Food packager could bring hundreds of jobs to Bartlett

One of the largest food packaging companies in the region plans to expand to Bartlett, bringing with it the potential for hundreds of jobs.

Creative Werks executives told village officials that the Bensenville-based company is signing a $32 million, 12.5-year lease to move into the biggest building in Brewster Creek, according to village documents. The deal - which at one point, almost fell through - cements the industrial park as a home for light manufacturers in the lucrative food industry, village officials say.

"Food distribution has kind of found a niche in the business park," Community Development Director Jim Plonczynski said.

The company, whose clients include heavy hitters like Nestlé and Hershey, will join producers of specialty cheese and fresh pasta in Brewster Creek.

Those businesses need big buildings, and Brewster Creek offers the room to grow, Plonczynski said.

The space, coupled with leasing rates, allowed the Bartlett property to beat out four other contenders in Creative Werks' expansion plans, according to an Oct. 28 memo from Bartlett Economic Development Coordinator Tony Fradin. The other four were buildings in Aurora and one each in Portage and Munster, Indiana.

In early summer, Creative Werks began considering the 400,000-square-foot building. Real estate agents started marketing the facility last fall, but the previous tenant, a furniture maker for big-box stores, didn't move out until this year.

Creative Werks also approached Bartlett officials about economic incentives. Village officials noted that Rana Meal Solutions received a $50,000 village incentive toward opening its first American plant in Brewster Creek in 2011. The village also directed Creative Werks to state tax breaks.

"They didn't go forward and ask for anything officially," Plonczynski said of village perks in an interview. "It doesn't mean that they won't."

On Sept. 29, Creative Werks told the village the company was no longer interested in Bartlett because of "uncompetitive lease rates," Fradin's memo states. The Brewster Creek site was the most expensive of the four.

Less than a month later, company executives reversed course and began pursuing the Bartlett property again after the new owners, Exeter Property Group, a Philadelphia-based real estate investment firm, "became more aggressive" in their leasing offer, according to Fradin's memo. Village officials declined to disclose the terms, which are under negotiation.

Creative Werks plans to move most of the packaging lines from an Elk Grove Village facility to Bartlett. Thirty to 40 full-time employees should move among the Bartlett, Bensenville and Elk Grove Village plants.

All together, roughly 300 hourly and temporary employees could work out of Bartlett in three shifts.

For now, the company will use about 250,000 square feet, or just more than half of the building at 1350 Munger Road. But executives told the village that the space will likely grow to 600,000 square feet in the coming years.

Plonczynski said Creative Werks hasn't set an opening date.

"They want to move in as quickly as possible," he said. "It's certainly going to be after the first of the year."