Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli centered his 2025 State of the City address around the idea of building blocks, discussing how efforts from the past have paved the way for the city’s success today and how today’s efforts are building for a better future.
“You can’t rise to new heights if you don’t have a solid foundation beneath you,” said Wehrli.
Eyes on I-88 corridor
Mayor Wehrli talked at length Thursday morning at the Embassy Suites hotel about economic development, starting with the I-88 corridor. The City of Naperville collaborated with Harvard and Johns Hopkins University to gather data to see how it might revitalize that area.
The study estimates that 15,000 high-paying jobs will be added in the corridor by 2045 if targeting certain high-growth industries, including:
- Agriculture and food technology
- Biotechnology
- Pharmacy and life sciences
- Energy
- Quantum and advanced computing
- Tourism sports
- Hospitality
That would result in $ 900 million in additional labor income and 2.6 billion more in output…