Navistar Inc. will move its headquarters from Warrenville, Ill., to Lisle, Ill., at the former Alcatel-Lucent East campus on Warrenville Road, with an investment of $110 million in the 1.2 million-square-foot facility.
The headquarters will include executive management, business operations and product development. Core features of the technology center once envisioned for the Lisle campus will move, possibly to the Melrose Park facility as part of a contemplated $80 million investment. Another approximately $15 million will be invested in a new parts facility, the location of which is still being finalized, but will be in the Northern Illinois area.
On May 25, citing delays and potential legal challenges from a small group of opponents of the Lisle headquarters project, Navistar ceased participating in the Lisle Planning and Zoning process. In response to the news, as dozens of communities from around the country contacted Navistar to lure the company to move their headquarters to their locales, Gov. Quinn and Attorney General Madigan met with Navistar executives to offer assistance to keep Navistar in Illinois.
The governor’s staff and assistant attorneys general also met with the opponents of the project and their lawyer to explore ending the dispute. Gov. Quinn, meanwhile, directed the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to work with Navistar on a package of incentives including the EDGE program which provides tax credits for firms creating/retaining jobs and making significant capital investments. In all, the Quinn administration committed an investment package of up to nearly $65 million.
“Navistar knows that there is no better place to expand its operations than Illinois, and we tailored a targeted investment package to meet the company’s needs and keep thousands of people working,” said Governor Quinn. “By being innovative and aggressive, we’re seeing significant investment in Illinois, which is creating more jobs and moving our economic recovery forward.”
Navistar Chairman, President and CEO Dan Ustian said the new campus will be a customer showplace that highlights the company’s new integrated product development capabilities. Among the cutting edge products that will be developed at the campus are hybrid and electric vehicles and military vehicles, which save the lives of U.S. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.