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HydraForce to expand into Vernon Hills
HydraForce is expanding into this 142,000 square-foot building in Vernon Hills' Corporate Woods in early spring. The international company is based in Lincolnshire. | Photo Courtesy of Van Vlissingen and Co.
Updated: May 6, 2013 2:11AM
VERNON HILLS — HydraForce announced a 142,000 square-foot Innovation and Technology Center expansion in Vernon Hills that officials say will push the company — and Lake County — ahead of the global technology pack.
The new facility “will allow us to bring new hydraulic, electronic and electro-hydraulic system technologies to market better and faster than anyone else in the world,” HydraForce President and CEO Jim Brizzolara said in a prepared statement. “It is the most significant investment in the history of our company.”
The company declined to comment on costs related to the lease, renovations or investment in equipment.
The new facility will be located at 700 Woodlands Parkway in The Corporate Woods in Vernon Hills, furthering entrenching HydraForce in Lake County. The company is headquartered in the Lincolnshire Corporate Center, which is 132,000 square feet, and also operates a nearby 65,000 square-foot machinery facility. In addition, the company operates facilities in China and the United Kingdom.
HydraForce will initially move 85 employees from their headquarters to the new facility, with plans of hiring an additional 30 employees by 2015, spokesman David Price said.
The company designs and manufactures high-performance hydraulic cartridge valves, custom manifolds and electro-hydraulic controls for farming, construction, marine, material handling, mining and forestry.
“This deal represents the sixth HydraForce expansion and third building in our corporate parks,” said Chuck Lamphere, president of Van Vlissingen and Co., developers and managers of the two corporate centers.
Lamphere said HydraForce plans to occupy the building by this spring. The building was formerly occupied by GiftCo, which coordinated fundraisers for schools and charitable organizations, until it moved out two years ago.
“We were seeing an uptake in vacancy that peaked about 18 months ago,” Lamphere said. “We’re recently seeing a pretty strong demand for industrial space across all our Lake County parks.”
Lamphere could not provide current vacancy statistics, but did say he expects to complete another large-scale lease soon.
