Karis Heads Back to Drawing Board in Hoffman Estates

Karis Critical withdrew their rezoning request for a 186-acre plot called Plum Farms in Hoffman Estates.

“We heard the feedback clearly, including the call for a more specific plan before any rezoning,” New Albany, Ohio-based Karis spokesman Patrick Skarr said in a statement, the Daily Herald first reported.

Withdrawing the rezoning request means the company will have to rebuild plans to redevelop Plum Farms from scratch. Skarr said they’ll continue to look at different proposals as they retool plans for the space they bought for $45 million, or upwards of $240,000 per acre. The previous owners of the site couldn’t get any serious motion for plans for a mixed-use commercial and residential development, according to the outlet.

The zoning withdrawal comes on the heels of weeks of community backlash about the mere possibility of a data center being built at Plum Farms. The original rezoning request was for broad manufacturing use, which Karis stressed in previous statements that it was not necessarily meant for a data center.

Hoffman Estates’ planning commission voted against recommending the rezoning request in early June, following local backlash from residents in the village and in nearby Barrington Hills.

Earlier this year in January and about 30 miles away, the Naperville City Council ultimately rejected a Karis proposal to develop a data center proposal after months of similar community backlash. Naperville residents argued that using that particular plot of land went against the village’s future plans, and worried about the strain on their power grid.

Karis is potentially taking a second crack at a Naperville development following a meeting with the city council about the former BP campus at 150 West Warrenville Road. Naperville mayor Scott Wehrli told the publication after the meeting that he informed Karis if they were to propose a data center, it would be a tough sell.

— Hunter Cooke