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Elgin, IL, USA, Sept 8, 2015 -- Plans are underway that would bring a Motorola Solutions facility to a large space on Elgin's northwest side — just as Verizon Wireless is planning to relocate its call center from along Big Timber Road to a location in Rolling Meadows.

Wednesday evening, the Elgin City Council is set to consider moving along a development agreement with Motorola Solutions with incentives toward the company investing about to open in a vacant, relatively new 300,000 square foot space built on spec. The training and manufacturing facility would eventually have 200 full time workers and as many as 200 seasonal employees, according to information provided by the city.

The city's proposed economic development agreement with Motorola Solutions would fast track permitting and waive city development, impact and building permit fees for the site at 2580 Galvin Road in the Northwest Business Park. Coincidentally, the road is named in honor of the Galvin family, which founded what would become Motorola, Inc.

As for those plans, in an email Motorola Solutions Director of Corporate Communications Tama McWhinney stated, "We have nothing to announce at this time. We have been evaluating several options to determine the best approach to meet our facility needs as a smaller, more efficient and software-focused company. The Elgin city council discussion is part of our evaluation process."

Schaumburg-based Motorola Solutions was founded in 2011. According to its website, the company "serves more than 100,000 public safety and commercial customers in more than 100 countries." Its products include communications technologies for government, police, fire and security agencies.

Kozal noted efforts to this point began in July and August when real estate representatives looking for possible locations for Motorola Solutions contacted the Economic Development Group, the arm of the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce paid by the city for economic development work. If all goes as planned, the company would like to begin work as early as October, Kozal said.

Councilman Terry Gavin paid complement to the Economic Development Group for its work toward bringing Motorola Solutions to this point.

"Companies often would rather deal with someone in the private sector first," Gavin said.

Gavin called the effort huge for Elgin and a team victory for the city and all involved with it. What helped bring the plan forward was that the City Council has shown itself to be decisive when working to bring business to Elgin, Gavin said.

A possible extra benefit for the opening is that Elgin's police already use Motorola Solutions technologies, Gavin said, so Elgin could become a testing ground for further products. That could mean visitors coming to see those products being demonstrated in the city.

Neither Gavin, staff nor Mayor David Kaptain were sure how many of the non-seasonal jobs would be people relocating from other Motorola Solutions sites. Either way, Kaptain said it was important for Elgin to have the 200 full-time jobs in town.

"This is a home run for Elgin," Kaptain said.

Kaptain also praised the work of the Economic Development Group.

"If you bring something like this to town even once every three years, you're still successful," Kaptain said.

As for the Venizon Call Center's exit, Monday morning, company spokesperson Andrea Meyer said, "Verizon will be moving our call center currently located in Elgin to Rolling Meadows. We will share more details, including timing of the move, in the coming weeks."

The Verizon Wireless Call Center has been in the 127,280 square-foot building at 777 Big Timber Road since 2000. The company did not disclose the number of employees who work at the location.

Of the move, Kaptain said, "This was a corporate decision, and sometimes a business's needs take precedence over those of any city. It's nothing personal. It's like when Lowe's closed its Elgin store a few years ago."

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Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com