Chicago still has the HQ pull. Witness the choice of downtown for the headquarters of the new BP olefins and derivatives subsidiary; the forthcoming, but undecided, location of Dean Foods' 1,700-employee specialty foods subsidiary; and the new 15-year lease on new digs negotiated by Equis Corp. for USG Corp. But increasingly, both industrial and office projects are using their peripheral vision.
      As documented in Site Selection's annual legislative update in Nov. 2004, a homestead exemption for property tax and a 7-percent cap on residential valuations now applies to property owners in counties with over 3 million inhabitants, thus shifting more of the property tax burden in Cook County to business. The Tooling & Manufacturing Association in Chicago says the total burden shifted is more than $450 million.
      While still reasonable, the extra in-city burden has tangible consequences. An illustration of this trend comes courtesy of the January 2005 study issued by the Minnesota Taxpayers Association, evaluating and ranking the 50 states based on payable property taxes in 2004. In the industrial category with an assessment mix of 60-percent personal property and 40-percent real property (the average proportions in most states), the Chicago area ranked 22nd highest in the $100,000 valuation category, and 26th highest in the $25-million category. Meanwhile, Naperville, on the metro's outskirts, ranked 48th across the board.
      The same attractions hold for other peripheral communities carving out their own gravitational field for corporate projects.
      In Elgin, nut processor and marketer John B. Sanfilippo & Son Inc. changed its mind on the exact location of its Chicago-area consolidation. Instead of putting its $50-million, 1,100-worker corporate headquarters and warehouse at the former Elgin Mental Health Center as it originally planned, the company purchased in December 2004 a parcel from Matsushita Electric Corp. of America for $48 million.
      The move is being financed by the placing of $65 million in unsecured notes. Founded in Chicago in 1922, the company will lease back a portion of the property to Matsushita's Panasonic division, where around 290 people work. Meanwhile, Sanfilippo and the City of Elgin have announced their intention to develop an industrial and business park on the 90 acres (36 hectares) formerly occupied by the mental health center.
      North of Evanston, in Deerfield, $8.2 million in state funds helped attract a 350-job HQ of Astellas Pharma Inc., the name of the newly merged Fujisawa Healthcare Inc., a subsidiary of Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co Ltd of Tokyo, and Paramus, N.J.-based Yamanouchi Pharma America Inc. New Jersey was also in the running for the project. Seventy-five more jobs are projected within the next two years.
      In Schaumburg, Ameriquest Mortgage and Argent Mortgage announced they would create 2,100 new jobs over the next three years in the 11-story Windy Point II building. Dallas and Denver had also been in the running.
      In Romeoville, Wilton Industries is building a $38-million DC for bakeware and kitchenware. And Bolingbrook is seeing a 450-job call center from U.S. Cellular. The company currently operates five centers in Medford, Ore.; Tulsa, Okla.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Waukesha, Wis.; and Knoxville, Tenn.
      Bolingbrook has seen several quality investments of late. Tireco is investing $11 million in a 206,000-sq.-ft. (19,137-sq.-ft.) warehouse. And as part of its growing redevelopment business in the Chicago metro, Duke Realty bought a building and 21 acres (8.5 hectares) of land from Commonwealth Edison and turned it into a site that included a 406,000-sq.-ft. (37,717-sq.-m.) warehouse pre-leased to Guinness.
      Duke is pursuing similar redevelopment projects in Northlake, near O'Hare, where land formerly belonging to such companies as Kraft Foods and International Paper is being put to use for the warehouse space that is in such high demand. The company is also building a new warehouse and light manufacturing facility for Victory Packaging in Aurora's Meridian Business Park, as the Houston-based company had outgrown its Itasca location.
      Indeed, sometimes the company moves from one peripheral spot to another a bit further out. Such is the case with Creative Catalogs Corp., as it moves its HQ, manufacturing and distribution from Burr Ridge to Lemont. The company will lease 150,550 sq. ft. (13,986 sq. m.) from First Industrial Realty.
      "This move allows us to consolidate our operations into one location while providing room for our growing businesses," said CEO John Semmelhack. "The location was ideal as it kept us in close proximity to our current work force."