McDonald’s is expanding its Chicago headquarters space to create an innovation center, the latest global food giant to unveil plans for more research space in the city.
The fast-food company said it is adding 15,000 square feet to the headquarters space it leases at 110 N. Carpenter St. in the Fulton Market district, McDonald’s said in a statement Wednesday. It will relocate innovation workers from suburban Romeoville, Illinois, starting in the second half of next year.
McDonald’s plans follow similar announcements by candy giants Mars and Ferrero, as well as Kellogg’s plan to move the headquarters of a snack-food spinoff to the city from Michigan.
The food industry growth has come at a time when Chicago is losing some high-profile headquarters, including Boeing’s move to Arlington, Virginia, and Citadel’s move to Miami. Caterpillar is leaving suburban Deerfield, Illinois, for Irving, Texas.
McDonald’s headquarters has been in the 110 N. Carpenter building since 2018, when the company moved from Oak Brook, Illinois, west of the city. Chicago-based Sterling Bay developed the nine-story building on the site where Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios long operated amid meatpackers and other gritty businesses.
McDonald’s arrival in Fulton Market has been part of a development boom in the area, which has replaced low-rise brick buildings with office, residential and hotel towers.
Bringing innovation center employees and company executives under one roof will create “more opportunities for collaboration and end-to-end development of restaurant solutions and technologies,” the statement said.
Speedee Labs
The facility will be called Speedee Labs, a reference to the Speedee Service System that was launched in 1948, creating operating efficiencies in the company's restaurant crews that enabled its massive growth globally.
"Our customers’ and restaurant teams’ needs are changing, and meeting their expectations requires us to work together in new ways," Manu Steijaert, McDonald's executive vice president and chief customer officer, said in the statement. "Just as the creation of McDonald's Customer Experience team brought key aspects of our business strategy together, the creation of Speedee Labs will enable more of our customers, restaurant teams, markets and global teams to contribute to our innovation, while driving growth and creating more seamless and memorable McDonald's experiences."
There have been more than 11,000 visitors to McDonald’s headquarters since it opened, a number expected to accelerate when the innovation center opens, the statement said.
"This new addition will draw even more visitors from around the world to our city, and I look forward to welcoming them as they come to collaborate and innovate with this iconic brand,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in the statement.
Since opening in 1995, McDonald’s innovation center has created live and remote restaurant testing, McDelivery and mobile order and pay capabilities, among other operational improvements and technologies that have been used in almost 40,000 restaurants throughout the world, the company said.
McDonald’s already leases more than 525,000 of the 575,208 square feet in the building, according to CoStar data.
The building is owned by Coraopolis, Pennsylvania-based Normandy Properties, which bought it for $412.5 million in 2020.
McDonald’s plans follow recent announcements by candy giants Ferrero and Mars that they’re making big research investments in the city.
McLean, Virginia-based Mars in April said it will invest $40 million on a facility on its existing office and research campus on Goose Island on the city’s North Side. That expansion will increase the company’s presence on the island to about 1,000 employees, while making Chicago its largest research and development hub in the world.
In July, Parsippany, New Jersey-based Ferrero North America said it plans a 45,000-square-foot innovation center at 24 E. Washington St. in the Loop. That office and lab space is expected to have 170 employees, some of whom will relocate from subsidiary Ferrara Candy’s space in the Old Post Office.
The new Kellogg company is moving to Chicago’s River North from Battle Creek, Michigan.