A couple of interesting lists

December 17th, 2008 at 09:20am Alex Gary

Was given the assignment to write about the changes in the economy from 1980 to 2005. Fun, huh? Luckily I at least have some interesting lists to at least start with. Since 1980, the major change in the Rock River Valley economy has been the whittling away of the area’s manufacturing base.

Although blue-collar jobs remain the backbone of the economy, it’s not near the level as it was in 1980. Here are two lists that illustrate the trend.

In 1980, here were the 10 largest landowners, in terms of equalized assessed value of property, in the city of Rockford:

1. Sundstrand, $7,094,840

2. Amerock, $3,376,610

3. CommonwealthEdison, $3,064,200

4. Ingersoll Milling Machine, $2,913,300

5. National Lock, $2,823,640

6. Rockford Products, $2,580,800

7. Colonial Village, $1,819,600

8. United Bank of Illinois, $1,713,720

9. J.L. Clark, $1,645,550

10. Elco Tool, $1,635,900

Notice that seven of the 10 are manufacturing companies. Now take a look at the 10 largest landowners as of 2005:

1. Greater Rockford Airport Authority, $7,282,593

2. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., $7,062,714

3. Hamilton Sundstrand, $7,048,920

4. Rock River Valley Industrial Park, $6,247,853

5. UPS, $5,579,278

6. Simon Property Group, $4,799,277

7. SwedishAmerican Hospital, $4,471,322

8. Market Shopping Center LLC, $3,894,828

9. Richard Perno, $3,870,365

10. Anderson Packaging, $3,690,585

Only one manufacturer. Walmart and UPS rely largely on part-time workers and Richard Perno is an apartment building owner.

Let’s expand it to look at largest employers. One caveat though, these lists are estimates based on past newspaper clips, published resources such as the Rockford Chamber of Commerce’s old manufacturing directory or the Polk city directories, and in some rare cases, information provided by the companies or organizations.

1980’s top employers in Boone, Ogle and Winnebago counties:

1. Chrysler Corp., 5,100

2. Sundstrand Corp., 4,600

3. Barber-Colman, 3,300

4. Rockford School District, 3,300

5. Atwood Industries, 2,500

6. Ingersoll Milling Machine, 2,350

7. Textron Inc., 2,300

8. Warner-Lambert Co., 1,420

9. Rockford Health System, 1,231

10. Amerock Corp., 1,200

11. SwedishAmerican, 1,107

12. Elco Industries, 1,100

13. Woodward Governor, 1,092

14. Rockford Park District, 1,029

15. Winnebago County, 1,000

16. City of Rockford, 950

17. OSF Saint Anthony, 890

18. Rockford Products, 880

19. National Lock, 830

20. Warner Electric, 800

Now look at 2005’s list:

1. Rockford School District, 3,810

2. Rockford Health System, 2,906

3. Hamilton Sundstrand, 2,400

4. Walmart Stores, 2,300

5. SwedishAmerican, 2,236

6. DaimlerChrysler, 2,050

7. OSF Saint Anthony, 2,001

8. Winnebago County, 1,712

9. Rockford Park District, 1,677

10. UPS, 1,500

11. Woodward Governor, 1,213

12. City of Rockford, 1,191

13. Textron Inc., 1,150

14. Anderson Packaging, 1,100

15. Harlem School District, 1,040

16. Hilander Food Stores, 1,009

17. R&D Thiel, 1,000

18. CommonwealthEdison, 948

19. AMCORE Financial, 908

20. Belvidere School District, 895

Look at the number of tax-supported organizations now in the top 20 — three school districts, a park district, the city of Rockford and Winnebago County.

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