Here's some big news from the Daily Herald by way of Steve Munson:

Unilever in North America announced Tuesday that it will close its margarine manufacturing plant in Elgin.

The company anticipates the plant’s production capacity will end by the second quarter in 2006, resulting in the loss of 100 jobs.

The foundry and now finally the factory. This is pretty much the final big piece. The work ahead is in making sure that the building will not be reoccupied but demolished in order to allow the downtown renaissance to extend to the river's west bank. The outcome will be the creation of many more jobs as businesses move into the downtown and new buildings are constructed.