Wheels up

Probably some real nice kickbacks going to company officers.

HSLD

The city of Chicago has been working with UAL for years trying to get them into the city as a corporate resident. The crux is that Chicago, not Elk Grove Village, has over site of ORD and can provide certain tax breaks - that's the draw. In fact, UAL did have plans to move everything to the old AF national guard ramp at ORD less than a decade ago.

The cost of the move would be spread over several before they the cost benefit would be realized, so look for a multi-year deal if it happens. Also, the 60 acres of land the current headquarters sits on could be used in the current "furniture burn" campaign.

What would be interesting would be to hear how the real estate UAL owns is accounted for. Is it an unencumbered asset?

captjns

I'll bet the office staff is looking forward to the rush hour commute. But on a brighter note... perhaps discounts on Hager Pilot Pants.

tsquare

Maybe, maybe not... Haven't you heard the old realtors' saw "Location, location, location"? If my 12 acres were in Manhattan, I'd be hosting the Apprentice, not dead squirrel guy...

Zoomie

OK, perhaps I exaggerated a smidge, it was a WAG, but have you been sleeping in a hole recently with the corporate guys exuberant quarters we've seen lately in the news? I think some of the numbers I saw were $30,000 toilet seats and $200,000 curtains to name a few, so pardon me if I was a bit liberal with my estimate. Plus, I don't know if you know anyone who rents business space in downtown Chicago, but my guess it's not exactly a discount location, and definitely not cheap in the "Sears tower", even with "tax discounts".

And no, I don't think it will be close to $350,000 to move a person, just about 700 million to move about 13 guys, and the other 300 million for the rest. I'm being facetious if you can't tell. If you think $5,000,000 to move United from one location to another is accurate, then you're not only kidding yourself, you're smoking something funny. For one, most likely for a move of this magnitude, they would be buying new everything. You really think they are going to move into the Sears tower and use the same old furniture, etc? No way! For one, it would probably be almost as expensive to move anything rather than buy new stuff. Plus, furniture, etc in one building is not going to fit in another the same way, especially if they are moving from 1,000,000 square feet to 400,000 square feet.

I'm not sure how much of UALs operation is actually moving, so maybe I'm FOS. Here are some costs that will definitely add up in a new building: IT infrastructure including computers and networking, running the airline in the old location while transitioning to the new location, security, architects, engineers, new HVAC equipment and controls, numerous contractors, new TVs, new executive offices, etc etc. All of these costs will be exacerbated by the fact that this is in the tallest building in NA, plus the building is old, which makes things that much more complicated.

Regardless, my point was not to estimate the cost of this move, but merely to show that this is a huge cost that United will be adding to their debt.

Time will tell.

Boomer

OK then, how about if I said "That sounds like less space"?

A 60% reduction in workspace sounds like bad news for 60% of the employees.

Lambourne

[quote=Boomer;653173
A 60% reduction in workspace sounds like bad news for 60% of the employees.[/quote]

I don't believe 100% of the space is being utilized at the Elk Grove location.

jsled

Sounds like it is going to happen. Wow, that was fast. See Skynet for details