Marketing consultant up for vote in Algonquin

Hoping to attract new businesses and spur development, Algonquin officials are considering hiring an outside consulting firm to help create a marketing strategy for the village.

Algonquin is beginning to see the local economy rebound after nearly a decade of high vacancy rates and poor market conditions, Community Development Director Russ Farnum said. With companies starting to express interest in commercial and industrial real estate in the area, he said, the village began evaluating how to best promote their competitive advantages over other communities.

The village board is expected to vote Tuesday on an agreement with Chicago-based a5 Branding and Digital, one of a handful of consultants that responded to the village's request for qualifications. The group's marketing services, which include developing a community profile and campaign platform, are expected to cost roughly $58,350.

"Our ability to deliver new construction or build-to-suit spaces is much more competitive again price-wise and availability-wise," Farnum said. "It's a perfect time."

The a5 company is expected to focus largely on the Algonquin Corporate Campus, a roughly 800-acre park on Corporate Parkway off Randall Road created as an employment hub for the village, Farnum said. Algonquin recently spent more than $200,000 to install fiber optic infrastructure at the campus, which has about two dozen businesses and ample room for more, he said.

Village President John Schmitt said several ongoing transportation projects, such as the Longmeadow Parkway construction and the widening of Randall Road, will only contribute to the corporate park's appeal.

"It puts us in a position to have a product to sell," he said, but the village doesn't have any staff members who specialize in advertising the available sites. "The purpose of this is to hire a marketing team that ... is going to give us a tool that we can use to help market our community to prospective corporations."

Additionally, the firm would assist with marketing key vacancies and potential development areas along the Randall Road and East Algonquin Road corridors, Farnum said. Schmitt said the strategies can also be applied to the village's downtown, which is undergoing a multimillion-dollar facelift over the next few years.

"We're not concentrating on trying to fill a specific niche. We're trying to create a document that shows Algonquin to be the place you want to put your business," Schmitt said. "I think this is an exciting new time for the village."