Remanufacturing logistics plant opening in Joliet, mayor links arrival to NorthPoint

SRC Logistics is opening a 1 million-square-foot facility in Joliet to handle remanufactured products for the automobile industry.

The Springfield, Missouri-based company plans to begin hiring in November for more than 100 jobs to be created in the next year, SRC said in a news release.

The plant will handle 1.8 million pieces of core a year “on behalf of an international automobile brand,” SRC said in the release.

Core is an industrial term for products restored to useful life through remanufacturing.

“This company is in the remanufacturing and logistics industry,” Joliet economic development specialist Derek Conley said. “Parts will be coming into the facility. They look at the parts to determine what can be salvaged and what cannot be, and they will send them to other facilities for remanufacturing.”

Conley said SRC may begin operations in Joliet in January.

The plant at 1023 E. Laraway Road will go into an already built spec building.

“There probably will be some technical workers at the facility, but it also will be logistics,” Conley said.

Mayor Bob O’Dekirk made a local announcement of the SRC plans at the City Council meeting Tuesday as he provided a report on a number of projects in the works in Joliet.

O’Dekirk tied SRC’s interest in Joliet to the city’s willingness to take on NorthPoint Development’s plan for the Compass Global Logistics Hub.

“This company to my knowledge was looking hard at what the city did with the NorthPoint vote – whether the city was serious about development. We’ve shown that we are,” O’Dekirk said.

The City Council in April voted, 6-3, to approve a pre-annexation agreement on 1,260 acres NorthPoint plans to bring into Joliet for the Compass project. Annexations, however, have been stalled under a court order in a case brought by the village of Elwood

The NorthPoint project has faced opposition from residents and other taxing bodies south of Joliet city limits, where the Compass logistics park would be built.

The SRC news release said workers at the Joliet facility will have the opportunity to participate in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan in conjunction with a business management system designed “to give everybody in the company a voice in how it’s run and a stake in the financial outcome – good or bad.”

“Employee-owners use what they have learned at SRC to build their communities and a stronger future,” said Eric Lindgren, general manager of SRC Logistics – Illinois Inc. “That’s what we want for Joliet.”