German manufacturing firm to set up shop in Elgin, mayor says

Even though the housing market has slowed to trickle, manufacturing firms continue to flow into Elgin.

Mayor Ed Schock said Thursday that the city is close to inking a deal with a German company to open up shop here and create 150 new jobs.

Schock didn't want to disclose the company's name or its product, but said the company likely would take advantage of a city incentive that pays a firm $1,000 for each job created that earns more than $45,000 a year.

"When you have one area that's diminished, you have one area that's increased," the mayor told an Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast at Elgin Community College.

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.

Robert Gleeson, Northern Illinois University Center for Government Studies director, said "global economy" is a nice buzzword, but trade between large metropolitan regions also fuels growth.

And, Gleeson said, larger cities are becoming global places because people who move there can find enough elements of their own culture.

Schock pointed to the city's wide array of festivals, dining options and houses of worship as factors that appeal to different cultures.

"It makes sense. A company from somewhere else is not going to come here if they're not going to be accepted," he said after Gleeson's presentation. "We have the kinds of cultural and ethnic diversity that attracts people from a variety of places."