Why Did McDonald's Walk Away From Oak Brook After 47 Years?

Why did McDonald's leave Oak Brook after 47 years? The answer is hidden inside a headquarters that no longer exists, and it isn't what you'd expect. You'll see why Ray Kroc moved McDonald's headquarters to Oak Brook, Illinois in 1971, why his first office had a 700-gallon waterbed, and how an 80-acre campus with Hamburger University became a problem. Then find out what happened to the old McDonald's campus after the 2018 move to Chicago's West Loop, and why Ace Hardware moved in. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Why McDonald's Left Oak Brook 1:02 Ray Kroc Leaves Chicago in 1971 2:41 The Waterbed Headquarters 4:42 Hamburger University Campus 7:26 McDonald's in Trouble 10:04 Moving to Chicago's West Loop 13:54 What Happened to the Oak Brook Campus 14:50 Will McDonald's Stay in Chicago? Did you work at the Oak Brook campus? Tell us in the comments, then like and subscribe to Hidden Chicagoland for more Chicago history. SOURCES 1. WBEZ: What's That Building? McDonald's Oak Brook Headquarters (Dennis Rodkin, Louise Mozingo, Dirk Lohan) https://www.wbez.org/morning-shift/20... 2. Library of Congress: McDonald's Plaza Building, HABS IL-1253 https://www.loc.gov/item/il1050 3. Creative Review: The history of the open plan office (Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler) https://www.creativereview.co.uk/open... 4. McDonald's: New global headquarters opens in Chicago's West Loop https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpm... 5. McDonald's: Fred Turner obituary https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpm... 6. QSRweb: McDonald's Hamburger University marks 50 years https://www.qsrweb.com/news/mcdonalds... 7. McDonald's first quarter 2015 results (SEC filing) https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... 8. McDonald's first quarter 2014 results https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpm... 9. Restaurant Business: Timeline of the McDonald's-Easterbrook dispute https://restaurantbusinessonline.com/... 10. Nation's Restaurant News: The Power List 2017, Steve Easterbrook https://nrn.com/node/90640 11. QSR: Inside the plan to fix McDonald's https://www.qsrmagazine.com/reports/i... 12. Meat+Poultry: Easterbrook on legacy thinking https://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/... 13. NBC Chicago: More than 100 protesters arrested at McDonald's headquarters https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local... 14. ABC7 Chicago: McDonald's protesters arrested during rally at headquarters https://abc7chicago.com/mcdonalds-pro... 15. CBS Chicago: McDonald's staffers working at home amid protest https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/... 16. Fortune: McDonald's Is Moving Its Headquarters Back to Chicago https://fortune.com/2016/06/13/mcdona... 17. Fortune: McDonald's New Chicago Headquarters Is Officially Open https://fortune.com/2018/06/05/mcdona... 18. NRN: McDonald's to move headquarters https://www.nrn.com/quick-service/mcd... 19. NBC Chicago: McDonald's breaks ground on new headquarters (Harpo demolition) https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local... 20. FoodNavigator: ConAgra to move its headquarters from Omaha to Chicago https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article... 21. Daily Herald: Former McDonald's office building being razed in Oak Brook https://www.dailyherald.com/20190828/... 22. JLL: Sale of former McDonald's global headquarters campus https://www.us.jll.com/en/newsroom/jl... 23. Patch: Purchase price for former McDonald's headquarters revealed https://patch.com/illinois/oak-brook/... 24. Chicago Tribune via Discover DuPage: Oak Brook Park District's 34 acres from McDonald's https://www.discoverdupage.com/articl... #Chicago #McDonalds #OakBrook #ChicagoHistory #HiddenChicagoland #HamburgerUniversity #RayKroc #WestLoop #McDonaldsHistory #ChicagoSuburbs #DuPageCounty #IllinoisHistory #Chicago