Lake County Partners cites national ranking, $500M-plus capital and major company investments

Kevin Considine, president and CEO of Lake County Partners, gave a quarterly update to the Financial Administrative Committee on Aug. 28, outlining recent business wins, workforce initiatives and regional marketing efforts.
Considine said Lake County was ranked "number 10 nationwide" in Site Selection magazine’s counties list, and he told the committee the county is on pace for a strong year with about 1,800 new jobs and over $500,000,000 in capital investment so far in 2025.
The ranking and job/investment totals matter because they reflect project wins that are driving construction and hiring locally, Considine said. "We've had a couple great wins announced," he said, noting pharmaceutical firm AbbVie and manufacturing firm TuffTite among the county’s recent announcements.
Considine told the committee AbbVie will invest about $195,000,000 at its Sheridan Road plant in North Chicago and create about 50 new jobs, calling the investment “a big construction project” that increases production capacity. He said TuffTite is expanding into a vacant Gurnee facility in a roughly $75,000,000 move that will add 70 jobs while retaining about 175 existing local positions.
Considine also discussed continued growth by contract manufacturer Flex, an expansion in Buffalo Grove and Vernon Hills, and a market-rate multifamily project in Fox Lake (Fox Lake Crossing) by Charles Hall Construction. He said the county’s housing shortage remains a key economic issue and reported early activity by the county’s housing task force.
On regional collaboration, Considine said Lake County Partners is proposing a one-year extension of the Greater Chicagoland Economic Partnership (GSEP) pilot to implement lessons learned; the three-year pilot exceeded its goal of 150 "pro-Chicagoland decisions" by reporting 205. He said he will present the extension to the Lake County Partners board in September.
Considine listed several upcoming events and outreach efforts, including Invest It Together on Sept. 11 at Independence Grove, municipal workshops with DePaul professor Joe Schwiederman and AECOM planner Chris Brewer, and the Chicagoland Innovation Summit focused on food startups.
The committee asked about housing and workforce connections, and Considine said demand varies by employer type: large employers with big hiring needs see housing as a critical barrier, and some districts noted recent hires living out of state or with family as a constraint on teacher recruitment. He said rental costs remain high and housing access is an ongoing workforce concern.
Considine also described a large data-center site acquisition near the Medline distribution center in Grayslake by a developer identified as t5; he said the project could reach millions of square feet and create construction jobs and perhaps several hundred operations jobs but will require ComEd to build a substation before work advances.
The presentation closed after committee questions on housing ownership patterns and the possible local impacts of data-center growth.