Schaumburg OKs Japanese business’s auditorium

Schaumburg trustees Tuesday approved an auditorium space for one of the village’s earliest Japanese companies and granted another six-month extension for a Cambria Suites hotel project.

The 17,200-square-foot building addition for Mazak’s Midwest Headquarters and Technology Center at 300 Commerce Drive will essentially be an auditorium for presentations and training seminars, Schaumburg Economic Development Coordinator Matt Frank said.

Mazak, a precision tool manufacturer whose U.S. headquarters are in Florence, Ky., was one of the first Japanese companies to locate in Schaumburg and helped pave the way for many more, Frank said.

The new building project will also add a courtyard and 42 more parking spaces to the 27,000-square-foot building already on the site.

Frank said the company has expressed an interest in getting started on the building rights away. Mazak officials anticipate an April 2012 grand opening.

“The vibrant manufacturing market and our long-term commitment to customers in the Midwest convinced us to accelerate our expansion plans of our Technology Center in Illinois,” Mazak President Brian Papke wrote in a prepared release.

Cambria Suites has also stated new confidence in its ability to apply for a building permit in the next six months for the 93,000-square-foot, 137-room hotel the village board first approved in 2006, Frank said.

Concerns over finances and market conditions have kept the project on hold the past few years.

Cambria Suites is the highest of the 10 brands owned by parent company Choice International Hotels, the second-largest hotel company in the nation.

Proposed for the southwest corner of Roselle Road and Interstate 90, the hotel intends to compete with other full-service hotels in the area such as the Hilton Garden Inn, Hyatt Place and the Renaissance Hotel, which adjoins Schaumburg’s convention center.