Elgin chamber celebrates growth in 2015
Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce officials highlighted the group's successes Tuesday during their annual luncheon at the Grand Victoria Casino.
Permits were issued for nearly 457,000 square feet of new manufacturing space in 2015, a 15 percent increase from 2014, with an anticipated 1.1 million square feet of new development slated this year, officials said.
The Elgin Development Group, an independent arm of the chamber funded by the city, helped bring Zilber Property Group, a Motorola facility and The Fabricators & Manufacturers Association to Elgin, they said. No mention was made of any businesses that left in 2015.
EDG's annual "Manufacture Your Future" exhibit last year included a "Manufacture Like a Girl" component to encourage young women to consider careers in manufacturing.
Elgin's retail vacancy rate was 8.2 percent, which is lower than Naperville, St. Charles and Schaumburg, officials said. The city's unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in November, better than the same month in 2014, with nearly 54,000 people employed, or a gain of nearly 3,000 since January 2015, officials said.
The chamber's latest figures show it had 580 members representing 20,100 employees in the Elgin area.