Elgin Area Chamber reviews 2011 numbers
By Janelle Walker For The Courier-News February 22, 2012 10:18PM
Master of Ceremonies Richard Jakle claps while conducting the Elgin Area Chamber's annual meeting Tuesday at the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin. | Dave Shields~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 24, 2012 9:08AM
ELGIN — Numbers were on the menu Tuesday night for the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce’s 104th annual dinner.
Those numbers, according to new chamber President Carol Gieske, include her being the first woman to head the Elgin business organization. She replaces Leo Nelson, who retired from that post in December after 11 years.
Nelson, however, has not completely stepped down from a leadership role at the chamber. He has stayed on as a director of the Elgin Development Group, tasked as the economic development engine for the city of Elgin.
The 2-year-old agreement between the city and the chamber for economic development was on the city council’s committee of the whole agenda Wednesday night as well.
According to Mike Shales, the 2012 chamber board chairman, the Elgin Development Group can boast two successful projects in 2011 — the move of Switzerland-based Bystronic Inc.’s North American headquarters to a location on Airport Road; and Pancor Construction & Development’s “speculation” building: a $49.6 million, 167,000-square-foot commercial and industrial building at 1385 Madeline Lane in the Randall Point Business Center.
Those two projects are set to bring in $354,000 annually in local property taxes to area government bodies, and an estimated $31 million in new economic activity, Shales said.
The spec building was something Elgin specifically needed, said Nelson following Tuesday night’s dinner, held at the Grand Victoria Casino’s ballroom.
Elgin and the Chicago metro area are running out of usable and available manufacturing space, he said. What is left is also in outdated buildings, he said.
“Old buildings don’t do it any more” for manufacturing, Nelson said.
The chamber reached out to local builders, which led to the city of Elgin waiving fees for the space and the spec building’s construction. “It wasn’t cash, but waiving some building and permit fees,” Nelson said. “The city put it on a fast-track review process.”
There are few if any speculation buildings — which are constructed before a tenant or tenants are secured — going up in the region, Gieske noted.
She also encouraged businesses to take a look at the new Chamber of Commerce and Elgin Economic Development websites, slated to go live Feb. 29.
The two sites, www.ElginChamber.com and www.elgindevelopment.org, are to kick off with a daylong open house at the chamber offices on DuPage Court.
The development website will be “our window to the world,” Nelson said, and will offer four different languages to Web visitors — Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, German and Spanish.
“We have visitors from all over the world,” Nelson said.
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