville who is working on an encyclopedia of Chicago history that will cover the area's economic geography.

Chicago offers energy with its high concentration of economic activity, including the Chicago Board of Trade. The city also offers access to a large labor force and a more comprehensive public transportation system than the suburbs. As well, the city boasts world-class cultural attractions: theater, museums and a bevy of major league sports teams, amenities that Keating says make people want to live in the city.

Still, the suburbs can entice workers by promising less crime, larger lawns and stronger school systems. They can offer employers cheaper land, which allows for sprawling office parks and free parking. And, given the property tax structure in Cook County, most suburban communities can attract businesses with property taxes that are two to three times lower than in other parts of the metropolitan area.

Talk about Sears to Peter Burchard, the current city manager of Naperville and former village manager of Hoffman Estates, and the competition becomes evident. "Every suburb wants to be a winner. Every time you make an announcement, you are very proud," he says. "But you certainly don't want to rub anyone's face in it. The competition is real, but I don't see this incredible dichotomy between the city and the suburbs. If the suburbs experience an economic decline,

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Indeed, Sears’ wholesale move from city to suburb was unusual. More often that not, Burchard notes, companies have moved offices because of mergers or consolidations. That was the case for Ameritech Corp., which moved to Hoffman Estates in the 1980s after closing several offices throughout the area.

“The goal is to get good businesses to stay here,” he says, adding that goes for Chicago as well. “It causes you to be customer focused.” That means understanding how city fees, ordinances and review processes can affect the ability of a development to get off the ground, he says.

Known as “Mr. TIF,” Mayor Richard M. Daley has been very aggressive in his tactics to keep and attract businesses to Chicago, says Paul Green, head of policy studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Besides offering tax increment financing — a program designed to offer public support for development in blighted areas through abatements on property taxes — Daley has come up with a number of pro-business initiatives. Among them: a program designed to attract high-tech companies by wiring homes and businesses for high-speed telecommunications and providing $3 million in seed money for information technology firms; a proposal to acquire more than 5,450 tax-delinquent properties in Chicago for redevelopment purposes; and a call for a Chicago Partnership for Economic Development, a public-private venture that would become a single point of contact for leads on companies interested in moving to or expanding in Chicago.

“There is a lot of opportunity out there, and Mayor Daley wants to position Chicago to be a business leader,” says Christopher Hill, commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development.

One example: “The need for space is a critical reason businesses look outside Chicago to meet their goals. If we can assemble these [tax-delinquent] sites and combine them with sites already positioned for redevelopment, we will have a better opportunity to help Chicago remain an attractive place to do business.”

So how about the future? Green thinks we are entering the “ex-urban” century. As an example, he points to such suburban areas as Schaumburg/Hoffman Estates in suburban Cook County and Aurora/Naperville in suburban DuPage. Both of those areas can be described as self-reliant communities with booming populations and tremendous economic bases.

But not all is rosy in suburban Chicago. Communities are facing such urban problems as traffic congestion and overdevelopment. To help them deal with those issues, the Chicago-based Metropolitan Planning Council created the Campaign for Sensible Growth in 1998. About 80 businesses and groups are working together to try to ensure that future developments and redevelopments are handled well, says Scott Goldstein, the council’s vice president.

The only certainty is that it will be a challenge to keep some balance in the future development of the Chicago area.

“There will always be pluses and minuses to both [Chicago and the suburbs,]” Ebner says. “There has been tension between the two for the last 200 years and that tension will remain a factor for the next 200 years." 

Kristy Kennedy is a free-lance writer who previously covered DuPage County for the Daily Herald, a suburban metro newspaper.

33 | April 2000 Illinois Issues