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  #381  
Old Posted Jul 17, 2009, 4:55 PM
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Regardless of what it's officially called, people will continue to simply refer to it as "Sears" or "The Tower". . .

. . .
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  #382  
Old Posted Jul 17, 2009, 5:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lawfin View Post
I really don't think it is a big deal outside of a few undersexed skyscraper nerds

LOL...yes, easily the best post I have read this morning. Im thinking along the same lines with you!!
Come on people, give it a rest, we all still know it's the Sears Tower. Now go outside and play. And have some beers, it's Friday!!!


Cheers everyone!!!
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  #383  
Old Posted Jul 17, 2009, 9:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Apex View Post
Who's going to pay for office space right in the shadow of that godawful hotel? I'm all for modernization of the building, but there has to be a better way...
Who is going to pay for a hotel room directly facing the Willis Tower offices?

The hotel is sited on the western edge to try to minimize this. The new proposal itself is somewhat similar to the original integrated hotel design for the Sears Tower. You can see in that particular drawing however that the hotel was shown on the Adams side, not Jackson, so it's probably one of many original studies. Bruce Graham has stated that the hotel was slated to built on the south side, which is why the tower ended up on the north side of the property. SOM would likely have situated the tower differently had the hotel portion not been cancelled after construction had already started.
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  #384  
Old Posted Jul 17, 2009, 11:08 PM
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On the elevator yesterday, first official day it was Willis, the video on the way down thanked us for visiting Willis Tower. I booed....expecting to be the only booher then everyone else in the car booed too. It was great.

Am happy with all the remodel and the cubes.
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  #385  
Old Posted Jul 18, 2009, 1:47 AM
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It was mentioned in several articles that Willis got a great deal on naming rights, basically paying nothing for the additional right. I'm begining to think the owners were looking for a reason to change the name.

Iconic = old. Premium companies looking for class A office space don't really want an old building. The Sears Tower has lost several big tenants to brand new buildings. Giving away the naming rights is like rebranding the tower. Along with the proposal to make the tower green and building a hotel.

Just look at all the free attention and publicity the proposal is getting now.
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  #386  
Old Posted Jul 19, 2009, 12:50 AM
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That is it I am adding BK as a friend on FB.



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,4442793.story


With name change, Sears Tower -- and Chicago -- losing sense of identity


Blair Kamin Cityscapes


July 17, 2009

More than 36,000 people have signed a Facebook petition against changing Sears Tower's name to Willis Tower. I'm with them, though I suspect that their efforts will be futile.


...
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  #387  
Old Posted Jul 19, 2009, 4:28 AM
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^ Sorry, but I think BK is off on this one.

What is happening to Sears Tower is exactly emblematic of Chicago's identity as a city:

Money talks, bullshit walks.
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  #388  
Old Posted Jul 19, 2009, 6:10 AM
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^No kidding. Everything is for sale in Cook County.

That being said, the current tenants of the building are there because they want to be in an iconic building. Nobody outside of the Chicago area knows what the Willis Tower is. And the more they mess with the facade, the less iconic the building will become. And it will still a 40 year old building.

It will be very interesting to see what effect this has on occupancy rates in the tower.
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  #389  
Old Posted Jul 19, 2009, 1:12 PM
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^^^^ From Skyscraper names to Senate Seats everything must go, contact Richard Dailey or Rod Blegoivitch for information

Link me to that petition, I want to sign
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  #390  
Old Posted Jul 23, 2009, 8:53 PM
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http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=34870

Willis Tower in talks to land big UAL operation
By: Thomas A. Corfman and Eddie Baeb July 23, 2009


The parent company of United Airlines is in talks with the Daley administration and the owners of the recently renamed Willis Tower about moving a 2,800-employee operations center from Elk Grove Township to the 110-story skyscraper.

UAL Corp. is in negotiations to lease about 450,000 square feet in the former Sears Tower, 233 S. Wacker Drive, according to sources familiar with the talks.
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  #391  
Old Posted Jul 23, 2009, 9:17 PM
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United Tower?
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  #392  
Old Posted Jul 23, 2009, 9:48 PM
Nowhereman1280 Nowhereman1280 is offline
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^^^ Are you asking why they don't name Sears that or are you asking why they don't just move the operations there. If I remember correctly, there is not enough space open in United tower on Wacker to absorb the 450k of space needed and its not in a large enough chuck. 450k is a good piece of the Sears which is hopefully good news for the tower.

Wonderful news for the city though, pillaging 2800 jobs from the suburbs means probably 5600+ people who would like to live closer to downtown!
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  #393  
Old Posted Jul 23, 2009, 10:01 PM
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I was just saying tongue in cheek because Willis got naming rights with only 150K square feet.
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  #394  
Old Posted Jul 24, 2009, 2:16 AM
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Here's hoping UAL chooses Willis Tower. I'm sure the renovations to the tower have got to be a great selling point for the Airline.
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  #395  
Old Posted Jul 24, 2009, 8:03 PM
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"United Tower" certainly has a better ring to it than "Willis Tower". Oh well. (Yes I know there already is a United Tower in Chicago)
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  #396  
Old Posted Jul 24, 2009, 8:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spyguy View Post
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=34870

Willis Tower in talks to land big UAL operation
By: Thomas A. Corfman and Eddie Baeb July 23, 2009


The parent company of United Airlines is in talks with the Daley administration and the owners of the recently renamed Willis Tower about moving a 2,800-employee operations center from Elk Grove Township to the 110-story skyscraper.

UAL Corp. is in negotiations to lease about 450,000 square feet in the former Sears Tower, 233 S. Wacker Drive, according to sources familiar with the talks.
I've got to believe this deal is all hinging on the TIF money. As the article mentions, UAL is not exactly flush with cash and would need the move and build-out funded elsewhere.
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  #397  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2009, 4:03 AM
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This was inevitable! Sign the petition for this more than likely lost cause :o

http://searstower.org/
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  #398  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2009, 4:50 AM
Nowhereman1280 Nowhereman1280 is offline
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^^^ I don't get what the petitioners think they are going to do... I mean what happens to the owners of Sears if 10000 people sign it? Its not like they can boycott a building that in no way serves their needs and I highly doubt executives are going to refuse to move into Sears because the owners call it Willis now...
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  #399  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2009, 5:04 AM
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Well hey !

I know this means very little in the long term but

Even Macy's admitted their mistake and are making Frango Mints in Chicago now.

Too little too late IMO.



http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/f...14web.article#

At last, homemade Frango Mints are back
South Side candymaker Cupid Candies producing them for Macy's
Comments

July 14, 2009

BY SANDRA GUY sguy@suntimes.com
South Side candymaker Cupid Candies has started producing the No. 1-selling Frango product — one-pound boxes of the mint chocolates — in the past several days for local Macy's department stores.

The start of production, to be announced today by Macy's and Cupid Candies executives, comes a year and a half after production was expected to start.

» Click to enlarge image upid Candies has started producing Frango mint chocolates for local Macy's department stores.




The 73-year-old Cupid Candies had to go through lengthy processes to get mandatory certificates, including kosher certification from the Chicago Rabbinical Council.

The Frangos will be shipped from Cupid's factory at 7637 S. Western to Macy's stores throughout the Chicago area, a Macy's spokeswoman confirmed Monday.

"This is the Frango market," she said.

The production is meaningful to Chicagoans outraged by the 1999 outsourcing of Frango production to Pennsylvania under then-Marshall Field's corporate parent Dayton Hudson, and then outraged again when Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren jettisoned the Marshall Field's brand and replaced it with Macy's in September 2006.

John Stefanos, whose parents founded Cupid Candies and who now runs the business, remembered in a previous interview his mother, Pauline, taking the family to Marshall Field & Co.'s Walnut Room for Christmas.

Stefanos enjoyed Field's Frango Mints, even though they were a rival to Cupid's French Mint and Mint Meltaway.

Frango's existing manufacturer, Gertrude Hawk Chocolates in Pennsylvania, will continue to make all other types of Frangos, as well as Frango cookies.

Frango's return is one of several deals that Macy's has inked with Chicago-based food makers and bakers:

• Macy's started serving Oberweis Ice Cream two years ago in the Frango Cafe at State Street. The 94-year-old Oberweis dairy is headquartered in North Aurora.

• Sarah Levy, the daughter of Levy Restaurant co-founder Mark Levy and the niece of Levy Restaurant Chairman Larry Levy, opened her second Sarah's Pastries & Candies shop on the main floor of Macy's State Street store in the fall of 2007.

• Macy's chose Chicago-based Eli's Cheesecake to make a Frango Mint cheesecake for the 62 former Field's stores.



But boycotts work better than petions from my view point.

Macy's is dead in the water by ignoring a Fields traditon and thinking that Chicago can be crushed just like some other back water burg...
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  #400  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2009, 5:37 AM
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Thank you for linking to my homepage, but perhaps you are confused. I don't have a petition on my site nor have I ever circulated one. I think there are far more effective ways of "resisting" or "challenging" this name change, because Willis Group Holdings is unlikely to retract the Willis Tower name simply provided a list of signatures.

Joseph Plumeri has already stated that he doesn't want Sears on the tower, and has never once considered preserving it. Even the Willis associate who negotiated the lease was disgusted by the Sears Tower name and has publicly stated that it would be better known as the K-Mart Tower. This is not a firm that respects or even acknowledges public opinion.

--Randall
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