Nation's largest Indian food distributor moving headquarters to Elk Grove

The nation's largest distributor and retailer of Indian food plans to relocate its corporate headquarters from Skokie to Elk Grove Village.

Raja Foods, the parent company of the Patel Brothers grocery store chain, plans to purchase a building at 1000 Estes Ave. in Elk Grove's industrial park and make between $2.5 million to $3.5 million in improvements before moving there, officials said.

The company's existing location in Skokie is 65,000 square feet, but in Elk Grove it will be getting a 100,000-square-foot building, which will house packaging, warehousing and distribution space for its ethnic food and products sold in grocery stores across the country.

Raja imports food such as rice, spices and mango juice from England, Spain, India, Pakistan, China and Australia, and then distributes goods to grocery stores, Indian ethnic stores, distributors and wholesalers, according to the company's website.

The company plans to bring its 56 full-time employees to Elk Grove, and hire another 20 workers in the next three years as it expands operations, according to company documents filed with the village.

Plans call for Raja to reconfigure the office space of the Elk Grove building by tearing down a portion of the structure and constructing a three-story office totaling 24,000 square feet. The firm also plans to add 8,000 square feet of freezer space, give the dock area a full face-lift, install new signage, re-stripe the parking lot, and make landscaping improvements, documents show.

The project will also include facade and interior upgrades, officials said.

The village board last week endorsed the company's application for a Cook County Class 6B property tax break, which would allow the Estes Avenue site to be assessed at lower levels over the next dozen years. Pending final approval by the county, the property would be assessed at 10% of fair market value for the first 10 years, 15% in the 11th year and 20% in the 12th year. Industrial property is normally assessed at 25%.