The Regional Picture for Lake County

The Economic Development arm of the county is a highly effective organization that has slowly been positioning the county to solve many of the underlying problems with our economic base. This organization called Lake County Partners recently retained Deloitte & Touche Consulting to segment its business attraction and retention markets based on the Lake County's strengths and weakness (labor force, site, building availability, cost of doing business, quality of life, business climate, etc.).

• A large concentration of Lake County's resident worker force lives in the northwest quadrant (North of Rte. 60 to the Wisconsin Line, west of Route 21 to the McHenry County line) of the county; they go to work in the southeast quadrant of the county.
• 90 to 95% of these communities' EAV is residential based; the fastest growing non-residential uses in this area are retail and personal services, which pay at the lower end of the wage and salary scale.
• 60% of Lake County's existing businesses require only a high school degree for entry level positions; therefore, Lake County is a net importer of these entry level workers.
• 70,000 Lake County residents with a BA degree or higher exit Lake County daily for work because there are not jobs requiring their skills or knowledge in Lake County so we are a net exporter of knowledge workers;
• There is a dearth of large improved shovel-ready sites for new professional office and industrial locations;
• The greatest opportunity to develop shovel-ready sites is in the central portion of the northwest quadrant;
• The prime barrier to these sites being developed is the lack of a transportation infrastructure that would allow companies to cost effectively move components and workers in and out of the area.

• Deloitte & Touche, and the 120+ Lake County public and private business leaders were involved in the process and they identified bio/pharma corporate headquarters, R&D and professional back-office operations; medical diagnostic equipment/services headquarters, R&D and professional back-office support operations; Professional, Technical, IT, FIRE and Logistical Services' divisional/corporate headquarters and back office support operations as Lake County's target industries.
• These industries are projected to grow faster than the projected average growth rate for all industries, for the next 10 years.
• Deloitte & Touche cautioned Lake County's public and private leadership that its long-term economic future was tied to its ability to redress its transportation system deficiencies and the lack of shovel ready sites.
• The State of Wisconsin and Southeast Wisconsin have targeted the same industries that Deloitte & Touche identified as Lake County's growth industries. They have re-structured their incentive programs to attract these industries and are in the process of finalizing the development of Prairies Wood corporate Park, a 500+ acre improved business park at the Rte 165 Exit of I-94 less than 3 minutes off the Interstate, where companies can efficiently transport raw materials, components, finished goods and labor into and out of the area.
• During peak commute periods; from the Gurnee and Grand Ave. I-94 on-ramp it can take a Lake County resident commuting to his or her job in the Route 137, 60, 22 and Lake Cook corridors 45 to 60 minutes to get to their desk; by heading north from the same on-ramp, those same Lake County residents can be at their desk in the new Prairie Wood Corporate Park at the I-94, Rte 165 off ramp, in 15 minutes.
  

These are some interesting facts about the county but a lot of them revolve around traffic improvements, which I believe is the single biggest issue in this county today.