Guggenheim Partners is keeping most of its Chicago offices closed, with a number of employees relocating, the latest symbolic blow to a city reeling from the high-profile exit of Ken Griffin’s Citadel.
(Bloomberg) — Guggenheim Partners is keeping most of its Chicago offices closed, with a number of employees relocating, the latest symbolic blow to a city reeling from the high-profile exit of Ken Griffin’s Citadel.
“Guggenheim’s Chicago offices were closed in 2020 during Covid. No units, with the exception of one subsidiary, have reopened nor plan to reopen,” the company, which has over $300 billion under management, said in an emailed statement. “A number of Guggenheim employees have relocated already.”
Still, the firm said, “there has been no downsizing in Chicago.” Guggenheim Securities is the unit that remains open, according to a person familiar with the matter, with about 100 employees.
Crain’s Chicago Business reported on Monday that the company, which has headquarters in Chicago and New York, is close to a decision on moving its base to Miami. The story, which cited sources with direct knowledge of the matter, said its top executives would relocate to the Florida city from Chicago, but it wasn’t clear if the New York headquarters would shift.
Guggenheim spokesman Gerard Carney declined to comment on any headquarters move.
Chicago and its suburbs have been hit over the past year by the loss of companies including Citadel, plane maker Boeing Co. and manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. Griffin took his company, founded in Chicago more than three decades ago, to Miami, bringing along hundreds of employees and his family.
The move was part of a larger migration of Wall Street titans. Since the onset of the pandemic, Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners and Millennium Management have built offices in Miami, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Point72 Asset Management set up shop in West Palm Beach.
Guggenheim has more than a dozen other offices in the US and overseas and over 2,100 employees worldwide.
Mark Walter, Guggenheim’s chief executive officer and co-founder who’s been based in Chicago, owns White Oak Conservation, a wildlife preserve outside Jacksonville, Florida. He is the majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team.
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