REAL ESTATE: City program hasn’t sparked a wave of granny flats, coach houses. PAGE 3
DOWNTOWN: Lender seizes the Board of Trade Building. PAGE 4
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OPTIMIZATION The nature of corporate board director recruitment often stands in the way of companies finding diverse board members PAGE 15
GEOFFREY BLACK
Lyndon Taylor, a partner in the Chicago office of Heidrick & Struggles, says one challenge that companies typically encounter when searching for diverse board members is focusing too much on titles instead of expertise.
Bucking the trend, these restaurants opened in 2022 Newcomers offering everything from po’ boys to omakase brave high costs and slim profits in an industry still struggling to recover from the pandemic I BY ALLY MAROTTI cording to data from market research firm Technomic. In 2019, the restaurant industry grew by 638 locations, or 2.6%. Yet the glum environment has not stopped operators in the inherently risky industry from opening new restaurants. But many say it has changed the economics of doing so. Food and labor costs continue
Chef Stephen Gillanders of Valhalla
JOHN R. BOEHM
CHICAGO’S RESTAURANT INDUSTRY shrank in 2022, as closures outnumbered openings in almost every month of the year. It’s a sobering statistic. As COVID-19’s third anniversary nears, experts say that the restaurant recovery has been hampered by inflation and other headwinds. The Chicago area had a net loss of 406 restaurants through the end of September, a 1.7% decrease from the prior year, ac-
See RESTAURANTS on Page 22
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BOOTH INSIGHTS
Proposal for a wind farm in Lake Michigan is worth a look. PAGE 2
How to learn the norms of pitching for investment capital. PAGE 9
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