Brennan’s $2B Barrington Hills Data Center Scrapped

In what is shaping into a recent Chicagoland trend, a proposed $2 billion data center in Barrington Hills is officially dead, the latest sign that suburban Chicago’s once-red-hot data center pipeline is running into organized resistance.

Village officials announced that Chicago-based Brennan Investment Group withdrew its proposal for a massive data center campus planned south of Penny Road and west of Pond Gate Drive. The Daily Herald reported that the developer canceled a scheduled public presentation before the village’s plan commission slated for Feb. 2 after what officials described as negative early feedback.

“At this time, the village considers this matter closed and does not anticipate any further discussion,” a village spokesperson said in a Facebook post announcing the withdrawal. The special meeting was canceled.

Details on the project were limited, but the scale alone set off alarm bells in the rural enclave known for its large estates and conservation-focused zoning. Opposition quickly mobilized, according to the outlet. A Change.org petition urging officials to reject the development had collected more than 1,300 signatures as of Tuesday, citing concerns about air pollution, water quality and long-term tax impacts.

“We cannot allow this proposal to compromise the very essence of what makes Barrington Hills a special place,” the petition stated.

Brennan, which has been active in data centers, is the developer of similar projects in Elk Grove Village and Rolling Meadows, according to public records. The firm did not publicly comment on its decision to pull the Barrington Hills proposal.

The retreat highlights how quickly the political calculus around data centers has shifted. For years, the facilities were the quiet darlings of municipal finance, with massive capital investment, limited traffic and steady property tax revenue. Approvals were often routine, as previously chronicled in The Real Deal.

That era appears to be ending, at least in parts of suburban Chicago.

Just last week, Lisle officials paused a proposed data center after residents packed Village Hall with objections. In Naperville, the City Council rejected Karis Critical’s data center proposal in a 6-1 vote following months of neighborhood opposition. Aurora, meanwhile, enacted a 180-day moratorium in September to revisit its data center regulations, signaling broader unease with the facilities.

The local backlash comes even as the regional data center boom continues to surge. In northwest Indiana, Amazon is planning multiple data center campuses with total investment that could exceed $15 billion, including a confirmed site in Hobart. Farther north, T5 Data Centers has spent more than $60 million assembling land in Grayslake, a project that has already required significant power commitments from ComEd and drawn scrutiny over its proximity to homes.

— Eric Weilbacher