Rockford company plans to move headquarters into old Regal Rexnord building

BELOIT - A Rockford company that makes lifting equipment plans to move its company headquarters to the old Regal Rexnord building at 200 State St., bringing 30 executive and administrative jobs to downtown Beloit.

The Caldwell Group Inc. received approval from the Beloit Plan Commission last week for a conditional use permit to have ground floor offices in a central business district. The company is under contract to purchase the building and hopes to begin operating at the site by Oct. 1.

"This location and this building are going to allow us to grow our company, host sales and training events, and get our business team all under one roof," company CEO Doug Stitt said in a news release.

It's a return home in a way for Stitt. Stitt is a South Beloit native and Beloit College graduate. 

"My grandfather worked for Regal Beloit, so it really feels like home," said Stitt, who has been the Caldwell CEO since 2005. Regal Beloit changed its name to Regal Rexnord after a merger in 2021. Regal Rexnord officially moved its corporate headquarters to Milwaukee in 2023.

"I can't wait to share how great this community is with some of our Illinois team members."

Caldwell was founded in 1954 and has two manufacturing and distribution locations on Rockford's south side. The company has been on a hiring spree, increasing its overall workforce from 120 full-time employees to nearly 200 since the beginning of the year.

The company makes "below-the-hook" lifting equipment. Caldwell makes things like lifting beams and clamps to move concrete pipes on construction sites, sheet lifters and coil lifters to move steel coils and steel plates in steel mills, and forklift attachments like booms and fork extensions.

The 115,000-square-foot building had a listed sale price of $1.56 million. Caldwell did not release what it is paying for the building.