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Suburbs eye new Apple campus announced Wednesday

Several suburban leaders indicated Wednesday they will attempt to lure Apple to build its newly announced campus in the area.

"Schaumburg will definitely try to get on Apple's radar," said Schaumburg Economic Development Manager Matt Frank. "The former Motorola campus would be an ideal location." Schaumburg's Committee of the Whole on Tuesday approved a master plan that calls for mixed-use development including corporate headquarters along I-90, he said.

A new campus was part of Apple's surprise announcement Wednesday. The tech giant said it will spend $350 billion in development and create 20,000 U.S. jobs in the next five years following the recent corporate tax reductions.

Apple joins Amazon in scouting for a new location. And similar to Amazon's style, Apple has not indicated a location for the new campus - expected to focus on technical support for customers.

Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod and other suburban mayors joined Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to quickly say they will try to attract the facility.

"We would always want to be at the table," said Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico, who added that he is not aware of what type of space Apple is looking for. He said Naperville did not have enough space for Amazon when that company said it was looking for a home for its headquarters.

Amazon finished taking applications from cities in October for its so-called "HQ2" second campus.

Two suburban sites are among 10 locations Illinois is pitching to Amazon for the online retail giant's second national headquarters. Schaumburg's longtime Motorola Solutions campus and the McDonald's campus in Oak Brook are listed, along with eight sites in Chicago.

Oak Brook Village President Gopal Lalmalani is interested in Apple, as well. "We would love to get Apple or some such similar organization to come to Oak Brook. But, the properties are owned by McDonald's and JLL is their assigned agent to unload/sell the properties."

The suburbs hope they can join Apple's empire, with its new Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California, and a facility in Austin, Texas, housing customer service agents and contract manufacturers who assemble some Mac computers. The company also employs several thousand workers and contractors in Elk Grove, California, where it has customer service agents and refurbishes iPhones. The company employs 84,000 people in all 50 states.

Apple also has built its own data centers in North Carolina, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona as well as a recently announced project in Iowa and leases data center space in other states. The company also outlined plans to build several new data centers in the U.S. and said it broke ground on a new facility Wednesday in Reno, Nevada.

"We believe deeply in the power of American ingenuity, and we are focusing our investments in areas where we can have a direct impact on job creation and job preparedness," said Apple chief executive Tim Cook in a statement. "We have a deep sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who help make our success possible."

President Donald Trump has criticized Apple and other companies in the past for using overseas workers to build its products.

The iPhone maker will make payments of around $38 billion in tax money from its profits that it currently holds overseas - a decision that comes after a Trump administration tax plan changed how foreign profits brought back to the United States are taxed. Apple has for years lobbied for corporate tax changes. Apple, already the largest U.S. taxpayer, believes a payment of that size would likely be the largest of its kind ever made.

• Daily Herald wire reports contributed to this report.

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Schaumburg, Oak Brook the only suburban sites in state's Amazon pitch

An aerial rendering of the planned Apple Computer headquarters before it was built in Cupertino. Courtesy of Foster and Partners via Bloomberg, August 2012
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