Motorola, Elgin postpone deal for new facility

A pending agreement between Motorola Solutions and the city of Elgin has been postponed.

City Manager Sean Stegall told the city council Wednesday night that the Schaumburg-based company said the development agreement for a training and manufacturing center at 2580 Galvin Drive, in the Northwest Business Park, had "moved too quickly."

Stegall said he expects the agreement to be on the agenda for the next meeting Sept. 23. The deal grants fast-track permitting and waives development, impact and building permit fees for Motorola.

Motorola needs more time to wrap up communications-related issues and "dot their Is and cross their Ts," Stegall said.

Company spokeswoman Tama McWhinney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the postponement.

The company initially told city officials it wanted a speedy agreement in order to sign a lease and make improvements to the building - an estimated $18 million investment - so city staff members worked on that diligently, Stegall said. Assistant City Manager Rick Kozal even did so while on vacation in Europe, he said.

But Motorola officials told him about an hour before Wednesday's meeting that "they hadn't communicated on their end with all the necessary parties," Stegall said.

According to city officials, the new Motorola center would employ 200 full-time employees with the potential for another 200 seasonal ones.

Motorola Solutions moved some of its manufacturing operations from Mexico to Schaumburg last year.

Earlier Wednesday, McWhinney declined to say whether any manufacturing would be moved from elsewhere to the Elgin facility.

She also declined to say whether the Elgin employees would be new hires or existing Motorola employees.

The Elgin Development Group, a division of the chamber, had worked to persuade Motorola Solutions to establish the new facility in Elgin. EDG Economic Development Director Tony Lucenko declined to comment Wednesday night.

Motorola Solutions, which makes radio equipment for emergency workers, is the product of the 2011 breakup of Motorola Inc., which resulted in the mobile phone unit being spun off into Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. That business was later sold to Google Inc., which then sold it to Lenovo Group Ltd. in 2014.