Google Move Buoys Chicago Tech Hub

Google is shifting 3,000 jobs from its newly acquired Motorola Mobility unit to downtown Chicago in a move Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) hopes will anchor a burgeoning tech sector in the nation's third largest city.

The jobs were based in Libertyville, a suburb an hour outside of Chicago, but will be relocated next summer following Google's purchase of the company for $12.5 billion in May. Mayor Emanuel said he hoped Google's presence would attract start-up technology companies and stem the Midwestern brain drain. "I think this offers Chicago an opportunity to be a game changer, to be a digital Mecca for the Midwest," Mayor Emanuel said. The Motorola relocation is a coup for Mayor Emanuel, who has weathered a tough summer addressing a sharp uptick in homicides and battling the city's public-school teachers' union, which is threatening to strike. Google already has office space in Chicago, but it isn't nearly large enough for Motorola, so it is investing $300 million into the move and will take over 600,000 square feet on the top four floors of the Merchandise Mart downtown. A few floors below is a recently opened 50,000 square foot innovation center for digital technology partially funded by the state of Illinois.