By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Economic developers in McLean County are offering help to their counterparts in Peoria who are trying to regroup after Caterpillar announced plans to move its global headquarters.

CEO of the Bloomington Normal Economic Development Council Kyle Ham told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin the loss of those 300 executive jobs will have an economic ripple effect.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Ham on WJBC.

“You think about the homes that will be on the market, all those high-end homes that are in the Peoria area, auto dealers, the Lexus dealers, the trickle-down effect of that,” Ham said.

Hamm said the long term concern is those Caterpillar executives will eventually become disconnected from the community that the global company has called home for more than 90 years.

“It’s like when you meet someone and they are moving to a different state, you say we are going to stay in touch,” Ham said. “Eventually over time you don’t see them anymore. That’s the thing I would be troubled with.”

Ham said his office is offering to help Peoria in any way it can, noting the two often cross promote. He said it’s better for a business to locate in Peoria than in Indiana.

He said Peoria is trying to emphasize the area’s strength in the medical field to offset the loss of those top-level jobs.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].