Yelp bringing 300 jobs to Chicago, mayor says

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Thursday that the online reviewer Yelp has signed a lease for 50,000 square feet of space on the fourth floor of the Merchandise Mart.

The mayor's office says Yelp expects to hire up to 300 people in Chicago in the next 12 to 18 months, with a majority of the positions in sales.

It plans to move into the new office in January of 2015.

Yelp currently has offices in San Francisco, Scottsdale, New York, London, Hamburg, Dublin, and now Chicago.

Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across 28 countries.

Yelp had a monthly average of 138 million unique visitors in the second quarter of 2014, according to Google Analytics. By the end of that quarter, Yelpers had written more than 61 million reviews on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists.

Yelp will be joining a digital technology community at the Merchandise Mart that also includes technology hub 1871, Razorfish and MATTER, a new entrepreneurship hub for next-generation health IT, medical device and biopharma companies.