Joliet hopes to lure manufacturer, jobs
By Bob Okon bokon@stmedianetwork.com April 18, 2012 6:54PM
Updated: May 21, 2012 8:35AM
JOLIET — The city is trying to attract a light manufacturing company that is considering sites in Joliet and Tennessee.
“Hopefully, this project comes through. We’re looking at 100 jobs,” Mayor Thomas Giarrante said this week at a city council meeting.
The company would open with about 65 jobs and eventually build up production to a workforce of 100, Giarrante said.
The prospect surfaced this week at public meetings where city officials talked about the potential use of industrial revenue bonds to assist the company in building a plant in Joliet.
Giarrante would not identify the company other than to say that it would bring a light manufacturing plant to Joliet if the city is chosen.
A corporate headquarters also could be part of the project, city officials said. And economic development specialists with the state of Illinois also are taking part in the campaign to bring the company here.
“It’s a full-court press,” City Manager Thomas Thanas said.
