Jobs booming in Elgin
Forget all that stuff about Elgin being the city to watch or how it's the year of the neighborhood.
If city leaders are looking for a new mantra slogan, it could be "Elgin: Open for New Business."
"We've been hot for a while," Mayor Ed Schock said.
More and more companies are selecting Elgin as their home or a location to expand their reach.
Case in point: City leaders Wednesday gave the OK to dole out $88,000 in incentives for two new busineseses.
One is a rapidly-expanding electrical power consulting firm where employees make an average of $70,000 a year.
The other is GEKA Brush, a Germany firm founded in 1925 that specializes in precision brushes for the cosmetic industry. The company will set up in a 38,400-square-foot building and bring 145 jobs to the area.
One standard incentive offered by the city is $1,000 for every new job that makes more than $40,000 a year, not including benefits. In this instance, that comes to 88 jobs in the next three years.
"We are on a lot more company's radar screens. They realize Elgin is a great place to do business," Schock said. "It's just been super, and these are great jobs."
In late June, city leaders and officials at Siemens Energy and Automation announced plans for a $25 million, 170,000-square-foot wind turbine plant on Elgin's far west side that will create 355 new jobs.
Also, NTN Bearing, which manufactures bearings for automobiles, plans another expansion at its Elgin plant, a move that will add 150 to the payroll.
City Manager Femi Folarin said Elgin's message is getting through.
"Elgin is an ideal location to do business, live and raise a family," Folarin said. "It's something that's working. We have a lot of inquiries from businesses that are relocating."
In a letter to city leaders, CSI President Robert Aleksick said the company is rapidly expanding, has never laid off an employee, and their engineering jobs earn an average of $70,000 per year.
He also said he was impressed with the revitalized downtown.
"We have engaged a search consultant who has identified about a dozen suitable office properties along the I-90 corridor, and we have determined that downtown Elgin, based on a number of factors, including the available incentives, could possibly be a great location for us," Aleksick wrote.