Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced the opening of a temporary Secretary of State driver's facility at CTF Illinois in Orland Park, saying the office signed a one-year lease and will add behind-the-wheel driving exams and expanded hours.

The announcement, made at a ribbon‑style event at the CTF Illinois campus, followed a vote by township trustees two months earlier to terminate the state’s lease at the township building. Giannoulias and other officials said the new location avoids a service gap and preserves local access to driver services for South Suburban residents.

“We didn't miss a beat in transition to this new facility, and we're able to expand the hours of operation and the services we offer, including importantly, road exams for the first time,” Giannoulias said. He said the Orland Township facility completed more than 56,000 transactions in the past nine months and that the new site will operate with longer hours.

The temporary facility will be open 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, officials said, and will offer driver's licenses and state IDs (including REAL ID processing), vehicle registrations and renewals, vehicle stickers and behind-the-wheel driving tests. Giannoulias said the state signed a one-year lease for the CTF space and intends to look for a permanent location within the community.

State Sen. Michael Hastings, who helped arrange local coordination, described the opening as a product of local collaboration. “We're here to celebrate, the temporary opening of a driver's facility here at CTF Illinois,” Hastings said, praising municipal and regional leaders for working together.

Orland Park Mayor Jim Dodge thanked state and local partners and said municipal staff would help make the location visible and accessible. “We, quite frankly, just as a team came together and jumped on the problem,” Dodge said.

Tony Barrett, chief executive officer of CTF Illinois, said the nonprofit agreed to provide a wing of its campus that was not in regular use. “When the mayor Dodge and senator Hastings came to me with this opportunity to open up a wing of our building that's not being used, we said yes,” Barrett said. He and other CTF representatives described physical separation and signage inside the campus to keep the DMV entrance and CTF program areas distinct.

CTF staff described their program as a day services operation for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; the organization said it serves roughly 700 individuals across Illinois and employs about 450 people statewide. CTF leaders said the space provided to the Secretary of State is being used without compensation.

During a short question‑and‑answer period, officials addressed safety and access concerns for CTF clients and DMV customers. Barrett said the DMV occupies a separate wing with signage and a staffed entrance to ensure CTF services are not disrupted. Giannoulias said the state worked to avoid any interruption: “customers didn't lose one minute,” he said, describing an IT and operations transition over a weekend.

Officials said they expect customers to come from multiple South Suburban communities and that the additional parking and the new road exam capability will reduce travel to larger regional facilities. The state did not provide an estimate of future daily or weekly customer counts beyond the 56,000 transactions figure cited for the prior nine months.

The Secretary of State's office characterized the arrangement as an interim solution while state staff continue to seek a permanent,