(The Center Square) – Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias says a new driver and motor vehicle services facility in downtown Chicago will greatly improve service, but he is not ruling out closures in other parts of the state.
At the ribbon-cutting for the new Secretary of State Flagship Center Tuesday, Giannoulias said he was enormously proud of his office’s new facility and said he was frustrated to see people lose a lot of time at the old DMV nearby.
“That lost time comes at a significant cost. It’s more than just frustration. It’s a tangible toll amounting to a time tax. The time tax is the extra time and effort that people spend navigating complex bureaucratic systems, especially when dealing with government services,” Giannoulias said. “We’re forced to wade through a tangled network of government websites, offices and phone numbers to access the services we not only depend on, but that we’re required to have.”
Giannoulias said “it’s also one of the reasons why so many people have lost faith in government.”
The flagship center is located in a state-owned building at 125 W. Monroe Street in Chicago’s Loop. At 24,000 square feet, the center is nearly five times the size of the office’s Chicago Central DMV at 160 N. LaSalle St., which officially closed Friday.
Illinois Department of Central Management Services Director Raven DeVaughn said selling the former Thompson Center allowed the state to own the 37-story building that houses the new facility.
“In relieving the state of costly, inefficient buildings, opting instead for newer, more energy and space-efficient buildings, we are leading the way, modernizing the spaces and places where state agencies deliver critical services to all Illinoisans,” DeVaughn said.
More than 60 Secretary of State employees are expected to staff the center, which Giannoulias said “showcases the efficiencies generated by all our modernization initiatives working in unison.”
When asked about efficiency efforts at the federal government level, Giannoulias said they were “harmful” and “destructive.”
“I think this is a shining example of finding ways to do more with less, and I wish Washington, D.C. worked a little bit more like we do here in Illinois,” the secretary said.
Giannoulias did not rule out closing some DMVs across the state.
“The only facilities we would close are ones that have, I would say, foot traffic that is not justifiable for taxpayers to be paying rent,” Giannoulias said.
Giannoulias said he did not anticipate closures in the Chicago area.
The ribbon-cutting comes at a time when downtown Chicago vacancy rates are at record highs. Real estate firm CBRE reported in January that the share of Loop-area available office space rose over the final three months of 2024 to 26.3%, marking the 10th consecutive quarter that the vacancy rate hit an all-time high.
Glenn Minnis contributed to this story.
