Intersect Illinois
Annual Report Fiscal Year 2023

Note from CEONote From CEO

Dear Colleague,

The past fiscal year was a year of progress for Intersect Illinois as we helped advance economic growth and development throughout the state. In this annual report you will find insight into this progress. The report outlines project work, details results, and analyzes the companies and industries that have located in Illinois over the fiscal year.

In FY23 Intersect Illinois closed projects that brought eight companies to Illinois, accounting for 1,061 jobs and nearly $1.4B in capital investment. This year’s projects represent a 246% increase in capital investment, in part due to a concerted effort to attract larger projects.

We’ve made progress within our key industries: advanced manufacturing, agribusiness, electric vehicles (EV) & energy, information technology (IT), life sciences, and transportation, distribution & logistics (TDL). For example, nearly one-third of our active projects involve the EV industry. Other prominent industries we’ve seen expanding include clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

Site readiness is key to landing big projects, and we’ve made progress with our Vetted Sites program, which identifies, evaluates, and markets the best sites in the state. The early work on this initiative is promising, and we will continue to grow the program. Last year we also made great progress in our marketing efforts. We expanded initiatives targeting key industries, generating more followers and leads by showcasing the state’s unmatched workforce, infrastructure and central location as key reasons to locate or expand here. Last year also brought tremendous State support with new and improved incentives such as the new closing fund and the Reimagining Energy and Vehicles act.

Our statewide analysis shows that Illinois continues to be an attractive place for business. More than 382 companies expanded or relocated here last year. Our analysis of these companies shows that key industries including agribusiness and TDL remain dominant. These locations and expansions account for $6.7B in investment and more than 9,300 jobs.

Illinois is open for business and we will continue to demonstrate why our state is the premier location for domestic and global companies in a diverse range of industries. We hope you will join us on our journey to bring economic growth and jobs to Illinois and look forward to collaborating in the year ahead.


Sincerely,
Dan Seals
CEO

about-intersect-illinois-2023-report

ABOUT US

About Intersect Illinois

Intersect Illinois attracts new jobs and investment to the state by promoting Illinois' assets, collaborating with partners, and helping companies find a site to call home. We work with industry, academic, civic and government partners to make it easier for companies to expand in Illinois and provide a range of services that help companies navigate the site selection process.

Intersect Illinois Assisted Projects (FY23)

86 Projects Initiated

(up 6% from FY22)

 

8 Project Wins

1,061 Jobs
$1.393B in Investment

(up 246% from FY22)

chart-projects-by-industry-2023-reverse
Intersect Illinois Project Examples

LG Chem - ADM
78 jobs - $400M capital investment

Leading global diversified chemical company, LG Chem, and ADM, a global leader in nutrition and biosolutions, announced two planned joint ventures for U.S. production of lactic acid and polylactic acid located in Decatur. The projects will help meet the growing demand for a wide variety of plant-based products, including eco-friendly bioplastics.

Manner Polymers
60 jobs - $54M capital investment

Texas-based Manner Polymers' new state-of-the-art Illinois facility in Mount Vernon will manufacture a wide array of PVC compounds, including automotive PVC. Manner Polymers' new Illinois location represents a major industry landmark for sustainability, serving as a first-of-its kind solar-powered PVC compounding plant using clean energy generated on-site by a 15-acre solar field.

Ollie’s Bargain Outlet
145 jobs - $68M capital investment

Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, Inc. is building a new distribution center in Princeton, which will meet growing demand and support the company’s nationwide expansion. The company noted that Princeton’s unique position with access to the entire Midwest, made it a perfect location for its growth; it also was testament to the tremendous efforts of the local government to make the project happen.

Roncadin
52 jobs  - $21M capital investment

The Italian company specializing in frozen pizzas purchased a production facility in Vernon Hills which it will renovate in order to produce and distribute its pizzas in the North American market. Roncadin has been present in the U.S. for more than a decade and chose the Vernon Hills location for its growth because of its available talent and location that makes it easy to reach major local grocery chains.

Supporting Growth Across the State

With the addition of a Vice President of Downstate Relations in FY22, Intersect Illinois continued to increase its services to downstate communities. More than half of Intersect Illinois’ FY23 project wins were downstate, including Manner Polymers, LG Chem/ADM, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, West Star Aviation (which expanded its MRO facility) and Montabert (which expanded its manufacturing operations).

There was a 22% increase in project opportunities distributed through Intersect Illinois’ RFI submission system that were interested in downstate locations.

Intersect Illinois also increased collaboration with downstate partners and continued working together on research projects, GIS trainings, marketing, site vetting and other growth opportunities.

50%

Intersect Illinois projects in FY23 were downstate

22%

Increase in project opportunities in downstate locations

Making the Case for Illinois

Intersect Illinois is raising awareness of Illinois' position as a premier global business destination, generating an understanding of Illinois’ unique value proposition and shifting the perception among relocation decision makers, consultants and influencers.

New Website

IntersectIllinois.org has a refreshed brand that positions the state of Illinois as a great business location and Intersect Illinois as a forward-thinking, go-to resource for economic development and relocation resources. The website development process included strategy work, branding and content development, ease-of-use updates and accessibility improvements.

AR_newWeb_AR
Out of Home Ads
ooh

Ads at O'Hare International Airport led to:

16M total impressions


454 total scans


6 countries reached

Organic Social Media

42.9% average increase of followers across platforms (including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter/X)


88% average increase in clicks across platforms

organic social media
Digital Marketing
Digital-Marketing
Search Engine Marketing

225% increase in impressions
93% increase in clicks


Digital Advertising

371% increase in number of campaigns


Email Drip Marketing

1,185% increase in emails sent
1,025% increase in emails opened
338% increase in email link clicks


Quarterly Newsletter

19% average open rate

Illinois Investment Guide

15,000

copies distributed


5,000 sent to decision makers along with September issue of Site Selection magazine


Digital version used for marketing efforts throughout the year

InvestmentGuide_1200x628
Media Coverage
earned_media4

61 media mentions


26% increase over previous year

Be in Illinois Campaign

42 original pieces of content published to Be in Illinois site


7.5M+ impressions from media coverage


Specific EV and agribusiness-related materials developed

Be-in-illinois
Presentations & Materials
Industryonepager-mockup

One-pagers for all target industries


Updated presentations including "Why Illinois"


Specific program documents such as site-specific materials

Trade Shows & Events

Intersect Illinois attended shows including the Battery Show, IMTS, Women in Economic Development, International Semiconductor, EV Battery and Reuse USA 2023, Site Selection Guild Annual Conference, Advanced Clean Transportation Expo (ACTExpo), Clean Power 2023, and Bio International Convention, resulting in numerous meetings and leads.

susa-2023

SelectUSA Investment Summit

Coordinated delegation in partnership with the State’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s 2023 SelectUSA Investment Summit, the highest-profile economic summit in the country dedicated to promoting FDI.

midwest-japan

Midwest U.S. Japan Association

Hosted the 52nd Annual Midwest U.S. Japan Association (MWJA) Conference, bringing together governors from Midwestern states and Japan, leading international companies, and executives to foster investment opportunities and business relations.

Research & Data

The research team expanded its capabilities and output with new initiatives; efforts include:

Market research

Significant increase in lead generation, with effort to identify contacts increasing by 490% over FY22; continuous improvement through implementation of machine learning analyses

Community research support

16% increase in requests filled to support partner community economic development efforts

RFI training

Increased the number of communities trained to submit RFIs for potential projects; these included extensive group trainings for communities throughout the state

Vetted Sites

Enhanced understanding of state’s real estate assets through site analysis

Continued efforts:
  • Cost of Labor Analysis
  • Cluster Identification
  • Innovation Activity Analysis
  • Curated Business Lists
  • Industry Briefs
  • Interactive Data Visualizations
  • Customized Maps/Spatial Analysis
New & enhanced efforts:
  • Unionization Rates
  • Diversity & Immigration Data
  • Completions Data
  • Grant Collaboration
  • Census Microdata Analysis
  • Python Spatial Analysis
  • Recycling/Bio-feedstock Data

Illinois Company Expansions and Relocations Throughout State (FY23)

Each year, Intersect Illinois collects expansion and relocation information to track companies moving to - or growing in -  Illinois, regardless of whether or not they worked with Intersect Illinois.

fy23 company relocations & expansions brought

382

Projects

$6.7B

Capital investment

9,300

Jobs created

Company relocations and expansions tracked by industry (FY21-23):

Each figure below plots the total investment levels for the last three fiscal years across Intersect Illinois' six focus industries. These figures are representative of investment in Illinois, but do not capture all relocation and expansion activity in the state.

  • Advanced Manufaturing
  • Agribusiness
  • Information Technology
  • Logistics (TDL)
  • Life Sciences
  • EV/Energy

Expansions and Relocations

With advanced manufacturing and TDL leading the way, company relocations and expansions in all industries continue to rise from FY21 through FY23.

Capital Investment

With $6.7B in capital investment in FY23 alone, there was a tremendous increase in capital investment in industries across the board in FY21-23, led by the IT, TDL and life sciences industries.

New Jobs

The state continued to add jobs at an even pace from FY21-23 across all target industries.

Square Feet

TDL saw the greatest amount of square feet added from FY21-23, with all industries increasing the amount of space in that time period.

Regional Industry Analysis

Companies that located throughout Illinois were concentrated in target industries. Analysis of top industry locates throughout the state from FY21-23 found:

Agribusiness is the largest source of company relocations and expansions and is the largest source of locates in 75% of the Central regions

The Southwest region is the second largest source of locates in the dataset (behind Northeast), and is led by TDL

TDL and agribusiness lead in the Southern regions; the area has seen growth in EV/Energy

RegionIndustry
CentralAgribusiness
East CentralAgribusiness
North CentralAgribusiness
NortheastTransportation and Logistics
Northern StatelineTransportation and Logistics
NorthwestAdvanced Manufacturing
SoutheastAgribusiness
SouthernTransportation and Logistics
SouthwestTransportation and Logistics
West CentralAdvanced Manufacturing

Central - Top Projects


  • Graphic Packaging International - investing $80M to modernize facility, creating 100 jobs
  • T/CCI - broke ground on new plant to house one of the first American electric compressor manufacturing facilities
  • LG Chem & ADM - announced two planned joint ventures for U.S. production of lactic acid and polylactic acid

East Central - Top Projects


  • Combe Laboratories, LLC - building a 50,000-square-foot addition to its factory site
  • FedEx - locating new 317,000-square-foot distribution center, bringing 65 jobs

North Central - Top Projects


  • Sunrun – plans to add hundreds of jobs at its third location in the state
  • Precision Planting – building a new 500,00-square-foot operations center

Northeast - Top Projects


  • Target - leased 1.2-million-square-foot industrial building for newest distribution center
  • CloudHQ – broke ground on $2.5 billion, 1.5-million-square-foot data center campus

Northern Stateline - Top Projects


  • Walmart – building new $1.2B cold-storage distribution hub, creating 450 jobs
  • General Mills – broke ground on 1.3 million-square-foot state-of-the-art distribution center

Northwest - Top Projects


  • Nucor Tubular Products – expanded ipackaging facility, adding 100 jobs
  • Ollie’s Bargain Outlet - building new distribution center, investing $68M and creating 145 jobs

Southeast - Top Projects


  • Continental Mills – added more than 250 new jobs at manufacturing facility
  • The Hershey Co – adding 141,000-square-feet and three new lines of production, bringing 120 new jobs

Southern - Top Projects


  • Aisin – adding 500,000-square-foot logistics center near manufacturing center
  • Prysmian Group – announced $63.8M expansion creating 80 new jobs

Southwest - Top Projects


  • Gulfstream – expanding operations at St. Louis Downtown Airport - creating 200 new jobs and retaining nearly 500
  • Tesla – leased more than 650,000 square feet for a warehouse at Gateway TradePort industrial park

West Central - Top Projects


  • Dot Foods – expanding 2.5 million-square-foot headquarters by 125,000 square feet
map-top-industries-with-info-2

Building Efficiency

Intersect Illinois’ operations department implemented new programs and procedures in FY23 to make the office run more efficiently and effectively. Examples include:

Worked

with building management to secure new lease that resulted in cost savings and more efficient use of space

Implemented

learning management system for all employees

Updated

internal policies resulting in added employee productivity

Reduced

operating cost by 10%

Successfully

passed FY22 audit for finances and procedures

.45%

savings in annual health benefits enrollment

Replaced

firewall equipment to enhance cyber security (also resulting in cost savings)

Board of Directors

New Appointees in FY23
Board Companies

Intersect Illinois FY23 Revenue & Expenses

A graph showing the 2023 charitable revenue numbers
chart-table-expenses-2023