CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM I SEPTEMBER 25, 2023
Local architect eyes restart of tallest tower Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture designed Jeddah Tower to be the first kilometer-tall building in the world
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THE RACE FOR EV INVESTMENTS Across the Midwest, the battle for EV supremacy is still in the beginning stages I PAGE 13
A five-year construction shutdown appears to be lifting on a tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, designed to be the world’s tallest — good news for its Chicagobased architect and Chicago’s vulnerable supertall building ecosystem. Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture designed what is now known as Jeddah Tower to be the first kilometer-tall building, at more than twice the height of the Willis Tower. Construction began in 2013 but ground to a halt by 2018 about a third of the way up at the 62nd or 63rd story. Dubai-based Meed this month quoted a source saying the project is “back in full motion.” The stoppage was blamed on labor shortages and then the COVID-19 pandemic but also coincided with an upheaval in Saudi Arabia politics, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman consolidated power, purging rivals and later being implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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BEN PEARCE
By Steven R. Strahler
Jeddah Tower in 2021
The developer, Jeddah Economic, is inviting 14 contractors, with headquarters ranging from the Middle East and Europe to China, to bid on resumption of the tower, a centerpiece of a sprawling proposed development See TOWER on Page 20
A retail idol stumbles at Foot Locker After a star turn at Ulta, Mary Dillon struggles to revive the mall-bound footwear chain By Ally Marotti
Mary Dillon I GETTY IMAGES
Investors cheered when Mary Dillon took the helm at Foot Locker, expecting her to replicate the stellar results she delivered for shareholders during her eight years as CEO of Ulta Beauty. Nobody’s cheering now. New York-based Foot Locker’s shares
have dropped by half to around $18 apiece since Dillon joined as CEO last September. That’s a sharp reversal from the 20% boost Foot Locker shares got when news broke that she was coming to the floundering company’s rescue. Dillon earned a reputation as one of the savviest executives in
U.S. retailing when she made Bolingbrook-based Ulta a rare brick-and-mortar success story of the past decade. That reputation is on the line as the Chicagobased CEO finds it harder to revive a mall-based athletic shoe chain than it was to rev up a highgrowth beauty products chain. Sales at Foot Locker stores
open at least a year — a key retail performance metric — dropped more than 9% in each of the last two quarters. The company flipped to a loss of $5 million in the second quarter as revenue fell to $1.9 billion, a 10% drop from the year-earlier period. See FOOT LOCKER on Page 22
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MADELEINE DOUBEK Chicago needs people-powered community maps now. PAGE 2
HOME PRICES Chicago-area home prices are growing at more than twice the speed of the nation’s. PAGE 3