Tom’s Recommended Reading for the Week

Eventful week with two technology based tenants announcing moves within the CBD! Check out those articles and others below.

1. Benchmarking Is Only a Starting Point  –In a complex and risk-averse business environment, benchmarking has become an essential decision support tool used by brokers and clients to determine how much space a company needs. Historically, firms have looked within their own industry, but lately, regardless of the industry, companies are asking, “What’s Google doing?” as shorthand for wanting to know what the technology industry is up to. Looking outside one’s industry for best practices can be a source of innovation, especially if a firm is looking to move in a new direction. But companies first need to try these characteristics on for size to see if they fit…  NREI
   
2. Chicago Named “Top Metro” in North America for Corporate Relocation and Expansions – Chicago was ranked the “Top Metro” in the U.S. for corporate investment in a report released today by Site Selection magazine, considered the “industry scoreboard for corporate investment and relocation professionals.” The publication recognized that the Chicago region was home to more new or expanded corporate facilities than any other metropolitan area in the nation in 2013, with 373 new and expanding companies, generating approximately 10,000 new jobs and $2.8 billion in investment… World Business Chicago
   
3. Fast-growing Twitter moving Chicago office to 111 N Canal  – Twitter Inc. is spreading its wings in Chicago, planning to move to new digs in the West Loop to accommodate its fast-growing staff.The company is leasing space at 111 N. Canal St., which is home to several other tech companies.The San Francisco-based social media company has been expanding rapidly in Chicago since early last year, before it went public. It hired Brad Keown from Facebook to oversee its central region sales teams from Detroit to Dallas. The company has more than doubled Chicago staff to about 30 since June and continues to hire… Crain’s Chicago 
   
4. Alter Group to sell portfolio, shrink workforce in strategy shift- Nearly two decades after taking over the family real estate business from his dad, Michael Alter oversees a nearly 3 million-square-foot commercial real estate portfolio that includes two River North office towers and stretches from Florida to Arizona. Now, with no heir apparent of his own, he’s preparing to sell it all… Crain’s Chicago
   
5. Fast-growing Uber hiring 150 people, moving Chicago office  – Uber is hitching a ride to Chicago’s meatpacking district, where it plans to hire another 150 employees in its Midwest headquarters by late 2015.San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc., which brought its taxi-hailing and ride-sharing smartphone appto Chicago in 2011, signed a three-year lease for the 12,000-square-foot building at 370 N. Carpenter St., where it plans to move by June, said Midwest General Manager Andrew Macdonald… Crain’s Chicago