Illinois Business Journal Illinois Business Journal
.
. . . . .

Illinois residents lining up to go to work in Missouri

According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security, more than 71,000 Illinois residents were commuting to Missouri for their jobs in 2000.

By ALAN J. ORTBALS

   The number of Illinois residents working in Missouri nearly tripled between 1990 and 2000, according to figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Experts predict that the trend will continue into the foreseeable future.
   According to the IDES, more than 71,000 Illinois residents were commuting to Missouri for their jobs in the year 2000, up from a little over 28,000 in 1990.
   Sean Flower, president of American Heritage Homes, says he thinks a lot of this phenomenon is being [continue]

.
.

Spring Green Lodge back on the front burner, thanks to IFA

By ALAN J. ORTBALS

   Spring Green Lodge - the stalled hotel/conference center development in Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's University Park - may soon be springing back to life, thanks to the intervention of the Illinois Finance Authority. The authority board approved a $1 million participation loan and a $500,000 debt reserve fund for the project at its November meeting.
   IFA is a self-financed state authority principally engaged in issuing taxable and tax-exempt bonds, making loans and investing capital for businesses, nonprofit corporations,

agriculture and local government units statewide. Jill Rendleman is its interim executive director.
   Rendleman said she had followed the project from the beginning and,
in fact, had called TheBANK of Edwardsville - which had been approached by project developer William Shaw to finance the deal - and offered IFA assistance if they needed it to get the
deal done.
   "I knew this was a project that was going to require some creative financing and possibly some credit enhancement," said Rendleman. "I just had a feeling. When you look at [continue]
.

Housing boom drives strong economy-employment surge
By ALAN J. ORTBALS

   This past year, at least the first 10 months of it, was a very good year for job growth in Southwestern Illinois as 17,000 more people were employed in October than in December of 2004. This represented a 5.4 percent increase in employment and produced a corresponding 1 percent decline in unemployment.
   Experts point to a residential building boom and growing confidence as the base reasons for the surge.
   "There's a lot of growth in construction and housing development," said Vicki Niederhofer, labor market economist with the Illinois Department of Employment Security. "Every time a new subdivision is built, you have a lot of ancillary development - new retail centers spring up. If you drive down Frank Scott Parkway to Shiloh, for example, and hit Green Mount Road, you can almost see it unfolding in front of your eyes."
   Sean Flower, president of American Heritage Homes, isn't surprised. He said the Home Builders Association of Greater St. Louis did a study about a year ago that showed the economic impact on the community of each new home built was about $5,000 per year. In part, that impact is due to the ripple effect that new housing and an expanding population has on the economy.
   "We've been involved in some mixed-use, residential-commercial development and we find that commercial users do not go somewhere unless there's a pretty [continue]