Month: April 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bonnie Kniss 630.353.4409 bonnie@choosedupage.com Lisle, Ill. (March 14, 2012) – Choose DuPage has issued several amendments to their legislative platform and initiatives, clarifying the continued desire to provide a positive impact on its main objective of influencing legislation and regulation in a manner consistent with creating business retention, expansion and attraction in DuPage County. Continue reading →

The Downers Grove Economic Development Corporation in conjunction with Choose DuPage, the Village of Downers Grove and Opus North Corporation entered into discussions with DeVry Inc. in 2008 regarding the relocation of DeVry’s corporate office to the Highland Landmark development located at 31st and Highland Avenue in Downers Grove, DuPage County, Illinois. DeVry indicated that they were in the process of evaluating their office space needs and that Highland Landmark V in Downers Grove was a building under consideration. DeVry hired Jones Lang LaSalle to assist them with this project. Continue reading →

Founded in 1988 ERS Incorporated specializes in the recovery and resolution of educational loans and institutional accounts for colleges, universities and state guarantee programs. According to Scott Nicholson, President of ERS, in early 2009 the company began to take a closer look at its revenues and expenses and concluded that the rent they were paying for their 20,000 square foot facility in Westchester, Cook County, Illinois was an area of potential savings. ERS approached the landlord to renegotiate the lease but met with little success as the tax structure in Cook County made it prohibitive for the landlord to make any adjustments. The company instead began to look at other locations such as DuPage County where the tax structure on commercial buildings is lower than in Cook County. The company also considered moving out of state to Wisconsin or Indiana. Continue reading →

Retco Alloy of Wood Dale moved to DuPage County due in large part to the services they received from Choose DuPage and workNet DuPage. Mike Maziarka, the President and CEO, bought Retco Alloy in 2009 at which time it was located in Elk Grove Village, Cook County having previously been located in Chicago for 70 years. Retco Alloy assembles, packages, and distributes vocational and technical education kits to educational institutions and employs twelve people. Continue reading →

For Ryan Howard, founder of the Chicago Soydairy, growing his business is not just about location, location, location it is also about soy, soy, and more soy. In 2005 Ryan had an epiphany while driving through Illinois farmland. A vegan since he was a teenager, Ryan questioned why Illinois exports soy beans around the world yet there is no meaningful soy based food products manufactured in Illinois. Armed with a food engineering degree from Purdue University and experience working at General Mills in West Chicago, Ryan founded the Chicago Soydairy out of his home in Wheaton with his partner Dan Ziegler. The duo’s first creation was Temptation Vegan Ice Cream. Through hard work and persistence Temptation was soon on the shelves of Whole Foods across the country. Continue reading →

Choose DuPage is the first point of contact for businesses looking for expansion resources in DuPage County. Due to Choose DuPage’s relationships with service providers in areas including workforce development, business counseling and financing Choose DuPage has the ability to deliver resources that are not exclusively their own. This informal network is unique in economic development circles because it is client driven, results oriented and efficient. Continue reading →