Job training grant contributes to planned business expansion in Libertyville
A groundbreaking expected soon for the expansion of VW Credit Inc., has Libertyville officials again thankful for an assist from the state.
The incentive is not in the same ballpark as that provided last May to Motorola Mobility, but a $216,000 matching grant for training helped VW decide to expand its building at 1401 Franklin Blvd. by 30,000 square feet — about 50 percent — and boost its workforce over time.
VW Credit Inc., is a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group of America Inc. The company, which located in Libertyville in 1999, provides financial products and services to Volkswagen, Audi and Bentley dealers and their customers.
“We are expecting we are creating 150 additional jobs,” by 2018, said Carsten Krebs, director of corporate communications for the parent company. A growth spurt the past two years has the company in an expansion mode, he added.
“Training is quite important, especially in this business,” he said. “We need (additional employee) support to deal with this growth.”
With about 400 employees, not including contract employees, VW Credit Inc., is among the village’s top five nonpublic sector employers, according to Heather Rowe, economic development coordinator.
While the company was not going to leave town, it was considering expansion options in other states. It sought an incentive but the village didn’t have a mechanism, according to Rowe.
Instead, village officials agreed to keep the approval and permitting process for the expansion on track. The work is valued at $6.5 million not including interior furnishings, fixtures, landscaping and other features.
“I think the responsiveness between us and the state and the general Libertyville location and its amenities made it a reality,” Rowe said.
The state is providing $216,000 through its Employer Training Investment Program, according to Marcelyn Love, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
“The purpose of the grant is to help a company keep their employees up to speed and keep them competitive,” she said. “In a lot of cases, it’s initiated at the local level.”
In that program, grantees typically get 50 percent of the money when the grant is executed — expected to be later this year in this case — and the rest when the initial amount has been spent. The program requires a dollar-for-dollar match, according to Love.
Such grants are tied to job creation or other benchmarks and there has to be a tangible threat the jobs may be created elsewhere, she added.
The village board approved the site plan last October before VW Credit had selected a final location.
“It’s a large employer and it has significant impacts,” Rowe said, such as a boost in property tax from the increased building value and local sales of materials, food and homes, for example.
“I don’t know if they might have left but they certainly wouldn’t have expanded,” without the grant, she added.
Motorola Mobility received more than $110 million of state tax incentives and agreed to keep at least 2,500 workers at its Libertyville headquarters, where it employs about 3,290.