DARIEN, IL – Suburbanites who relish bashing Chicago may not appreciate the main contention of the head of a top DuPage County business group.
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On Monday, Greg Bedalov, CEO of Choose DuPage, called Chicago the “single most important ingredient” for DuPage County’s economic success.
“Historically, economic development in northeastern DuPage County and the city of Chicago has been very siloed,” Bedalov told the Darien City Council. “The city would try to poach businesses from the suburbs, and the suburbs would try to poach businesses from the city, and a suburb would try to poach a business from another suburb.”
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After a decade of wrangling, Bedalov said, Chicago and six suburban counties joined forces last year to form the Greater Chicagoland Economic Partnership.
The entities agreed the region needs its own identity and brand.
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“We need to start rowing in the same direction,” he said.
Businesses in Berlin or Beijing or Mexico City that are looking to invest internationally are not familiar with a Darien or a Naperville, Bedalov said, but they know Chicago.
The united effort has led to wins in 2023 and more resources for Choose DuPage and its communities, Bedalov said.
He said with the combined group, Choose DuPage has access to a lot more data. It is asking member towns to invest in the software that is making this a reality.
“We’re going door to door asking municipalities to pay a modest fee of $5,000 and try it out for a year,” he said. “As part of (the Greater Chicagoland group), more collaboration means that we have more data than we’ve ever had before, primarily through our friends at World Business Chicago, which is the city of Chicago’s version of Choose DuPage.”
Darien aldermen said they would be willing to spend the money. They plan to take a vote at a later meeting.
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