Crate & Barrel To Build $75 Million Warehouse In Romeoville

ROMEOVILLE, IL — Crate & Barrel will open a massive warehouse and logistics facility in Romeoville, representing a $75 million investment in the community that could employ as many as 200 people. Village officials joined with Crate & Barrel executives and developers to announce the project Tuesday.

The upscale furniture company will eventually inhabit a nearly 650,000-square-foot building on an 80-acre lot along Taylor Road in the Pinnacle Business Center. Crate and Barrel could later increase the building's size to 815,000 square feet, officials said.

Taking space in the Pinnacle Business Center, Crate and Barrel is joining other major companies like Samsung and Fed Ex. With its proximity to I-55 and its central location in the Chicago metro area, Romeoville continues to benefit from the exploding popularity of e-commerce and retailers' needs to have centrally located warehouse operations, Mayor John Noak said.

"This project represents the future of our economy," he said. "We embrace what the economy has to give use and how we can make it a positive for our community."

The development is not being aided by any tax incentives or other financial aid, although local municipalities will spend $3 million to expand Pinnacle Drive, state Rep. John Connor (D-Romeoville) said. It's $75 million first phase will contribute to the village and county's tax rolls, while not further stretching resources at the Valley View School District, officials said.

Crate & Barrel will employee 175-200 people, including in some office capacities at the facility's 15,000 square feet of office space. It will hire 400 seasonal employees as well, village officials said.

Crate & Barrel is headquartered in Northbrook, but the company looked at three other states for its to-be-built logistics center, said Neela Montgomery, Crate & Barrel's CEO. The company eventually decided to build in its own backyard because of the area's skilled labor force and central location, she said.

"We're so excited to stay in the state of Illinois," Montgomery said.

The success in attracting Crate & Barrel was a multi-agency effort, Connor said.

"E-commerce and logistics are a huge part of our local economy," he said. "This is the way things are supposed to work to move Will County forward."

Ohio-based The Pizzuti Companies, which developed the Pinnacle Business Center, is the developer on the project. Work has already begun on the project, and Crate & Barrel is expected to inhabit the building by March 2021.