Google makes plans to move Motorola Mobility to Chicago

Google is shopping for more than 500,000 square feet of downtown Chicago office space for Motorola Mobility Holdings once it completes its $12.5 billion takeover of the mobile phone maker.

Among the handful of sites under consideration are upper floors of the landmark Merchandise Mart in River North and Fulton Market Cold Storage, a large warehouse that's slated for redevelopment in the West Loop, according to a source familiar with the matter. It's not clear how many employees would make the move downtown, but the size of the space under consideration suggests that most of Motorola Mobility's approximately 3,000 workers would be leaving the company's Libertyville headquarters. Any move is contingent on closing the acquisition, which has taken longer than expected and is now awaiting only regulatory approval from China; that could occur by the end of May. The relocation would not involve Google's existing Chicago staff of about 450 sales and tech workers in River North.