They're moving to elk grove village, which is bizarre because that's my hometown:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/2001+Lunt+Ave,+Elk+Grove+Village,+IL+60007/@42.001042,-87.953393,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x880fb115512ccfcd:0xccee0c074726091d
stern_elk_grove_village.jpg

http://www.elkgrove.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=2311

(The Law Offices of Crane and Norcross, on be
half of Prologis (Appl
icant) is seeking a
Cook County Class 6B property tax exemption
for property located at 2001 Lunt Avenue.
(The Applicant is in negotiations with Stern
Pinball to lease the property which has been
vacant since April of 2011. Stern is the world’s
largest and oldest manufacturer of arcade
quality pinball games.
(Stern is currently located in Melrose Park
at 2020 Janice where they currently employ
between 75 to 80 full time jobs and approximately 100 to 175 part time jobs.
(The company is expanding and intends on
relocating its entire operation to 2001 Lunt
Avenue including its corporate, engineer
ing, design, marketing, sales, warehousing,
assembly, and manufacturing functions.
(Stern has looked at a number of locations
for its expansion including Elk Grove Village,
Bensenville, Des Plaines, Melrose Park, Schi
ller Park, Northlake, Berkley, Chicago, and
locations outside of Illinois.
(The subject property consists of a fifty
one year old approxim
ately 118,278 square foot
building. The Applicant has al
lotted $889,913 to refurbish th
e building and has already
spent $27,546 on new signage and landscap
ing for a total investment of $917,459.
(Prologis has invested in the
property to maintain it as an attractive and functional building
including signage at $9,
989 and landscaping at $17,557.
(Prologis proposes additional improv
ements including tuck pointing at
$34,000, concrete and paving repairs to truck
court at $265,820, new roof replacement at
$111,118, upgrading of electric $32,945, silo/tower removal $57,030, exterior
painting $44,000, and various tenant im
provements of $345,000 for a total of $889,913.
(A report from the Director of Busine
ss Development and Marketing, recommending
approval, is attached.)

Don't forget suzo-happ.

Some interesting things if you read the blotter in detail

"currently employ between 75 to 80 full time jobs and approximately 100 to 175 part time jobs"
That likely means 75 office employees, 5 full time manufacturing team leader jobs, and 100-175 part time factory workers depending on demand for building pinball

"The Applicant is in negotiations with Stern Pinball to lease the property which has been vacant since April of 2011"
So Stern is investing nearly a million dollars on a building they are only leasing? I suppose it might make more sense tax-wise, especially since the building owner is putting $889,913 into the pot for improvements. I just wonder what sort of agreement they have as far as rental agreement. It would suck if suddenly the landlord increased the rent later on. I would think if the building was abandoned for the last 3 years they would be willing to negotiate some terms.

Yes, because pinball designers who have lived most of their lives in chicago are going to just up and move, and purchasing is going to procure completely new local vendors for parts including cabinets that are currently built by churchill cabinets who still reside in the chicago burbs.

Based on what I've seen at my own job that does similar assembly, a single line of product is usually reconfigured in about 3 months. However they have tons of prep work to do (cleaning the factory, roof repair, adding tons of power lines, airlines), and that's just production. I'm sure they aren't going to officially move until they have all the offices built up for the rest of the employees. I wouldn't be surprised if they build TWD and 1 or 2 titles after that at the current factory.

Don't forget the short lived URL (universal research laboratories). They were helping allied leisure make pong games, and then started making them for the home market. My dad worked for them since he was into ham radio, and I remember him bringing home that giant white countertop pong game (probabably a reject he fixed on his own).
http://www.pong-story.com/url.htm

Apples and oranges. Walmart has 4,100 stores, so they can ask vendors to do whatever they want in most cases (including fierce cost reducing and product design changes). Believe me, I used to work for a company that sold product to walmart, the bidding war with other companies every 2 years during review time was harsh. Stern is lucky if they sell 4,100 machines per title. Also Planetary pinball might have some say in the matter since they're now contracting Stern to build their machines.

It's not just the playfields, in fact it may be another vendor that does those. I'm talking about the cabinets themself. Sure another company could make cabinets, but wouldn't you want to go with the company that already knows what they're doing?

Isn't this mostly due to space constraints in the current building? The new one looks like it might have a dock. Besides, don't most people even in the chicago area buy from distributors because it's cheaper than Stern's Retail pricetag?

The microwaves are also easy to learn, but hard to master.

So I was "sort of" in the neighborhood, was at a vendor for work in schaumburg so I made a slight detour. From what I could see from the front, not a whole lot of activity. I saw metal studs have been put up in front (unless those are stripped walls from the previous tennant?). Anyway, here's some quick pics
sterm1_1.16.15.jpg
stern2_1.16.15.jpg
old_sign_2001_lunt.jpg

I didn't want to look like a creepy lurker

Looks like there's finally some traction, just posted to facebook:
GARY_IN_ELK_GROVE_FACTORY.jpeg

photos just posted
http://www.pinballnews.com/news/sternfactory.html

sternfactory1.jpg
sternfactory2.jpg
sternfactory3.jpg

I believe the official move date is April 17th?
Drove by today, still no Stern sign up, front office look the same (other than some permits posted to the front door), but they recently poured new cement in front of the garage doors
stern_4.6.15_cement.jpg
stern_4.6.15_front.jpg

So is today moving day? Wonder if someone more local than me could stop by and take photos, this is historical

Wonder when this is officially the new address (website, google, etc)?