Elk Grove Village Extends Nexstar’s Data Center Deadline

Elk Grove Village is giving Nexstar Media Group more time to jump-start its long-planned data center redevelopment of the WGN radio transmitter site, pushing the construction deadline to fall 2027 as power issues continue to dog the project.

Village officials agreed this week to extend the deadline to begin construction at 720 Rohlwing Road to Sept. 30, 2027, nearly five years after the Irving, Texas-based media company first floated plans to redevelop the property. The core holdup of getting enough electricity to the site hasn’t changed, Mayor Craig Johnson told the Daily Herald, which first reported the matter.

Nexstar acquired the 50,000-watt AM station in 2019 and in 2022 proposed selling off the southern 35 acres of the 102-acre property for a three-building data center campus, along with an electrical substation and six public pickleball courts to be leased to the Elk Grove Park District. According to the outlet, the plan also called for demolishing and relocating the site’s iconic 750-foot radio tower and its 250-foot backup, while keeping the small transmitter building intact.

Those plans have since evolved, as Johnson said Nexstar is now envisioning four data center buildings spread across a larger portion of the site and no longer needs to replace the old towers, as radio transmission can be handled through other means. Nexstar declined to detail the revised plan, but said WGN listeners would not lose over-the-air or online service.

When the property was annexed into Elk Grove Village in July 2023, Nexstar signed a redevelopment agreement laying out a phased construction schedule, landscaping buffers and flood control protections for nearby homes, as well as the pickleball courts. Under that deal, construction of the first data center was supposed to begin within two years — a deadline that has now passed.

Johnson, an outspoken champion of data centers, told the outlet that Elk Grove Village already hosts 15 facilities, with another 17 proposed. He previously steered Nexstar away from a trucking and logistics concept, arguing data centers would be a better fit next to residential neighborhoods.

A solution to the power situation constraints is progressing. Earlier this month, the village agreed to sell a vacant 1.2-acre parcel at 300 East Devon Avenue to Commonwealth Edison for about $3.6 million. Johnson said the utility has contracts on five neighboring parcels, signaling groundwork for the infrastructure needed to finally bring the data center campus to life.

— Eric Weilbacher