Germany-based ThyssenKrupp, a diversified manufacturing company that makes elevators, auto components and carbon steel, will establish a regional headquarters for North America in Chicago this summer, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Thursday morning.
The company is scouting for office space, aiming to open in the summer and employ 100 people. Some of those positions will be filled by employees elsewhere in the company, according to Torsten Gessner, chairman and CEO of ThyssenKrupp North America.
The company did not seek financial incentives as it considered more than 20 cities around the U.S. for the regional headquarters.
“We’ve learned not to run where the incentives are or where there is the lowest tax rate,” Gessner said. “We need the overall picture.”
Weighing in Chicago’s favor are its extensive air service and a highly skilled profession labor pool, Emanuel said.
The company employs 24,600 people in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, including 1,400 in Illinois. It has two manufacturing facilities in Danville.
The announcement comes on the heels of some worrisome announcements by major employers.
AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, this week announced plans to cut about 13,000 jobs, or one-seventh of its work force, as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.
The Texas-based airline employs about 9,900 in the Chicago region and 88,000 nationwide. The impact on jobs at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, where American is the No. 2 airline next to United Airlines, was not immediately clear.
Asked if the airline’s announcement worried him, Emanuel said, “I’m Jewish, I worry a lot. It comes with the DNA.”
But, he said, he expects Chicago to continue to be a key player, and for the company to expand here over the long term.
“American’s going to work through its series of issues, and I don’t minimize them, because it affects people and their lives, but as they work through their issues … they will still maintain their footprint here,” he said.
Meanwhile, Aon Corp., a homegrown behemoth, less than three weeks ago announced it would move its corporate headquarters to London. While the company plans to continue employing more than 6,000 people in the Chicago area and promises to add 750 workers in coming years, the move raised concerns about its future profile here.
Asked about that move, Emanuel noted that the company will keep its American headquarters here and that it has pledged to maintain its cultural and philanthropic commitments in town.