Excited to see more than 240 guests last month at this annual midyear event. CED Chair Ruth Colby welcomed guests representing investors, non-investors, elected officials, municipal staff, community organizations, and more to this midyear opportunity to gather and hear about successes and growth of Will County over the past year.
Happy 40th anniversary to Will County Center for Economic Development
In the news
Happy 40th Anniversary to Will County Center for Economic Development
By: Carmine Bottigliero, Vice President of Development, CenterPoint Properties
I’m quite proud to represent CenterPoint Properties as a Will County Center for Economic Development Board member. CenterPoint has a long history with the CED and greatly appreciates its work to help businesses connect, collaborate and flourish.
I’ve found the board to be a microcosm of the CED investor community: Extensive, diverse and deeply invested in helping each other – and Will County – be the best we can be.
When CenterPoint took on the challenge of redeveloping the Joliet Arsenal as the CenterPoint Intermodal Center in 2000, our company leaders already had great relationships throughout Will County. They saw it as an ideal place to make this our focus in the Midwest. In the more than 20 years since, our ties to Will County have only grown stronger, our roots deeper and our commitment to its people more steadfast.
The success story the CIC has become – and the success of the companies that call it home – is due in no small measure to partnerships like the one we’ve forged with the CED.
CenterPoint recently celebrated the groundbreaking for a major infrastructure project in Joliet, the Houbolt Road Bridge Extension. The state of Illinois, Will County and the city of Joliet, along with our partners in this project, United Bridge Partners, are working together to deliver a host of improvements to make area streets safer, the environment cleaner and truck routes more efficient in and around the CIC. It’s the culmination of more than a decade of planning with a multitude of people and organizations committed to improving Will County.
The CED team have been integral partners in our quest to positively impact the businesses we serve in our park and the people who live in the area. That project and others in the offing across the county are happening in no small part thanks to the CED’s tireless advocacy for infrastructure improvements.
The CED has been a critical resource to CenterPoint as we have cultivated the CIC, just as it is to the companies that employ thousands of people in it. The CED’s impact goes beyond the mission its name implies.
The organization truly puts people and their success at the center of everything it does, which engenders an inherently positive environment for everyone in Will County.
CenterPoint is honored to have been a CED investor for more than 15 years, and we are pleased to be able to thank the people who have shown time and again their dedication to the companies and people of Will County.
Happy 40th anniversary to our friends at the Will County Center for Economic Development.
Carmine Bottigliero
Vice president of development
Center- Point Properties
More In The News
Eye Opener Breakfast Details Will County Successes & More!
read more
CED Announces Recognition of 2023 Economic Development Week
The Will County Center for Economic Development marks the week of May 8 to May 12, 2023, as Economic Development Week 2023. During this week, communities across North America will celebrate and recognize the contributions made by professional economic developers to create more economically vibrant and livable communities.
CED President & CEO Re-Appointed to Illinois Enterprise Zone Board
Doug Pryor was originally appointed to serve on the Board in September 2021 and was recently re-appointed to serve through February 2025. Each member of the board appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate shall have at least 5 years of experience in business, economic development, or site location.
In 1981 the economy in Will County was flat on its back. The County’s unemployment rate was 18%; Joliet’s, 26.5%. Steel mills and other manufacturing plants closed. Caterpillar went from 7,000 employees to under 3,000. The decommissioning of the Joliet Arsenal resulted in the loss of over 8,000 jobs. Everywhere you looked, there were vacant commercial and industrial buildings. Will County’s future did not take sunglasses to look at – things were already quite dim.
Recent Comments