While reports indicate Chicago is the first choice by the company's search committee, Boeing Chairman and CEO Philip M. Condit has the final decision and is taking extraordinary efforts to keep it under wraps. He is said to be planning to keep those plans up in the air until a corporate pilot takes off and follows one of three flight plans – destinations of Dallas, Denver and Chicago – for an announcement in the winning city.

The governor of the winning state will get four hours advance notice, just after Boeing employees are told, and before conciliatory calls are placed to the other two governors. Likewise, the largest daily newspapers in Dallas and Chicago expect to receive full-page ads this afternoon – but each paper will get separate congratulatory and condolence versions, then told which to use before deadlines for Friday morning's editions.

Meanwhile, Condit reportedly has received a proposed lease for at least 250,000 sf at the 737,500-sf 100 N. Riverside Plaza, formerly headquarters for Morton International. However, simultaneous negotiations were said to be continuing in Irving, TX and Denver.

Built in 1989, 100 N. Riverside Plaza changed hands in December 1997 for $162.2 million. First-quarter office vacancy in the West Loop was 6.5% for Class A space and 7.5% overall, according to U.S. Equities Realty, LLC. Two other West Loop lease deals for 1.3 million sf and 500,000 sf have been announced so far this year. However, the space, for ABN AMRO and Hyatt Corp., is in proposed projects. Downtown gross rents start at $32 per sf for Class A space while capping out at $35 per sf for Class B space, according to U.S. Equities.

Mayor Richard M. Daley refused to get overly confident as indications grew stronger that Condit was returning to town today. "I don't want to be the front-runner – I watched the Kentucky Derby," Daley told reporters. "The only decision I want is 'yes'."

The smart money had been on Dallas/Fort Worth getting the corporate headquarters and as many as 500 jobs. Not only does Texas offer political clout that will come in handy when the company competes for a nine-figure defense contract, but Condit's wife hails from the Lone Star State.

Meanwhile, Boeing officials were said to be concerned about O'Hare International Airport's ever worsening reputation for flight delays and air traffic congestion. However, those fears apparently were outweighed by the city's closer proximity to New York City's capital markets and nation's capitol than either Dallas or Denver could offer.

After the amount of an incentive package – a reported $50 million in city, state and county financial inducements -- being dangled in front of Boeing officials became public, local sentiment about the civic prestige of landing the company and its 500 top-level jobs began to evaporate into questions of whether the city and state were giving away too much.

The 36-story 100 N. Riverside Dr. building, on the west bank of the Chicago River in the West Loop submarket, is convenient to commuter rail transportation. Specifically, the building managed by ORIX Real Estate Equities, Inc. is located about one block northeast of Metra's Richard Ogilvie Transportation Center, the terminal for Metra lines to the north, northwest and west suburbs. That includes the North Shore suburbs, home of many corporate executives, as well as the Barrington area.

Although there was talk of adding a heliport to the top of the building, that plan is not likely to fly, but an alternative heliport site could be found in the immediate area.

A suburban option given serious consideration was Hines Interests LP's 320,000-sf Woodfield Preserve development under construction in northwest suburban Schaumburg, along Route 53/290. With just 10% of it pre-leased, it also met Boeing's requirement for at least 250,000 sf.

Also making the final cut locally was another West Loop building, 123 N. Wacker Dr.; as well as Prime Group Realty Trust's Continental Towers in Rolling Meadows. Previously, at least one other Downtown location as well as sites in north suburban Bannockburn, west suburban Westmont and northwest suburban Elgin were eliminated from consideration.

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West Loop Rises to the Top of Boeing's Target Destinations

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