Lisle Plan Scrapped as Yorkville Bets big on Data Centers

Two Chicago suburbs landed on opposite sides of the booming and increasingly controversial data center development business this week.

Lisle officials said developer Cloud Centers withdrew its application for a proposed 256,000-square-foot, 50-megawatt data center at the long-vacant Lockformer property at 711 Ogden Avenue, while about 50 miles west the Yorkville City Council signed off on a massive campus that could reshape the fast-growing Kendall County city.

The Lisle withdrawal followed mounting public pushback, the Daily Herald reported. Cloud Centers had targeted an 18-acre site that has sat vacant for more than two decades after the former Lockformer plant shuttered. The property also carries environmental baggage after a toxic chemical used in the factory leaked into local drinking water, making redevelopment politically sensitive.

Village President Mary Jo Mullen said the developer’s decision to pull the proposal reflected lingering skepticism about data centers among residents, noting the community still needs “lots of work” before residents feel comfortable with such a project.

Public opposition had been building for months, according to the outlet. More than 300 residents showed up to a January hearing on the project, forcing officials to postpone the meeting because the crowd exceeded the board room’s 250-person capacity.

Craig McGahey, managing partner for Cloud Centers, said the intensity of the backlash made it clear the project faced a steep uphill climb.

“In the end, we were not given a chance to present,” McGahey told the outlet, adding that many residents simply rejected the idea of a data center operating near mixed-use neighborhoods.

While Lisle hit pause, Yorkville moved full speed ahead.

After a nearly six-hour meeting that stretched past midnight, the Yorkville City Council approved annexation, rezoning and infrastructure agreements tied to Project Cardinal, a sprawling 1,037-acre data center campus that could include 14 buildings totaling 17 million square feet, according to the Shaw Local News Network.

The project, led by Sheridan, Wyoming–based Pioneer Development, also includes a development agreement promising $51 million in upfront payments over the next four years to support schools, fire services, city projects and local nonprofits, according to the publication.

Those funds could eventually be combined with another $40 million pledged by San Francisco-based Prologis for a separate 540-acre Yorkville project known as Project Steel, bringing potential contributions from the two developments to $91 million. Officials said about $68 million of that total could flow directly to the local school district.

— Eric Weilbacher