In 1999, then Governor Ryan and Mayor Daley traveled to Detroit to meet with Ford Motor officials and present the case for locating Ford's proposed automotive manufacturing supplier campus in Chicago as opposed to Atlanta.
Citing this high- level attention and enthusiasm, the Ford Motor Company unveiled plans in September 2000 for North America's first automotive supplier manufacturing campus to be built on a 155-acre brownfield site near their Chicago assembly plant. Groundbreaking for project began in fall 2001 and the first vehicle (Ford 500 series) rolled off the new line in October 2004. Investment by Ford, its 10 suppliers and its development partner, Center Point properties, totaled more than $400 million.
World Business Chicago was heavily involved in ensuring that Ford and its suppliers received a coordinated response to their needs both on the training front, working closely with The State of Illinois, Mayor's Office of Workforce Development and various training providers. WBC also ensured that the administrative processes (e.g. business licenses, permits, environmental issues etc) where handled quickly & efficiently by the various City and State agencies involved.
The City has been a big asset to Quality Industrial Services Inc., a third party parts-inspection service, as it worked to build its work force at the campus.
Michael Tovey, Quality Industrial's administrator, said, "They (The City) had a good system in place. Without their assistance we wouldn't have gone from zero employees to 60 in eight weeks."
Tower Automotive Inc., which makes various automotive parts, employs roughly 330 people at the campus and reports roughly 70 percent of their employees came through the City of Chicago.
"They've been instrumental," said Janice Keen, human resources leader at Tower. "They worked hand-in-hand with us from the start, which is very different than my experience with government agencies elsewhere. They screened potential candidates and set up our interviews. They also helped us with much of the training."
Drawing largely on tax increment financing and Illinois FIRST funds, the City of Chicago and State of Illinois provided nearly $16 million for land acquisition and site preparation, $13.6 million for job training and recruitment programs and $2.5 million for the installation of energy efficient equipment at the new and existing Ford facilities. Finally, the City and State invested approximately $64 million for road improvements throughout the area, including the relocation of Torrence Avenue.
The project initially forecast creating 1,000 permanent, full-time jobs within the Campus but by January 2005 some 1700 fulltime jobs had been generated with over 1050 going to City residents. Moreover, it is estimated that the campus will generate $163 million in City, State and County tax revenues over ten years, according to a study by the accounting firm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.