4-Dec-13 – Experts on the economic condition of Chicago’s Loop were generally pleased with our progress over the last few years – though aware of how we could do better – at a panel discussion on Tuesday organized by the Chicago Loop Alliance.

The non-profit organization, charged with making downtown a better place to live and work, released a study it commissioned that shows the Loop contributing to the city’s economic output.

It was the first such analysis since 2011. Since that time, the study, conducted by Goodman Williams Group Real Estate Research, found the Loop has “experienced noteworthy growth and emerged from difficult economic times.”

Defining Chicago’s central area. (Left) Multiple interpretations abound of exactly how the Chicago Loop is bordered. The Chicago Loop Alliance has declared its borders as the main branch of the Chicago River on the north, just west of the south branch, then Congress Parkway east all the way to Lake Michigan.

“Today’s story of the Loop shows that the recession is over and the Loop continues to grow with new housing, retail stores, hotels, and office buildings,” said Christine Williams, co-founder of Goodman Williams Group. Williams (right) quoted figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security showing 294,356 private sector jobs in the Loop in March 2012. “We have every confidence that when the numbers are finally released for March 2013 they will show full recovery has been accomplished and then some.”

The largest category, representing 29 percent of the Loop’s workforce, are jobs in professional, scientific, and technical services. 15,710 people live in the Loop, a population that doubled between 2000 and 2010. About half of those people are in their 20s and 30s, typically living in rental property. 43 percent of Loop households have an income greater than $100,000.

Trying to make the Loop like ‘any other neighborhood’

Alderman Brendan Reilly, whose 42nd Ward includes 95 percent of the Central Business District, says the city is working hard to make downtown feel like “any other neighborhood in the city of Chicago.”

“The Loop is now a 24-hour destination for folks and there are a lot more amenities to support the residential population here than there were five years ago,” said Reilly, one of three panel members. “The availability of grocery stores, accessible retail, local shops and restaurants that residents want in their neighborhoods day to day – that didn’t exist around the time I came into office in ‘07. Today, you can’t walk ten feet without having a great retail or restaurant opportunity as a downtown resident.”

Reilly says his “development queue” – projects that need his help with navigating the city’s process for planned developments – is “the fullest it’s ever been.”

“I was elected in ‘07 and back then I inherited about 65 or 70 pending proposals for…large scale development. ‘08 happened and literally that list was chopped down to maybe a dozen potentially viable projects. Right now, we’re back up to about 80, and these are all generally real projects that can get capital backing. We’re incredibly busy – that’s…good news for Chicago.” (Right) Brendan Reilly (left in photo) at the dedication of The Gateway on June 7, 2013.

One of the largest of those projects is the Chicago Riverwalk, which will eventually connect the lakefront to Lake Street with the help of a $99 million loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The loan will be paid back in part from significantly higher dock fees paid by operators of tour boats on the Chicago River.

Said Reilly, “I think the Riverwalk presents incredible opportunity – more so than Millennium Park – because it does physically connect our incredible lakefront amenities to the heart of the Central Business District, Michigan Avenue, and State Street, so I think that’s going to be a great investment that pays great dividends for a long, long time.”

Foreign visitors may not speak the language but spend money nonetheless

One of the areas downtown needs to work on is making it easier for international visitors to get around. Tourism is projected to soon be a $15 billion industry in Chicago. Last year, 46 million people visited the city – and foreign tourists spend the most money.

“The average U.S. [tourist] coming to Chicago right now will spend between $1200 and $1400 per visit per person,” explained Don Welsh, president and CEO of Choose Chicago, which markets the city as a destination. “The average international person when they come to the United States – and they’ll usually take in two if not three cities – will spend on the low end $4,000 per person, up to $6,000 – and the ‘up to $6,000’ is primarily coming out of Asia now, primarily China.” (Left) Welsh speaking at a NATO event last year in Chicago.

Helping those people find their way in Chicago has been a challenge. “We do need to do a better job of having multilingual people on the streets,” said Welsh, “as well as signage throughout the city, and we’re working on it.”

Brendan Reilly passed along a suggestion he had fielded about a volunteer or internship program that would put college students to work as “multilingual ambassadors.”

“Other cities have done that with great success,” he told an audience Tuesday morning at the Gene Siskel Film Center on North State Street. “I was in Seoul, [South] Korea, not long ago, and it’s amazing – they have these folks every two blocks, whether you want the help or not, there they are.”