CSO: How the orchestra is finding its way during the pandemic. PAGE 3 NOTABLES: These HR leaders rose to 2020’s challenges. PAGE 15 CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | $3.50 Why banking isn’t working right now for Chicago’s largest bank Making loans and collecting deposits isn’t where the money is BY STEVE DANIELS 2020 SHOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD YEAR for Northern its and making money from them by lending— Trust. After all, the S&P 500 improbably returned proved an albatross. A 14 percent decline in net 16 percent; Northern is one of three global titans interest income, the money Northern made on making most of its money managing and safe- its deposits, led to a 19 percent decrease in net guarding assets for investors, and much of its fee income overall. It was Northern’s worst one- revenue is tied to the values of those investments. year performance since 2010, when net income But Northern also is a bank after all—the fell 23 percent. largest one headquartered in Chicago. And the bread and butter of banking—collecting depos- See NORTHERN on Page 30 JOHN R. BOEHM R. JOHN Walgreens’ new CEO Is this Joliet plan a has plenty to learn bridge to nowhere? Brewer lls in some of JOE CAHILL A NIMBY spat over a link to two massive rail yards the company’s blanks, Who’s really going to be in could be a turning point for the region charge at Walgreens? PAGE 4 spanning Route 53 that’s essen- but not all of them BY ALBY GALLUN tial to the development. It may itize a retail chain, top priorities U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush calls be just a bridge, but it represents BY ALLY MAROTTI for Walgreens. Her track record is it “the bridge to the future.” To the hopes of pro-growth govern- spottier when it comes to deliver- many Will County o cials and ment o cials and the fears of When Roz Brewer takes over as ing consistently strong growth, a GETTY IMAGES residents, it’s a bridge too far. But local residents fed up with heavy CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance crying need for Walgreens. Roz Brewer the opinion that really matters truck tra c originating from a on March 15, she’ll face some fa- Perhaps the most notable now belongs to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. pair of gigantic rail yards nearby. miliar challenges and others that résumé gap is her lack of experi- tions,” o ering doctor’s appoint- e fate of a massive indus- And the outcome of the stando will stretch her skills. ence in health care. She’ll inherit ments and other medical care. It’s trial park planned in Joliet that could be a turning point for a re- e former chief operating o - predecessor Stefano Pessina’s plan a dramatic transformation that could employ as many as 10,000 gion that’s become one of the na- cer of Starbucks and onetime boss to transform the Deer eld-based will take Walgreens and its new people rests largely in the hands tion’s largest logistics hubs and, of Walmart’s Sam’s Club chain chain’s 9,000 drugstores into of the governor, who has the - knows how to reshape and dig- “neighborhood health destina- See WALGREENS on Page 12 nal say over a proposed bridge See JOLIET on Page 28 NEWSPAPER l VOL. 44, NO. 5 l COPYRIGHT 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED GREG HINZ CHICAGO COMES BACK Deputy mayor Words are powerful. wouldn’t bet Business leaders against Chicago’s should choose them recovery. PAGE 2 wisely. PAGE 4 P001_CCB_20210201.indd 1 1/29/21 4:35 PM 2 FEBRUARY 1, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS GREG HINZ Ken Griffin, welcome to the ON POLITICS white-hot national spotlight Betting against Chicago? BY STEVE DANIELS ic Reps. Chuy Garcia, Sean Cas- ten and Bill Foster. Progressive Ken Grin is well known to rebrand Alexandra Ocasio-Cor- Not this guy. Chicagoans as the founder of tez of New York, who has proved Citadel, a leading philanthropist to be a formidable questioner in At a time when much of the expensive Bay Area for and an active presence in local past hearings, also is a member. Chicago’s business community cheaper Chicago. And the city politics. In the rest of the country Additionally, the anger and is stunningly pessimistic—“I remains an attractive venue for outside of nancial circles, his suspicion over the sudden halt in am hearing more and more headquarters for companies prole is considerably lower. trading Jan. 28 is bipartisan. Tex- about people leaving the such as Nielsen, which moved at’s about to change. as Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted that he city and state,” condes one its consumer research HQ here Grin and Citadel are playing agreed with AOC about the need veteran business leader—there from New York. a lead role in the national drama to probe. is one unremitting source of But what about all those over Redditeers, retail investors Grin and Citadel have played sunshine in the house. at’s near-empty downtown oce converging over the website to a starring role in the complaints Samir Mayekar, deputy mayor towers, as United Airlines and squeeze hedge-fund short sellers voiced on Reddit by the new for neighborhood and eco- others pare way back? is by mass buying of beaten-down “stock jockeys,” as hedge-fund nomic development, and the trend will pass, Mayekar replies. stocks as well as suspicions that BLOOMBERG manager and New York Mets person who more than anyone But, just in case, he’s quietly put trading halts in those stocks by Ken Grin owner Steve Cohen derisively else is in charge of guiding the together a big-name working popular online trading platforms referred to them in a tweet last city’s economy to the far side group that will focus not on like Robinhood were designed to chairs, also would investigate. week. ey’ve noted, too, the of COVID-19. diversity and South Side growth rescue the hedge-fund class. “As a rst step in reining in attention from both sides of the In a phone interview, but how to help downtown sur- Grin is highly likely to nd these abusive practices, I will aisle. Mayekar doesn’t disap- vive a very, very rocky stretch. himself a witness in congres- convene a hearing to examine the One example from a Reddit point. With a new, more Crucial to helping down- sional hearings to come on the recent activity around GameStop poster called “dust”: “A nerve urban-friendly president in town—and reeling neighbor- controversy. He will have to stock and other impacted stocks has been struck. When Ted Cruz, oce and vaccines beginning hood retail corridors through- answer questions about Cita- with a focus on short selling, on- AOC, (Arizona Republican Rep.) to arrive with regularity, the out Chicago—is shoring up del’s decision to rescue a fellow line trading platforms, gamica- Paul Gosar, and reddit shit- 37-year-old onetime tech the city’s showplace but now hedge fund that was caught in tion and their systemic impact on posters agree, maybe we really entrepreneur sees “a renewed dying North Michigan Avenue. the intense short squeeze of our capital markets and retail in- are entering the Age of Aquarius.” sense of optimism.” “We are deeply committed to GameStop, a brick-and-mortar vestors,” she said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Citadel Still, despite his solid reputa- the success of the Magnicent retailer of video games. “We must deal with the hedge says Grin would have no com- tion, Mayekar is only one man Mile,” Mayekar says. But he Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, funds whose unethical conduct ment on the prospect of having in a Lightfoot administration only gives hints as to how, the incoming chairman of the directly led to the recent market to appear before Congress. But that on so many fronts seems to talking about creativity and at- Senate Banking Committee, last volatility and we must examine both companies owned by Grif- be ghting for its very life right tracting more pedestrian trac week said he would hold at least the market in general and how it n—Citadel itself (the hedge now. He and the administration and the like. one hearing. “People on Wall has been manipulated by hedge fund) and Citadel Securities have lots of plans. But there also Hard as all of the above is Street only care about the rules funds and their nancial part- (which processes trades for on- are lots of unlled blanks. to achieve, probably the most when they’re the ones getting ners to benet themselves while line platforms like Robinhood)— Overall, the city is making challenging task is remaking hurt,” he said in a statement. others pay the price.” deny having anything to do with progress on all main goals laid the city’s image after a year of “American workers have known the decisions to halt trading out in the COVID-recovery plan illness, looting, public school for years the Wall Street system is IN THE HOT SEAT in GameStop and other stocks it unveiled last summer, when chaos, huge tax hikes, carjack- broken—they’ve been paying the So far, neither Brown nor Wa- whose prices were bid up by the the pandemic seemed to be ing mania and more. e eort price. It’s time for the SEC and ters has set a hearing date or Redditeers.