Design plans for Mount Prospect data center changing

Cloud HQ is seeking to alter the look of its approved data center development in Mount Prospect, proposing to build taller and along Algonquin Road.

The $2.5 billion project officially broke ground in 2022 on the former United Airlines headquarters site. But it is still far from completion.

At Thursday’s Mount Prospect Economic Development Commission meeting, the village's community and economic development director, Jason Shallcross, said the substation being built to the east is undergoing its final touches and should be completed soon.

He added Cloud HQ plans to submit an amendment to its approved design plan next month, however.

The original approval called for three separate data center buildings for the development on Linneman Road, between Dempster Street and Algonquin Road.

The modified plan would call for two buildings that would function as a continuous structure along the length of Algonquin Road.

“It will be a wall that is the length of Algonquin Road,” he said. “We are working with them on how to break up that appearance, because it's about a quarter mile long.”

Cloud HQ, he said, will also be looking to add to the height, adding floors to accommodate “hyperscalers,” heavy data users similar to Facebook.

In addition to the substation being built to service it, Cloud HQ indicated it may need to build a second full substation on site because it is adding building capacity.

Cloud HQ, he said, intends to start moving dirt this fall, even with design plans up in the air.

Mount Prospect officials in 2022 expected the assessed value of the campus to be $100 million, and project it will generate $1 million in electric utility taxes for the village.