Hoffman Estates OKs plans for German firm Trumpf's tech center

Hoffman Estates trustees have granted final approval for Trumpf Inc., a German manufacturing company whose U.S. headquarters are in Connecticut, to build a state-of-the-art technology center on five acres of the 70-acre former AT&T campus.

Once the building is complete, the Cook County Board could award the project a Class 6B tax incentive, which has already been recommended for approval by the village.

The incentive often is associated with the reuse of long-vacant buildings, and it's not authorized for new construction until after a project is finished, said Hoffman Estates Economic Development Director Kevin Kramer.

Trumpf's purchase of the site at the northeast corner of Central Road and AT&T Center Drive was contingent on Hoffman Estates' recommendation of the tax incentive, Burke Doar, the company's senior vice president, said last year.

When a municipality recommends the tax incentive - which is intended to keep Cook County industrial properties competitive with the lower-taxed sites in the collar counties - it's almost always approved, Kramer said.

The incentive reduces the level of assessment on a property from 25 to 10 percent - effectively cutting property taxes in half - for 10 years. The level of assessment then gradually rises over the next two years before returning to normal.

Trumpf Inc. is high-tech sheet metal fabricator. The planned 50,000-square-foot technology center in Hoffman Estates would include office, warehouse and showroom space and cost about $13 million.

About 20 employees will work at the facility, which is expected to attract approximately 1,000 visitors and potential customers each year.

The Hoffman Estates location was chosen due to its proximity to many existing clients of Trumpf as well as its easy access to O'Hare International Airport, Doar said.

Trumpf doesn't mass-produce identical sheet metal products, but rather maintains the flexibility to make small runs of more specially designed ones, he said. The company has 50 locations worldwide, more than 10,000 employees and annual revenues of approximately $3.5 billion, Doar said.