Your news: Hoffman Estates draws corporate America to its doorstep
While the economy struggles, the village of Hoffman Estates continues to prove itself as a desirable location for corporate business headquarters.
“I do not know of any other Chicago area suburb that has recruited more global and American headquarters in the past couple of years than Hoffman Estates, Illinois,” said Charles Portis, vice president of J.F. McKinney & Associates, lead broker for the 800-acre Prairie Stone Business Park.
Construction activity has been lead by a record influx of top Japanese corporations. Most recently, on Oct. 6, a groundbreaking was held for the new American headquarters of NSK America Corporation, a leading manufacturer of high-speed precision rotary tools, in the new Huntington 90 business park. NSK construction had barely just begun when the village learned that, in 2011,
London-based Tate & Lyle PLC, makers of Splenda sweetener, will occupy a 110,000-square-foot, three-story building in the Prairie Stone Business Park, just north of the Sears Centre Arena. This location will be the global headquarter of Tate & Lyle's Innovation and Commercial Development Group, as well as the regional headquarters for the Specialty Food Ingredients business in North America.
Tate & Lyle's arrival will bring 160 high-quality jobs to the community, and will involve a significant investment upgrading the existing building. Hoffman Estates is fortunate to also have landed the following new companies in the past few years:
2009: DMG Mori Seiki 100,000 square feet, 100 employees. 2010: BIG Kaiser 30,000 square feet, 100 employees; JCL Bioassay 30,000 square feet, 111 employees; and Americare College of Nursing 24,000 square feet, 111 employees.
2011: NSK America 25,500 square feet, 22 employees; and Tate & Lyle 110,000 square feet, 160 employees.
Beyond new construction, the village recognizes the importance of fostering the growth of existing companies. Recently, Hoffman Estates has aggressively partnered with several area precision tool makers along the Golden Corridor (I-90 from O'Hare to Elgin) to help educate potential employees on the career opportunities available in the modern manufacturing industries.
On Sept. 16, the Golden Corridor Manufacturing Group sent 60 students to the International Manufacturing and Technology Show at McCormick Place. On Nov. 18, Fanuc Robotics of Hoffman Estates sponsored a Manufacturing Open House to teach about potential careers in robotics. The village is planning other manufacturing career awareness programs early in 2011. These efforts have all focused on the monumental changes that have occurred in the manufacturing and toolmaking industries. Today's
industrial jobs require computer and technical skills – these are not your grandfather's dirty factory jobs!
For more information on the village's economic development activities, visit hoffmanestates.org/ed.
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