McDonald's moving main offices to downtown Chicago

CHICAGO, June 13 (UPI) -- Fast food giant McDonald's will move its global headquarters to downtown Chicago over the next two years as part of a strategy to recruit top talent to the company, officials said Monday.

McDonald's offices were located downtown between 1955 and 1971, before the company moved to nearby Oak Brook, Ill. In the spring of 2018, its headquarters will be moved to a large campus on Randolph Street in Chicago's West Loop that was formerly the site of Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios.

"We are a brand on the move in more ways than one," McDonald's president and CEO Steve Easterbrook said in a statement Monday. "This world-class environment will continue to drive business momentum by getting us even closer to customers, encouraging innovation and ensuring great talent is excited about where they work."

McDonald's said the move is part of a strategy to better recruit top talent to the company and better train new employees and leaders.

McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., was the site of protests in 2015 by advocates and employees demanding a wage increase to $15 per hour. In early 2018, the company's main offices will be moved to downtown Chicago. File Photo by Brian Kersey/UPI

The campus will allow the company to open Hamburger University, a state-of-the-art training facility that has six other locations worldwide.

"McDonald's looks forward to returning to the Chicago community where we started and to building together the next chapter of success in the history of this great company," McDonald's board chair Rick Hernandez said. "Today's announcement is about more than just a new location for us."

"McDonald's, welcome back to sweet home Chicago," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.

McDonald's Corporation was founded in 1955 and the first franchised location was opened in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines the same year.