McDonald's to Move Headquarters from DuPage to Downtown Chicago

CHICAGO, IL - Chicago’s Fulton Market District may have lost the biggest of all talk show hosts when Oprah Winfrey left Harpo Studios a few years back, but may be getting the biggest of all fast-food chains in return.

Fast-food giant McDonald’s is planning to move its corporate headquarters from west suburban Oak Brook to the former Harpo Studios site on Randolph Street in downtown Chicago, according to a Crain’s Chicago report. More than 2,000 McDonald's employees work in Oak Brook.

Negotiations between McDonald’s and property owner Sterling Bay are in the works, with more than 300,000 square feet of office space set to be the new corporate home of the fast-food giant known worldwide.

McDonald's staffers, however, won't be roaming the same halls Oprah did. Nor will they have to worry about the rumored haunting of Harpo Studios. Once the deal is finalized, a new building will be constructed at the site of Harpo Studios, which served as the home of the "Oprah Winfrey Show" for years.

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Talk about McDonald’s trading in its Oak Brook office campus right off Interstate 88 for a spot in the big city has been going on for months. Last year, the company backed out of a deal that would have moved headquarters to One Prudential Tower. The Daily Herald reported that Willis Tower also was rumored as a destination.

CEO Steve Easterbrook earlier this year told employees the Oak Brook property is expensive to maintain, according to the Daily Herald.

McDonald's has been a major sponsor of the July Taste of Oak Brook festival. In years past, the fast-food giant has allowed youth soccer teams to use its sprawling fields for games. Just last year, Oak Brook officials told the Chicago Tribune they were confident in their continuing relationship with McDonald's.

DuPage County is home to several corporate headquarters. Aside from McDonald's, other Fortune 500 companies include Navistar and Dover. Other major employers with headquarters in DuPage include Advocate Healthcare, Treehouse Foods, FTD, First Midwest Bancorp, Eby-Brown and Ace Hardware.

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