Cook County Illinois Looking at $1.3 Billion in Planned Industrial Project Spending

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Cook County, Illinois, is one of the largest industrialized counties in country, with 477 major operational industrial plants. Second only to Los Angeles County, California, which has 534 plants, Cook County has a strong industrial base for capital and maintenance expenditures. Right now, there are 53 major industrial projects scheduled to begin construction in 2005 or beyond in Cook County, Illinois. These projects represent more than $1.3 billion in total investment value (TIV).

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing planned project spending for Cook County by industry.

More than half of the TIV is planned for nine Power Industry projects, including a new 250-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Blue Island, Illinois. This brownfield project is to be sited at the former Premcor Refining Group Incorporated (NYSE:PCO) (Old Greenwich, Connecticut) Blue Island petroleum refinery. Premcor mothballed the refinery in January 2001. The refinery was permanently shut down, due to the high cost of retrofitting the refinery to meet environmental regulations. Also in the Petroleum Refining Industry, CITGO Petroleum Corporation is planning several major projects at its refinery in Lemont, Illinois.

Midwest Generation LLC (Chicago, Illinois), an independent power generating division of Edison Mission Energy, is planning more than $250 million for several major environmental upgrades at its coal-fired power plants in Cook County.

After the Power Industry, the Metals & Minerals Industry is second, with $246 million in planned projects. International Steel Group (NYSE:ISG) is very active in the county, scheduling more than $200 million in planned capital projects at its steel mills and coke plants in Cook County.

Third on the list is the Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry, with $153 million across five separate projects.

The Industrial Manufacturing Industry has the greatest number of projects, with fifteen, representing $46 million in TIV.

Encompassing the greater Chicago metropolitan area, Cook County can also be considered the heart of America's Food & Beverage Industry, with more than 100 major operational food processing plants and numerous industry-leading corporate headquarters. In addition to Food & Beverage, the county is well represented by Industrial Manufacturing, Chemicals Processing, and Metals & Minerals plants and mills, to name a few. Get in contact with key management officials at these plants by subscribing to Industrialinfo.com's Great Lakes Online Plant Directory

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