What's next for $2.5 billion data center campus in Mount Prospect

The $2.5 billion CloudHQ data center campus on the former United Airlines headquarters site in Mount Prospect is starting to power up.

Mount Prospect Community Development Director Bill Cooney told village board members recently that ComEd soon will begin building a substation that will feed power to the campus. The work will take about two years.

He said the substation has generated talks with ComEd about providing power to other potential data center projects.

"We've had some good conversations with ComEd on that," he said. "The key to that is, to get data center projects to happen, you need the power."

"We're in a good area as far as power allocation goes, between Elk Grove and Mount Prospect," he added.

The station will provide 243 megawatts to CloudHQ, he said. The substations typically have the capacity for 300 megawatts.

Meanwhile, Cooney said, CloudHQ is determining whether to go forward with a three-building plan that has been approved by the village or seek new approval for a modified plan with a larger building.

There's also talk of a prospective 180,000-square-foot industrial building on the property at Algonquin and Linneman roads. An existing building will have to be demolished for that to happen.

The data center campus is expected to provide millions of dollars in local tax revenue, a substantial boost in the property tax base, hundreds of jobs, and millions in donations for area park improvements.

Mayor Paul Hoefert credited the village's South Mount Prospect plan for that and other new developments.

He called south Mount Prospect "the land of opportunity."

"There is so much that can begin to occur in south Mount Prospect now that these things are happening," Hoefert added.