Caterpillar Headquarters Moved: Visiting Peoria, Illinois

Caterpillar headquarters no longer means Peoria, Illinois. The company’s global headquarters is in Irving, Texas, where SEC filings list Caterpillar Inc. at 5205 N. O’Connor Boulevard. The plants, the engineering work, and the meetings that fill Peoria hotel rooms are still here.

This guide is for the person booking the trip. It covers which airport to choose, what the drive from Chicago or St. Louis involves, how people move between hotels and sites, and what to do with a free afternoon. Facility details come from Caterpillar and from WCBU Peoria’s coverage of the move, checked September 15, 2026.

Caterpillar headquarters moved, the Peoria work stayed

Caterpillar announced on June 14, 2022, that it would move its global headquarters to an existing office in Irving, Texas, from Deerfield, Illinois. That was an office move. The industrial footprint around Peoria did not follow.

WCBU Peoria reported at the time that the region kept research and development work, track-type tractor manufacturing in East Peoria, a large parts distribution center in Morton, and the foundry in Mapleton. If you are flying in to see a Caterpillar team, your meeting is likely at one of those sites or a Peoria office, not a headquarters building.

That shapes the travel day. A schedule can start downtown, run north to Mossville, and end southwest in Mapleton. Those are not walkable distances, and they are not the same exit.

Peoria airport flights, and when to use them

Peoria International Airport sits at 6100 W. Everett McKinley Dirksen Parkway, west of the metro. It is small, and for business travel that is the point. Door to seat is quick, and so is the reverse.

The airport lists service on three airlines. Checked September 15, 2026, the schedule looked like this.

The airport’s airlines page counted service to 11 destinations when we checked. For business trips, the O’Hare and Dallas-Fort Worth service is the useful line, because it turns most origins into a one-stop trip.

Peoria airport parking, and why it changes the math

Peoria International Airport says parking in its general areas is free, no matter how long your trip runs. That free lot is the main reason the Peoria airport page still argues for a chauffeur: the saving is in the hours, not the parking receipt. There are three general lots: the main lot north of the terminal, an overflow lot west, and the Byerly lot east. Metered spaces near drop-off and baggage claim cover short visits, and a complimentary shuttle runs between the lots and the terminal from 4:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. A gated Premier lot by the west entrance runs on a waiting list.

Flying into Chicago or St. Louis and riding in

Plenty of visitors never see Peoria airport. The O’Hare fare is lower, the international connection only works through Chicago, or the team is coming from the south and Lambert is easier.

A Peoria to Chicago drive is about 2 hours 50 minutes in normal conditions, and the last stretch into O’Hare is the part that ruins schedules. That is true in any vehicle. The difference is whether the person with the 8 a.m. presentation spent that evening merging on the Kennedy or reviewing the deck. The Peoria to O’Hare car service page breaks that run down leg by leg.

A visiting team does not need six rental cars and six sets of directions. It needs one vehicle that already knows which exit is which.

Moving between hotels, sites, and dinner

Most visitors stay downtown near the riverfront or on the north end near the interstate, and meetings run in every direction from there. A group in East Peoria at nine and at a downtown dinner that night crosses the river twice, in a city nobody in the car has driven before.

This is where an hourly chauffeur earns the booking. The vehicle stays with the group for the hours you reserve, so nobody parks or circles a lot hunting for the entrance. If a meeting runs 40 minutes long, the car is still there. For two or three travelers, an executive sedan fits. For a full delegation, a Sprinter van keeps everyone in one conversation between stops.

Springfield to Peoria is about 75 miles and roughly an hour and 15 minutes, so a same-day round trip works for a morning meeting. Our Peoria service area page lists the towns we cover.

The Caterpillar Visitors Center, if there is a free afternoon

Trips leave gaps. The flight is at 7 p.m. and the last meeting ended at 1 p.m. The Caterpillar Visitors Center at 110 SW Washington Street downtown fills that gap, with galleries on the company’s history, its machines, and the projects they built. Hours and admission change, so check Caterpillar’s Visitors Center page first.

Because it is downtown, it pairs with an early dinner before the airport run. The riverfront and the Peoria Riverfront Museum are a few blocks away.

How a chauffeured visit is set up

1. Send the itinerary. Call (217) 523-5466 or request a quote with the flights, the hotel, the sites, and the headcount.
2. Pick the vehicle by group size. Executive sedan for two to three, luxury SUV for five to six, Sprinter van for 14, shuttle coach for 22 to 35.
3. Set the daily pattern. Hotel to site in the morning, site to site midday, dinner in the evening, with the vehicle held for the hours you reserve.
4. Close with the airport run. Peoria International for a short hop, or the longer run to O’Hare or Lambert if that is where the flight home departs.

Executive Transportation has driven Central Illinois since 2004, with uniformed chauffeurs on every trip and dispatch answering 24 hours a day. We prefer about 72 hours’ notice, and roughly a week for large groups. A reservation coordinator can hold a multi-day schedule, and large events can have an on-site coordinator. See our corporate airport transfers page for recurring trips.