Officials in Bolingbrook announced Thursday that the Hartford Group will locate a regional office in half of an 84,000-square-foot building to be constructed in the southwestern suburb.
And a packaging concern has purchased the western two-thirds of the former Stephens-Adamson Inc. plant in Aurora and is consolidating its operations there from Des Plaines.
A spokesman for the Hartford Group`s Connecticut headquarters said the Bolingbrook office will employ 175 to 200 people initially.
About 100 of the employees will move from a Hartford facility in Joliet.
The Joliet/Will County Center for Economic Development wooed Hartford to Bolingbrook after learning that the ITT Corp. unit wanted to expand in the Midwest.
Hartford will underwrite and issue homeowner and automobile insurance policies for the western U.S. from the office.
The company will maintain a health claims operation in Joliet.
Developer Gerald Stillman of Mid-Continent Development Co., Matteson, expects to complete the three-story Bolingbrook center by December.
The building may include more offices and a hotel, Stillman said.
Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar said he expects the village board next week to approve a 50 percent tax abatement over two to five years for the project. Meanwhile, P.D.I. Industries Inc. paid an undisclosed price to buy a 255,000-square-foot building and its 15-acre site in the Stephens complex, on the southwest corner of Ridgeway and Elmwood Streets just south of downtown Aurora, said Barbara Kattermann.
The seller was Allis Chalmers Corp., Milwaukee, which owns Stephens-Adamson, said Kattermann, director of the Aurora Economic Development Commission.
Bennett & Kahnweiler Inc., Rosemont, brokered the transaction.
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Stephens-Adamson, founded in Aurora in 1901, produced bulk material handling equipment and was a pioneer in the development of pedestrian conveyor belts, such as those at O`Hare International Airport.
It employed approximately 400 at its peak in the late 1970s and closed in 1984, Kattermann said.
P.D.I., she said, ”leased a portion of the (Stephens-Adamson building)
about this time last year. As their business grew, they eventually expanded into half the building, and at that point we suggested they purchase it.”
The company employs 150 in Aurora and is moving another 35 jobs from Des Plaines, a consolidation expected to be completed in March, Kattermann said.
The eastern portion of the Stephens-Adamson property, with 10 acres and a 110,000-square-foot building, is still for sale, she said.
The P.D.I. deal is the second major industrial transaction announced in Aurora in as many months.
In January, The Tribune reported that Transbulk Distribution Centers Inc., a lumber and steel distributor, had acquired the former Barber-Greene Co. plant and would move nearly 100 jobs to the far western suburb from Chicago.