State Farm Leaving Illinois

State Farm is far and away the country's largest property/casualty insurer.
Illinois is a financial basket case exhibiting social pathologies usually found in failed nation-states.

From the Dallas Morning News:
State Farm keeping quiet about relocating employees to newly leased Dallas-area offices 

 

Bloomington, Ill.-based insurance giant State Farm has leased three of these four Richardson buildings as it prepares to consolidate some regional operations in the Dallas area. The company has leased more than 1 million feet of space at various Dallas-area locations over the past six months. 

A major business relocation is underway to North Texas, but you probably haven’t heard.
It’s one of the biggest stories in the Dallas-area real estate market and will ultimately involve thousands of workers.

No one at State Farm Insurance is talking about exactly who’s going into the more than 1 million square feet of office space they have rented during the last six months in North Texas.
The company also has leased another 1.5 million square feet of offices in new buildings recently announced for construction in Richardson’s Telecom Corridor.

Just that 1.5 million-square-foot office complex can house as many as 5,000 employees.
So where are they coming from?

Again, State Farm is mum.

“We are continuing to make decisions on the number of employees that will occupy this facility and do not have final numbers at this time,” a State Farm spokesman said when the company first started renting office space last August. “Exactly when this new facility will be open is yet to be determined.”

And when State Farm rented two more big buildings in Irving, the company only said “we are continuing to make decisions on the number of employees that will occupy these facilities and do not have final numbers at this time.”

Real estate agents who are working with State Farm employees moving to Dallas and property brokers who closely watch the deal say that hundreds of the insurance company’s workers from out of state will be shifted to the new Richardson and Irving operations this year.

The new North Texas facilities will become a super regional office for State Farm, which has almost 70,000 workers in total....MORE

And from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Atlanta part of State Farm’s U.S. expansion

Insurance giant State Farm confirmed on Wednesday the company is expanding its operations in three U.S. cities, including Atlanta.

State Farm, among the more active recent players in metro Atlanta corporate real estate, has been quietly scouting metro Atlanta for large chunks of office space, raising questions whether it could move more new jobs to the metro area, relocate jobs from other cities here or potentially move workers from its massive campus in Johns Creek to other metro Atlanta offices.

The statement continued to leave open the possibility State Farm could adjust its use of or move from its Johns Creek campus, currently home to about 2,000 employees.

“Today, we are continuing to use our Johns Creek facility to support our work and serve customers. Our review is ongoing,” the company said.

In a statement in response to questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, State Farm offered few specifics. But the company denied persistent questions in several U.S. markets that it is relocating its headquarters, saying Bloomington, Ill., will remain its home....MORE

I'm reminded of Intel who, as we've pointed out over the years, leaves its headquarters in California while publicly stating they will never again build another facility in the state (Arizona says thanks for the new $5 billion fab)

Be careful what you wish for.