Dive Brief:
- A little more than a week after announcing it would move its corporate headquarters from Decatur, Ill., ADM has narrowed the field to two possible locations.
- Chicago, with its world-class airports and cosmopolitan culture, is seen by many as the leading contender. But St. Louis exerts a pull as well—downstate folks in Decatur tend to relate to St. Louis more than Chicago and root for St. Louis sports teams.
- Illinois' fiscal problems are seen as working against Chicago. The state is $100 billion short of its pension obligations and recently boosted corporate taxes by nearly one-third.
Dive Insight:
There are probably no two cities in the U.S. as different as Chicago and St. Louis. Whereas Chicago is a booming, crowded and diverse, St. Louis is shrinking, its downtown is empty, and you can spend weeks there without meeting a soul from anyplace else.
But in this battle, we give St. Louis the edge. The Gateway City has an advantage that Chicago can't match—a resident pool of highly qualified executives from the food-processing and grains industry. As the article points out, Monsanto is spending millions on facilities in St. Louis. The city is also home to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, arguably the most important agricultural-research center in the nation. Other grain processors call St. Louis home as well—Bunge is based there. Cargill has operations there too—particularly the former Continental Grain facilities.
St. Louis is also dramatically cheaper than Chicago. The company would spend far less on offices there than in the Windy City. And executives would live well on Decatur-level salaries in St. Louis. In Chicago they'd need pay hikes to maintain living standards.