Great Lakes Coca-Cola Bottling building facility in Elgin

A soon-to-be-built $20 million facility for Great Lakes Coca-Cola Bottling Company is expected to bring about 240 full-time jobs to Elgin.

Calling it a great success for the city, council members approved Wednesday night an economic development incentive agreement with Lone Oak-Elgin LLC, the local entity affiliated with the company.

Great Lakes Coca-Cola Bottling, owned by Reyes Holdings, LLC, is a bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola products. The proposed 239,000-square-foot building on 38 acres at 2601 Mason Road in Elgin will be the starting point of 75 daily delivery routes in the northwest Chicago metro area, city officials said.

The agreement provides "fast-track" permitting and waiving of fees for building permits, zoning and utility installation, altogether amounting to about $213,000. Before building permits are issued, Lone Oak-Elgin/Great Lakes will give the city more than $150,000 in development impact fees.

Great Lakes looked at properties throughout the Chicago area and chose Elgin over a 53-acre property in Hoffman Estates and a 44-acre property in Gilberts, city staff members said.

"This is a huge success at a time when many communities would just love this kind of thing to come to theirs," Councilman Terry Gavin said.

Council members Tish Powell and Corey Dixon praised the work of the Elgin Development Group, the economic development arm of the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce that the city contracts with.

Great Lakes wants to start building as soon as possible, city staff members said. The company estimates the facility will employ 50 people in administrative and supervisory positions with annual salaries between $50,000 and $100,000; 100 delivery drivers with annual salaries of about $60,000; and 90 warehouse employees with annual salaries of about $45,000.

The new business is expected to generate almost $400,000 in annual property tax revenues for 10 local taxing bodies, including about $83,000 to Elgin, more than $230,000 to Community Unit District 300 and about $20,000 to Elgin Community College.

Councilman Toby Shaw pointed out the city is not giving cash to the company and the property tax revenues will cover the waived fees in under three years.

"These types of waivers continue to be a great development opportunity for us," he said.