Joliet's 795-Acre Data Center Should Be Pulled Off Meeting Agenda: City Planner

JOLIET, IL — Less than two weeks after Joliet Patch broke the news, revealing that the city of Joliet is considering approval for a 795-acre data center on farmland near the Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR track, city officials are now backpedaling on the project.

Just days before Thursday's Joliet planning commission to review the data center development, Joliet city planner Ray Heitner has informed the board that Thursday's 4 p.m. meeting at City Hall should not include the data center project, after all.

"City Staff is requesting the subject petitions be deferred to November 20, 2025, to give staff and the developer additional time to prepare the Annexation and Development Agreement. Due to the size and complexity of the proposed development, additional analysis is needed to properly evaluate the subject proposal and to draft an optimal Annexation and Development Agreement," Heitner's memo outlined.

According to Joliet, HW Technology Park Development, LLC is the contract purchaser, and the current land owners consist of Bernhard Farms, Inc., Bernhard Family Land Trust, Leo E. & Lois I. Bernhard, Leonard E. Bernhard, Jean R. Smith, Joan E. Long, Joy C. and Ray M. Garza and James E. Bernhard.

On October 2,Joliet Patch broke news revealing that an enormous data center campus — one of the largest ever proposed in the entire Chicago region — has been proposed for the city of Joliet and the project could consist of 24 buildings.

"You're looking at the largest data center in the Chicago region, and that's the truth," a source informed Joliet Patch. "It's 24 buildings. It will be a boon for Joliet, cash-wise, job-wise. You will see a lot of good jobs, over 1,000 construction jobs and 250 to 300 permanent jobs."

The proposed Joliet Data Center Campus would be built on roughly 800 acres of farmland east of the Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR racetrack, which will be returning to the NASCAR circuit next year after not being utilized in recent years.

During the last week of September, the city of Joliet began posting public hearing signs informing the surrounding property owners of the "annexation and preliminary planned unit development for a data center campus."

As for the data center campus, in addition to the 24 buildings, which would be approximately 200,000 square feet in size, there will be five switch yards.

Hillwood, a Perot company led by Ross Perot Jr., is spearheading the Joliet data center development, the source indicated. The crossroads for Joliet campus include Schweitzer Road, Ridge Road and Millsdale Road. The development, if it comes to fruition, will take place on the large land parcel in the Elwood area known as Bernhard Farms.