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Orland Park Business and Industry

Orland Park is a good place for business and industry. That’s a conclusion to be drawn from a comprehensive survey of local business and industry conducted by the Village’s Community Development Department. Among the community’s assets listed by survey respondents were:

• Orland Park’s rapid rate of growth benefits business because it broadens the customer base and enhances opportunities for attracting skilled labor.
• The Village’s location in the center of a growth area also makes it an ideal place for business and industry.
• The availability of professional services is a distinct asset to business.
• Orland Park’s excellent police and fire protection is important to business and industry.
• The Village’s quality of life, demonstrated by good schools, parks, and convenient shopping, is also an important factor making Orland Park attractive to business and industry.

Land availability is a key factor in Orland Park’s appeal to industry. The Village has three large areas set aside for industrial development and redevelopment. The 70th Court Industrial area, north of 159th Street and east of Harlem Avenue, is one. The second encompasses several industrial and business parks south of 159th Street between 104th and 108th Avenues. The third is located along Southwest Highway on the north end of town. Land is available for office development on LaGrange Road between 159th and 167th Streets - a COR mixed-use zoning district.

Orland Park’s southern border is Interstate 80, a major East-West Coast connector. More than 300 acres of land are situated along Interstate 80. All have excellent plant sites with full infrastructure and utilities in place or planned. Plans for this area include hotels, stores, offices, high-tech research, light industry, educational facilities, and residences. This development is planned on a pedestrian scale around a greenbelt, which includes White Mountain Golf Course, a natural-wooded wetland area, proposed retention ponds, and a new park.

Orland Park is home to more than 80 small to midsize industrial and distribution companies representing everything from laminated counter tops and millwork to corrosion-resistant fuel handling systems.

Panduit Corporation is operating a large facility in the community with an employee level presently at 505. Large non-industrial employers in the community include School District 135, JCPenney, Carson Pirie Scott, Sears, Macy’s, Jewel Food Store and Target. These range from 250 to 550 employees.

In more recent years, business additions to Orland Park have included a number of restaurants that cater to the ever-changing pallets of area residents. Restaurant selections include everything from Italian, Irish or Mexican cuisine for those who choose to linger at their meals, to upscale fast food restaurants that cater to the on-the-go resident.

New retailers cater to the same varying consumer markets as additions include everything from the convenience and depth of major department stores to the more discriminating tastes of specialty retail. Even specialty stores have found a market as local residents visit stores that feature everything from shoes to items catering to hobbies and interests.

The Village of Orland Park is creating a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented downtown area to be located at 143rd and LaGrange Road, also bordering along Southwest Highway. Along with the new Metra train station, the development will include condos above retail; deck parking; and open spaces for gatherings, concerts, and meandering among the shops, fountains, lush streetscape and public art present in the Main Street Triangle.

This Main Street Triangle will house the Village’s newest shopping corridor, Orland Park Crossings. This planned redevelopment area is giving new life to an important part of the Orland Park story: its first downtown area. The rejuvenation plan marks the Village’s desire to reconnect Orland Park past with Orland Park future.

This location, which is the sight of Orland Park’s first train depot, now proudly boasts a turn of the century clock tower that clearly marks the station in the Village’s horizon. As part of its plan to honor the past while moving into the future, a bronze statue of Village Founder Senator John Humphrey greets commuters and residents. Plans are also on the board to provide an elegant park area as well as a future housing development for those inclined to live near a commuting downtown area.

The tributes to the past fit nicely with the modern and updated interior of the new station. Commuters are offered the convenience of computerized parking payment stations and ticket kiosks that allow them speed in tending to their commuter needs.

The growing population of the community provides employers with a worker pool of admirable diversity and talent. Among those 25 years of age and older, 60 percent attended college and 32 percent hold college degrees.

As Orland Park continues to grow, its attractiveness to business and industry will increase, enhanced by the Village’s reputation as being among the best places to live. In 2006, Money magazine ranked the Village #45 on their top 100 list of America’s Best Places to Live, thus giving credence to the secret Orland’s residents have always known.