Abbott Laboratories, already Lake County`s largest private employer, announced Monday that it will add 2,500 workers as part of a major expansion plan that could bolster two diverse areas of the county.
The pharmaceutical company unveiled two project sites where it plans to add research and office parks over the next decade, creating as many jobs as any project under way in the state.
The economic boost stands to touch two dramatically different faces of Lake County-the struggling urban cities of the lakefront and the most pristine open space of its undeveloped north central region.
Work will begin right away to build three buildings next to Abbott`s corporate headquarters, at Illinois Highway 43 and Buckley Road (Illinois Highway 137), near North Chicago.
There, as in neighboring Waukegan, community leaders are hungry for new jobs to offset losses in the manufacturing sector. In addition to making drugs, Abbott is a dominant supplier of HIV blood test products.
That facility will call for 1,400 new permanent workers, including laboratory technicians, researchers and office workers. Company officials said many would be hired locally by the time the buildings are completed in five years.
The work also would bring construction jobs for the $100 million building project.
A second, much larger facility will be built on a huge tract near the village of Old Mill Creek, at the southeast corner of U.S. Highway 45 and Illinois Highway 173 in north central Lake County sometime in the next 10 years. About 1,100 employees would work there.
The 1,000 acres is owned by two of Lake County`s largest landowners, the families of industrialist Tempel Smith and Arlington International Race Course owner Richard Duchossois.
State and local officials praised Abbott for the move, and hailed Monday
”Victory Day” because local government was able to entice the company into doing its expanding within the state.
Gov. Jim Edgar, who offered a stepped-up $20 million road fix-up program to persuade Abbott to stay in Illinois, joined company and other officials in making the announcement.
”We agreed to accelerate infrastructure improvements that were long overdue,” Edgar said. ”But this will benefit everyone, not just Abbott.”
Edgar compared the impact of Abbott`s planned expansion on the local work force with that of a proposed multi-casino and entertainment complex in Chicago.
”They are better jobs (than the casino) and they don`t take jobs away from something else and they are really going to happen,” the governor said in a news conference at the State of Illinois Center in Chicago.
Lake County Board Chairman Robert Depke (R-Gurnee) and State Rep. Robert Churchill (R-Lake Villa) have been talking with Abbott for nine months to get them to locate their new sites in Lake County, a company spokesman said.
Abbott looked at spots in McHenry and Cook Counties, as well as in Wisconsin, said Dale Johnson, director of state government affairs for Abbott. The plan was kept under tight wraps for most of this year. When bits began to leak out in recent days, state and local officials who hadn`t been let in on the secret spoke out against Abbott and Depke for being collusive and timing the announcement close to the Nov. 3 elections.
When it was fully unveiled Monday, local officials scrambled to find out what it means for them and their communities. Reactions were as diverse as the two areas the projects will affect.
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Elected officials from Lake County`s urban areas embraced the Abbott expansion near North Chicago.
”This is a victory for Waukegan and North Chicago,” said County Board member Angelo Kyle (D-Waukegan). ”This is going to mean new jobs in the most economically distressed area of Lake County. That`s what we needed in these cities.”
One assured bonus to the immediate area will be the addition of two ramps onto the Tri-State Tollway at Buckley Road and improvement of the interstate`s intersection with U.S. Highway 41, as promised by the state in the deal.
School officials also were optimistic about the idea of Abbott growing bigger, particularly because it means more tax revenue to seven school districts.
”I can`t even imagine how many dollars we`re talking about,” said Edward Gonwa, the Lake County school superintendent.
But at least some of those new dollars likely will have to go toward building classrooms to accommodate more children moving into the area, he said.
The new site in the northern part of the county may mean more development there, perhaps spurring support businesses and neighborhoods for the new employees, said Emery Allison, mayor of the tiny village of Old Mill Creek, which borders the northern site.
But plans for that land troubled some environmentalists. In the heart of one of the last great expanses of green space in Lake County, the 1,000 acres is home to a large stand of oak trees and once was targeted by the Forest Preserve District for acquisition.
”It is altogether one of the hugest, most beautiful pieces of land in the county,” said Larry Leafblad, (R-Grayslake). ”I hate to sound anti-Abbott, but we`re going to end up giving away taxes and (public services)
again.”
Others were concerned that its development would bring too much traffic to the rural area before the roads are ready. County Board member Suzi Schmidt (R-Lake Villa) said she hoped the county would look into mass transit to ease the problems.
”This is going to open up that whole end of the county for development,” she said.
The Abbott expansion into northern Lake County will have to be approved by the County Board because the land will have to be rezoned for an office and research facility.
Despite environmental and transportation concerns, however, County Board members were predicting the promises Depke made to Abbott will be kept, largely because of the number of jobs involved.
Depke vowed that in addition to the road improvements, the county would build a $10 million sewage treatment plant to serve the Old Mill Creek site. He said the county would issue bonds to pay for the project.
The county also will purchase the right-of-way for the interstate improvements near North Chicago, Depke said. He said he did not yet know how much that would cost.
Edgar and Abbott Chairman Duane Burnham denied allegations by area Democratic officials that Democratic Party leaders were excluded from the process in order to enhance any positive political effects for Republicans during this election year.
Burnham said that ”this whole thing is driven by our business needs. We`ve been on a schedule for this for almost a year.”