Elk Grove Village extends deadline to build data centers at WGN transmitter site

The deadline to begin construction of a data center campus on the WGN radio transmitter site in Elk Grove Village has been extended to September 2027, the radio station’s owner and village officials agreed this week.

“The problem is the same problem they’ve had since day one: getting the power to that location,” Mayor Craig Johnson said of delays since the redevelopment at 720 Rohlwing Road was proposed in 2022.

Station owner Nexstar Media Group’s original plans called for selling off the southern 35 acres of the 102-acre property for a three-building data center campus, ancillary electrical substation, and six public pickleball courts to be leased to the Elk Grove Park District.

The primary 750-foot radio tower and its 250-foot backup were to be demolished, replaced and relocated slightly to the north, while the small building that houses the station’s transmitters and backup studio would have remained intact.

But Johnson said plans now call for four data center buildings on a larger portion of the property. He said Nexstar officials told him they can do without the old towers and are able to handle radio transmission in other ways these days.

Officials at the Irving, Texas-based company that acquired the 50,000-watt AM station in 2019 wouldn’t detail future plans, but assured listeners they would not lose service to WGN radio over the air and online.

Upon the property’s annexation into town on July 18, 2023, the company inked an agreement with the village that laid out a phased construction plan, provided guarantees for landscape buffering and flood control near neighboring homes, and the pickleball courts.

Johnson, a vocal backer of data centers — his town now has 15 of the computer storage sites, with another 17 in the pipeline — convinced Nexstar such a redevelopment would be a better fit for the neighboring residential area than the company’s initial proposal for a trucking/logistics project.

Construction of the first data center was to have begun within two years, but that deadline passed. On Tuesday night, the village board agreed to extend the deadline to Sept. 30, 2027.

“Due to market conditions and the time required to secure a user and development partner for the property, the owner has been unable to commence construction within the period originally contemplated by the agreement,” the amendment to the agreement states.

But Johnson expressed confidence that plans for a new ComEd substation at Devon and Ridge avenues — what would be its fourth in town — could be the solution to extending more power to the WGN site three miles away, and give data center developers the assurances they want before investing in the property.

The village board earlier this month agreed to sell a vacant, 1.2-acre property at 300 E. Devon Ave. to ComEd for about $3.63 million. Johnson said the utility also has contracts for the five neighboring parcels owned by a landscaper, VFW Post 9284, and a Christian school that moved into an old union hall and Putt Putt miniature golf course office building.