540-acre Project Steel data center in Yorkville taking shape, public hearing scheduled

Even with downscaling the initial planned development, the proposed 540-acre Project Steel data center would still leave a sizable manufacturing footprint along Yorkville’s data center alley.

With the necessary annexation, rezoning, and development plans making their way through city processes, the full scale of the proposal has come into view.

The annexation public hearing is set for June 24 at City Hall.

The targeted 16 individual land parcels are centered around the southeast corner of Galena Road and Eldamain Road. They are located on unincorporated county land.

The updated plans by developer Prologis L.P., feature 18 two-story manufacturing warehouses, totaling around 6.8 million square feet. The data center campus proposal also contains three on-site electrical substations, according to city documents.

If city council grants full approval, the project is expected to have shovels in the ground in the summer of 2027. Construction will be in three phases over 20 years, with six data center buildings being erected in each phase.

Once each individual warehouse is up and running, city staff believe they can each generate up to a million dollars in annual tax revenues for the city’s coffers.

The updated plans are downsized from the initial proposal which featured 24 two-story buildings, totaling 9.5 million square feet.

Part of the reason for the downsizing may be the city’s updated requirements regarding noise pollution mitigation.

Both Project Steel and the adjacent 1,037 acre Project Cardinal data center campus were required to undergo sound engineering studies to determine the best strategies for reducing noise pollution reaching the surrounding residential and commercial areas.

The studies were required to be paid for by the data center developers. The city requires the sound mitigation plan to ensure that operational noise does not exceed the city’s current noise ordinance regulations.

Noise monitoring devices are required to be installed during both the construction period and when the warehouses are up and humming. Constant sound reports will be provided to city officials to ensure compliance.

The city is also requiring each of the data center campus’ warehouses to have a minimum 500-foot building separation between them and the nearest residential or commercial structure.

The minimum setback was implemented after several residents spoke out against the proximity of data center plans to their residential areas. While 500 feet is larger than some of the city’s data center campus proposals initial plans, many residents have argued at city council meetings that the projects are still too close to their homes.

City staff are also requiring that the developers install an 8-foot tall berm along the data center campus’ edges along adjacent residential roads, namely Corneils, E. Beecher, Eldamain and Galena roads.

The site will likely feature a parking lot with 2,052 parking spaces.

City staff envision the sprawling data center campuses along the “Eldamain Road Data Center Corridor” putting Yorkville on the manufacturing map.

Several other data center campuses are currently working their way through city staff approval, including Project Cardinal.

City administrator Bart Olson said the city has 3,000 acres currently slated for data center development with more than 100 new large data center warehouses to be built over the next few decades in the city’s data center alley.