Chicago Skyline (Photo credit: Frank Kehren)
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was joined by Clayco, Inc. CEO Robert Clark to announce that Clayco will move its national headquarters to downtown Chicago, IL from St. Louis, MO.
Clayco, Inc. finances, develops, designs and builds large, complex projects across the nation and is seeking a growing global presence. The 28-year-old company has annual revenues of more than $820 million. Subsidiaries include a full service architecture and design firm, Forum Studio, and Concrete Strategies Inc.
The company currently has about 1,000 employees total, with 280 employees in the Chicago office and the field. Clayco expects to nearly double that Chicago number in the next couple of years, adding new architects, designers and project managers; expanding its concrete and infrastructure business in IL, and in growth through acquisition, as it is currently seeking to acquire a municipal engineering company.
The new headquarters will be on the 13th and 27th floors (30,000 square feet) of the 35 E. Wacker building, also known as the Jewelers Building, in the heart of Chicago’s loop. The chairman and CEO are in the Chicago office, along with principals from each business unit and Forum Studio. The company has relocated all of its Oakbrook Terrace employees downtown but plans to keep its St. Louis office intact where key projects continue and Clayco has just signed a 15-year lease. Accounting and IT will remain in the St. Louis office and no layoffs will occur as part of this move.
“Clayco is embarking on an exciting period in our company’s history. With a record backlog of projects, and increasing travel around the country and the globe, we see Chicago as an integral part of our expansion strategy as we add talent and build Clayco into the nation’s leading full-service real estate development, architecture, engineering and construction firm,” said Bob Clark.
“Clayco is exactly the sort of company we are looking to attract to Chicago,” said Mayor Emanuel. “I am committed to bringing new and technologically advanced businesses to Chicago, especially those that want to grow and expand their businesses, and Clayco is exactly this sort of firm. I look forward to partnering with them as they make Chicago their new home.”
Clayco is known for its integrated technology systems that bring together the many teams involved in any complex building project. The company leads the building industry in its use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in all of its projects, generating and sharing digital representations of all physical and functional characteristics of a project from concept through capstone.
Clayco clients include commercial, institutional and industrial projects, including corporate giants like Dow Chemical Company, Amazon, Caterpillar, Procter and Gamble, 3M, and Chevron along with government buildings, manufacturing spaces, healthcare and learning environments, among others. Locally, University of Illinois, Kraft Foods and Blue Cross Blue Shield are among the company’s clients.
“On behalf of World Business Chicago, I welcome Clayco and commend the company on its choice of Chicago for their new corporate headquarters,” said World Business Chicago Vice Chairman Michael Sacks. “We look forward to working with Clayco as it continues to grow and create significant economic opportunity and job growth throughout Chicago.” One of the key tenets of World Business Chicago’s Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs is the attraction of corporate headquarters to Chicago; this marks the 11th corporate headquarters to come to the City during Mayor Emanuel’s administration.
Additionally, the company has a long-standing tradition of community service and involvement. Bob Clark relocated to Chicago in the fall of 2010 and has already made commitments to Chicago with more than $500,000 in donations to local charities as well as joining the Board of Trustees at the University of Chicago Medical School and Children's Memorial Hospital.
Continuing with the company’s tradition of corporate citizenship, Clayco has agreed to work with City Colleges of Chicago as part of the College to Careers program, and will seek to design curriculum that will be useful in training students for exciting careers in the real estate and design industries, as well as training them for the business and technology aspects of the industry.
“Chicago is simply the best location for the company given our growing national and international design and engineering business,” said Clark. “The pro-growth, pro-business leadership of Mayor Emanuel, the incredible commitment to the city’s infrastructure and transportation hubs (both Midway and O’Hare Airports) is second to none in the United States. In addition, for a growing company like ours to be in a world class city attracting the best and brightest young minds in our industry matches with our goals and objectives.”
The company is not seeking or receiving any subsidies as part of this move.