FedEx won't be alone on Elgin's Airport Road

City officials already have said that FedEx is coming to Elgin.

But by the time the Memphis-based company's new facility is up and running, it will probably have several neighbors, officials say.

Construction crews are putting up walls and moving massive mounds of dirt along Airport and River Ridge roads on Elgin's north end.

But none of that work has anything to do with FedEx's planned distribution center on the same property.

Developer Hamilton Partners is in charge of the FedEx project, but construction crews haven't broken ground.

They are moving forward with a 430,000-square-foot building next to the FedEx site. Crews from Itasca Construction Associates, working for Hamilton Partners, already have the walls up on that building.

Project manager Steve Hoerman said Hamilton Partners has been in discussions with a few possible tenants for that building -- but nothing has been finalized.

Hamilton Partners is also the developer in charge of the FedEx project, but in that case, they haven't even broken ground.

"It's all still in negotiations," Hoerman said. "A month from now the floors should be in and we should be paved. But we're only going to take it so far with what they call the shell work."

Hoerman said an open house is planned next month for leasing agents and the like, but they won't finish construction until they know who's moving in.

Right next door to the large building under construction, and by the future site of FedEx, crews are working with a second developer to put up three more buildings right along Airport Road.

The workers have been moving dirt for much of the summer, but city officials say they aren't exactly sure what companies are coming to town.

There has been talk of a company that makes equipment to paint cars, a wholesaler of tractors and backhoes and a possible turf care business, Elgin Community Development Director Jerry Deering said. But the details are still a little murky.