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Blain's Farm & Fleet coming to Elgin, plans to hire locally

Blain's Farm & Fleet plans to open in mid-September in Elgin and hire employees locally, the company's CEO and owner said.

The store at 629 S. Randall Road will open in the space formerly occupied by Lowe's Home Improvement.

“We knew Elgin was right for us. We just needed to find the right site,” company CEO and owner Jane Blain Gilbertson told the Elgin City Council on Wednesday.

Council members approved an economic development incentive agreement rebating 25 percent of sales taxes generated by the new store for 10 years, and waiving building and development permit fees.

Blain's Farm & Fleet's estimates it will make $30 million in sales in the first year and a total of $415 million in sales over the first decade. The city will be getting about $1 million per year in sales taxes once the business has established its peak sales volume, officials said.

Blain Gilbertson said the store will create the equivalent of 120 full-time jobs; about 70 percent of store employees typically work full time. All employees will be hired locally with the exception of the management team, she said.

Council members said they were pleased the company picked the Elgin site, which has been vacant since 2011. “I'm really happy it's a regional, Midwestern, family-owned company,” Councilwoman Carol Rauschenberger said.

No other business's arrival, with the exception perhaps of Portillo's, has generated such excitement in recent memory, Councilman John Prigge said.

The company is investing $14.5 million to open its store in the approximately 140,000-square-foot building and 30,000-square-foot garden center.

Elgin's will be the 37th store for the company, which is based in Janesville, Wisconsin, and has stores in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. The company sells lawn and garden equipment, hardware, sporting goods, automotive parts, clothing, toys, agriculture items and more.

The 12.75-acre site in Elgin is perfect for Blain's Farm & Fleet, which plans to add a drive-through pickup area, Blain Gilbertson said.

City officials had said the building had deteriorated in the last five years and required “substantial repair and renovation,” but that statement was an exaggeration, Blain Gilbertson said.

“There was some paint on the ceiling that fell off. Other than that, the building is in great shape.”

Blain's Farm & Fleet's 38th store will open in October in Romeoville, Blain Gilbertson said.

  Jane Blain Gilbertson, CEO and owner of Blain's Farm & Fleet, told the Elgin City Council she was "tickled" to open a new store in Elgin. Elena Ferrarin/eferrarin@dailyherald.com
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