Romeoville: G&W Electric opens 291,000-square-foot plant, plans 50 to 60 more hires

Romeoville has a new 291,000-square-foot factory. G&W Electric, the Bolingbrook-based maker of switchgear and other power-grid equipment, opened its plant at 1135 Arbor Drive in Romeoville with a ribbon-cutting on September 2, 2026, and told the Herald-News in a September 19 report that it now has about 350 employees there and plans to hire 50 to 60 more.

The building is the company’s second large facility in Will County and the bigger of two industrial projects Romeoville announced in May. Village officials, including Mayor John Noak, Village Manager Dawn Caldwell and Community Development Director Josh Potter, attended the opening, according to the company’s own announcement.

Key facts at a glance

Here is what the company and the Herald-News have reported about the Romeoville plant.

• The address is 1135 Arbor Drive, Romeoville, in the industrial area east of Weber Road and south of Interstate 55.
• The building is 291,305 square feet, of which about 30,000 square feet is office space, per the company.
• About 350 people currently work there, according to the Herald-News.
• The company plans to hire 50 to 60 more workers in engineering, professional and manufacturing jobs.
• Production of the company’s Viper and Viper-HV recloser lines has moved to the new building.

What G&W makes

G&W Electric is not a household name, but its equipment sits on utility poles and in substations across the country. The company makes switchgear, reclosers (the devices that automatically restore power after a momentary fault on a line), overhead switches, current-limiting systems, cable accessories, sensors and grid automation software. Utilities are the main customers, along with large commercial and industrial users that run their own distribution systems.

In its announcement of the expansion, the company said the new plant is meant to increase production capacity and improve the flow of work as utilities spend more on grid reliability. Chairman and owner John Mueller said the company has grown alongside the electric power industry for more than 120 years, and that “this expansion reflects our continued commitment to supporting customers as the grid evolves.”

The company’s global headquarters is at 305 W. Crossroads Parkway in Bolingbrook, about three miles from the new plant. G&W also owns a brass and aluminum foundry at 3450 W. 127th Street in Blue Island, plus plants in Ontario, Mexico, China, Italy and Finland, according to its facilities page. The company said it also plans to expand the Bolingbrook site.

How Romeoville landed the plant

The village first announced the project on May 6, 2026, in a release carried by Patch that paired G&W with a second newcomer, a 270,000-square-foot research and pharmacy facility for a telehealth company. At the time the village put G&W’s employment at 200; the September Herald-News figure of 350 reflects the plant after the move-in. Mayor Noak said in that May release that the two companies “bring quality jobs and support the long term vitality of our community.”

Romeoville has spent the past two decades turning the farmland along Weber Road and Interstate 55 into one of the larger warehouse and light-manufacturing clusters in Will County. Most of that space is logistics. A manufacturer with several hundred skilled jobs is a different kind of tenant, which is why village leaders made a point of showing up for the ribbon-cutting.

Who was there on September 2

The company’s announcement lists the officials and executives at the opening.

• From the village: Mayor John Noak, Village Manager Dawn Caldwell, Community Development Director Josh Potter, Fire Chief Kent Adam, Deputy Police Chief Daniel Zakula Jr. and Parks and Recreation Director Kelly Rajzer.
• From G&W: Chief Operating Officer Dave Gizewicz, Vice President of North America Operations Christina Knowles and Director of Maintenance and Facilities Mike Gilliam.
• Chairman and owner John Mueller, who provided the statement in the company’s release.

Jobs and how to apply

The hiring number is the part of the story that matters most to people in Romeoville, Bolingbrook, Plainfield and Joliet. The Herald-News reports the company is looking to fill 50 to 60 openings across engineering, professional and manufacturing roles; the company’s own release does not give a number. Openings are posted on the careers section of the company’s website, and G&W is a private, family-owned company, so there is no public filing to check the count against.

The Herald-News describes the Romeoville building as a manufacturing and operations center rather than a warehouse, which fits the roughly 30,000 square feet of office space the company says it carved out of the floor plan for engineering and support staff. The company did not say how many of the 350 current workers transferred from Bolingbrook and how many are new hires.

The plant is in an industrial park with no walk-in retail, so there is nothing to visit as a member of the public. Arbor Drive runs off Weber Road south of Interstate 55, and Pace’s Route 755 and other Weber Road service connect the corridor to the Bolingbrook park-and-ride, though most employees will drive.

What comes next

A few things are still open, based on the company’s and the village’s statements.

1. The Bolingbrook headquarters expansion the company mentioned has no announced timeline or size.
2. The 50 to 60 new hires are planned, not yet filled, and the company has not said over what period.
3. The telehealth facility announced alongside G&W in May has not announced an opening date.

For Romeoville, the immediate result is simpler: a building that was announced in the spring is running, and one of the region’s oldest industrial companies now has its largest floor space in the village.

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