Exiting Niles And Northbrook, Grainger Shifts Operations

NILES, IL — The industrial supply company WW Grainger will cease operations in both Niles and Northbrook over the next year and move hundreds of employees to its Lake Forest headquarters, according to a report. By the end of the year, employees will be transferred from Grainger's Niles location at 7300 N. Melvina Ave. Employees from its Northbrook site at 1657 Shermer Rd. will start working in Lake Forest by next July, according to a report in the Journal & Topics newspapers.

An internal company document outlining the "Niles Exit Timeline" obtained by the Journal was confirmed by a Grainger spokesperson. It said the firm's exit will start in October 2017 and its Niles building, which sits in the middle of a recently formed TIF district dubbed the "Touhy Triangle," will be listed for sale by April 2019. About 80 percent of the roughly 500 employees who will be transferred are based at the Northbrook location.

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