USA Today: McDonald’s opens their new HQ in downtown Chicago

McDonald's has returned to the nation’s third-largest city and has moved into its new HQ in Chicago’s West Loop. The new headquarters is on the 9th floor of what was previously Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios, in an area of Chicago that is known for its nightlife and at the heart of one of the city’s most highly regarded restaurant scenes.

USA Today quotes McDonald’s CEO, Steve Easterbrook, on the choice for the upscale location, saying, “We firmly believe that part of the importance of the move downtown is that it gets us closer to our customers, it gets us closer to competition, it gets us closer to the trends in society.”

The new headquarters will feature a restaurant on its ground floor that is open to the public. The menu at the new HQ will include a rotating menu selection from McDonald’s outlets around the globe. USA today reports the inaugural global menu will include the McSpicy chicken sandwich from Hong Kong, cheese-and-bacon-loaded fires from Australia and a Mozza salad from France.

From humble beginnings as a small restaurant, McDonald's is proud to have become one of the world’s leading foodservice brands with more than 36,000 restaurants in more than 1,000 countries. McDonald's continues to be recognized as a premier franchising company around the world with more than 90 percent of its restaurants in the U.S. owned and operated by franchisees.