A year and a half ago United Airlines purchased 113 acres in Denver for $33 million. A spokesperson claimed that this was meant to expand their pilot training facility. It doesn’t take more than 100 acres for pilot training.
United’s CFO then said there were “no imminent plans” to move their headquarters, noting that the airline has “a long-term lease at Willis Tower. We’ve been there for decades in Chicago. Denver is like Houston. We have lots of facilities in Houston.” Saying that no move is ‘imminent’ was not a denial.
- But they’ve scaled down their presence in Chicago’s Willis Tower (née Sears Tower).
- Their lease runs into 2032.
- They cannot make an ‘imminent’ move because nothing has been built in Denver yet.
United has clashed with city administration in Chicago. And United lacks a corporate campus like Delta and American now have.
A year ago United filed a “large development review” plan with the City of Denver that did include adding 12 flight simulators for pilot training, but also allow for a new corporate campus that would support 5,000 employees, enough to move all the workers at the current Chicago Willis Tower headquarters.
They’ve now revealed more details about how the land at 17671 E. 64th Avenue east of Pena Boulevard near Denver’s airport would be developed. The new Master Plan filed with the city says that they “may build more than 1 million gross square feet of office space..to accommodate over 6,000 employees there, building that include data center space, fitness centers and parking garages for over 5,000 cars.”
The fully built-out flight training campus calls for 865,000 gross square feet of space, while the total development potential for the plot of land is estimated at 2.9 million square feet, according to the filed plans.
United (Nasdaq: UAL) in its infrastructure master plan said the remainder of development was set aside for “flexibility in addressing unknown future business needs.” The airline listed examples such as research space, network operations space, a data center and “associated supporting services.”
In addition to the training center, United’s master plan outlines the potential to develop five office buildings that total over 1.6 million gross square feet, at least two parking structures and common space for uses like a food hall, meeting rooms, fitness center and a 50,000-square-foot conference center.
The airline maintains they have “no set plans beyond using the land to expand our Flight Training Center capabilities.” Saying no set plans is different than saying there are no plans. However, as badly run as Chicago is the Denver airport might be worse.
The new facility is located along the A Line train to the airport, and will “take advantage of the mountain views and anchor the west end of the Project’s pedestrian connection” according to the filing.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says that after rumors began swirling about United’s corporate campus plans in Denver that the airline assured him they weren’t moving out of Chicago. They have so set plans! Not for nothing, but from 1937 to 1963, United Airlines corporate predecessor Continental Airlines was headquartered in Denver.
They might as well go back to Stapleton at this rate.
Where’s @Denver Refugee for his take on this?
The exodus from Chicago continues.
Colorado would love to have UA headquartered there.
and, by the time they build it, they might have gotten B6 out of NYC as well…. /s/
@Tim Dunn
Oh, the ‘Democrat-run,’ ‘blue’ cities and states trope has reared its ugly, ignorant head yet again. ‘Exodus’ like Bob Marley and the ‘good’ book, right?
But, Tim, I thought Denver (Aurora) had ‘filthy’ Venezuelans or whatever lies you and the others regurgitate from Fox/OAN/Newsmax these days.
Chicago’s just fine. So is NYC, SF, and the rest. You don’t have to visit if you’re a scared-y pants.
Chicago has decent metro transport options, even out to the ‘burbs.
A 5000 car parking lot sounds like a real downgrade.
And to top it off, they want to place it next to the airport that’s already suffering significant traffic congestion/access issues. Sounds like a winning plan.
It’s one thing to leave Chicago. But leaving Chicago for Denver..? This seems like poor decision-making to me. (And to be clear, I think Denver is a very nice city, just not the airport.)
Kirby has a place in Vail. Easier commute
@1990 quite right – the reality is that the city of Chicago is seeing a post- pandemic renaissance. Construction is strong, rents and real estate values are rising due to demand and there is a swagger returning that was missing during the pandemic. Similar to what is happening in other vibrant cities across the country like NY, Boston, SF, and my-oh-my Detroit. If you don’t see what’s happening there you aren’t paying attention.
@TimDunn the narrative that the right-wing pushes is tired and just plain untrue. You are smarter than that. Let’s get back to being supportive of our enviable economic engines.
I don’t get how big blue cities are run poorly is a trope? I live in LA. There are 3 frmr city council ppl in prison. I went to SF during the fires three weeks ago and the needle drug usage was rampant. Chicago pensions are 27% funded and in debt $37B. I think we need to be honest that it’s not working.
Now the rest of the country outside blue cities is really, really a huge dump. That’s how bad things are in America. I’m never leaving LA because I’ve been to places like Indianapolis and Orlando. The country has really gone to pot.
just answer the question of whether Chicago is losing population based on the latest data and if it is smaller now than it was in 2020.
It’s not personal or political.
Just fact.
@Been There
Thank you, sir. Please do continue to speak truth here and elsewhere. I may not like the current US President, but I still want our country to ‘thrive’ as they say—supporting big cities and small towns alike is all part of the mix. Likewise, if he can actually pull of a ‘golden’ age, then I’m 100% down for that, but to me, so far it seems more like we’re headed towards a second Gilded age. I really want to be wrong on that. And I just don’t understand the ‘hate’ some folks have been parroting; it’s as if they are foreign agents trying to destroy us from within, or just useful idiots—probably the latter.
@Tim Dunn
You know what you meant. It wasn’t about literal numbers. You’re being disingenuous here.
@Joseph
We can all do better. I got issues with the far-left, too. Any one-party system is a tough one to hold accountable. That said, yeah, I’m never doing the ‘free’ state of Florida, again, either. Wishing you the best on your region’s recovery.
Denver has a vast amount of developable land around its airport, Chicago and Huston don’t.
Chicago sucks and people are leaving in droves. Chicago has just $10.6 billion in assets available to pay bills totaling nearly $48.8 billion. Chicago’s total bills were the second highest in the nation and every citizen is on the hook for over $40,000.
Lying about it and saying everything is fine doesn’t hide the actual facts.
Everyone here is far more worried at the moment about whether or not tanks start rolling into Denver (affectionately referred to by the locals as “Very East San Francisco”) and Aurora (“Very East Oakland”).
That being said, adding another 5,000+ cars per day onto the Pena Boulevard or E-470 corridors is not going help the existing traffic mess. Especially in a state (otherwise known as “Very East California”) that already has it in for cars to begin with.
United would be far better served setting up shop in Houston.