Northrop Grumman opens offices in Arlington Heights
Northrop Grumman, already the region's largest defense contractor with a sprawling 46-acre site in Rolling Meadows, is expanding its business within an office building in Arlington Heights.
Company officials were joined Monday by Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes and U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Peter Roskam in cutting the ribbon on a nearly 42,000-square-foot office space at 1421 W. Shure Drive, within the Northwest Crossings office building at Dundee Road and Route 53.
While most of the space will house offices, about 15 percent will be dedicated to research and development. The company plans to employ 270 workers there, for a total of about 2,500 in both Arlington Heights and on Hicks Road in Rolling Meadows, officials said.
"With this expanded footprint we are able to better serve our customers in support of national security," said Mary Petryszyn, a Northrop Grumman sector vice president and general manager of land and avionics. "We're in a strong position to be able to grow our business."
In an application for a Cook County Class 7c property tax incentive endorsed by the village board in May, the company told village officials the new offices would not be a relocation of existing Rolling Meadows offices, but an extension of the company's presence in the area.
The incentive, which allows commercial properties to be assessed at lower levels for five years, would apply only to the Northrop Grumman space within the building. HSBC occupies the other 80 percent, having opened its North American headquarters there in 2016.
"We're very excited about attracting a large corporation like Northrop Grumman to Arlington Heights because it really says a lot about our community that a corporation of that size and magnitude feels good about coming and relocating to our village," Hayes said.
Also at the event Monday morning were students who have participated in the company's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education programs. The company partners with about 50 local schools on the effort.
• Daily Herald staff photographer Gilbert R. Boucher II contributed to this report.