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Chicago

Ferrero to open innovation center in Marshall Fields building

Company will keep Old Post Office space for chocolate company

The Marshall Field Building in Chicago
The Marshall Field Building in Chicago (Google Maps, Illustration by Priyanka Modi for The Real Deal with Getty)

The Loop is about to get sweeter.

Ferrero North America said it will build a 45,000-square-foot innovation facility in the Marshall Field building in the Loop, the Chicago Tribune reported. The lab and offices will be located on the eighth and ninth floors after next spring.

Ferrara Candy, a Ferrero unit, will remain at the Old Post Office downtown, will stay open, though some corporate employees will be transferred to the new space, which will be home to 170 employees, most of whom are already based in Chicago.

Employees will move into temporary office space in the Marshall Field building while the permanent offices are being built. According to Ferrero, employees who make cookies, cones and crusts for brands including Keebler, Famous Amos and Mother’s will move into the new facility.

The Marshall Field building isn’t a stranger to the business of sweets and treats: Field’s used to make Frango Mints in melting pots on the building’s 13th floor until it moved in 1999.

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Ferrero said last month that it plans to expand its downstate Bloomington facility. The $214.4 million expansion is expected to be completed in 2024 and bring 200 jobs to the area.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was excited about the decision and that Ferrero will be “well-placed” in Chicago.

The Marshall Field building was designated a Chicago landmark in 2005, when Federated Department Stores bought Field’s parent company and converted the lower floors into a Macy’s. Brookfield Properties bought the upper floors of the building in 2018 and redeveloped the space into almost 650,000 square feet of offices.

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— Victoria Pruitt

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