The Morris Technology Park will become operational on an accelerated power timeline, with initial energization targeted for June 2028 and a full 1 GW load ramp achieved by 2032, Tract stated in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n Tract acquires raw land in prime spots for data centers and develops supporting infrastructure.\n <\/p>\n The project is a result of several years of collaboration with Morris, electric provider\u00a0Commonwealth Edison\u00a0Co. and the Illinois Economic Development Corp., Tract President Graham Williams said in a statement. This includes a transmission security agreement with ComEd.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were impressed with the foresight and proactive approach of the Morris community leaders in preparing a fully annexed and zoned economic development site suitable for a data center campus of this size,\u201d Williams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tract acquires raw land in prime locations for potential data centers and secures proper zoning<\/a> and permits for those projects. It also\u00a0builds\u00a0infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0on the land, including power, fiber, roads, water\u00a0and sewer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, the company\u00a0offers the land to large data center players\u00a0such as\u00a0Amazon<\/a>, Google<\/a> and Microsoft<\/a>\u00a0or other data center developers. The company usually spends between $100M and $150M on a site to prepare it for a sale, Williams told The Wall Street Journal in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tract did not respond to\u00a0Bisnow\u2019s\u00a0request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The infrastructure project secured city approval last year, with most local leaders confident\u00a0the utility grid could meet the needs of the\u00a0massive data center.\u00a0<\/p>\n Advancements in technology have led to significant improvements in data centers\u2019 water and power efficiency, said Aindrea Hogan, vice president of development at the Grundy Economic Development Council,\u00a0during a Morris City Council meeting in August. Data centers also don\u2019t generate significant truck traffic, she said.<\/p>\n Morris Alderman Alex Clubb voted against the proposal, citing concerns about the amount of water the data center would need compared to the city\u2019s current utilization rate.\u00a0The project would\u00a0require a new water facility that the city may have to partially fund, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Morris Mayor Chris Brown\u00a0told WCSJ after the meeting<\/a>\u00a0that the city is in \u201cgood shape\u201d with its water supply and is considering building a large water facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n The deal marks Tract’s first entry into the Chicago area.\u00a0The company has over 25 GW of planned capacity on more than 25,000 acres of land with campuses proposed in places\u00a0such as Arizona, Iowa, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Virginia.\u00a0<\/p>\n The release from Tract stated that the Morris Technology Park will generate more than 1,000 construction jobs and about 350 permanent, high-skilled positions. Morris had an\u00a0estimated 2025 population<\/a>\u00a0of 14,646, with Grundy County \u2014 where Morris is located \u2014 recording about 54,000 residents<\/a>, according to Cubit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Avison Young<\/a>\u2019s Michael Fonda, Adam Haefner and Howard Berry represented Clarius Partners in the sale and assisted with marketing the land.\u00a0<\/p>\n Not all Chicago-area suburbs are in favor of cashing in on the data center gold rush.<\/p>\n Last week, the Naperville<\/a> City Council\u00a0quashed a data center plan<\/a>\u00a0that had drawn significant pushback from neighbors concerned about energy consumption, noise pollution and emissions. The Naperville project was much smaller in proposed scope than the Morris Technology Park, at just 145K SF with a power capacity of 36 megawatts.<\/p>\n Local lawmakers in Naperville echoed the community\u2019s fears over the potential drawbacks of that proposed data center.\u00a0<\/p>\n “In light of the uncertainty of the future availability and cost of electricity, I’m concerned that approving this proposal may constrain the city’s ability to support future development in the I-88 corridor without substantial additional investment,” said Naperville City Councilwoman Supna Jain, according to the Daily Herald.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Developer Tract acquired a massive plot of land in the distant suburbs of Chicago and plans to build…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":547991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[44622,960,240856,59143,240860,5880,48541,240857,240861,5386,1818,194526,240859,240858],"class_list":["post-547990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-avison-young","tag-chicago","tag-clarius-partners","tag-comed","tag-commonwealth-edison-company","tag-data-center","tag-data-center-infrastructure","tag-graham-williams","tag-grundy-county","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-midway-international-airport","tag-morris-technology-park","tag-tract"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115969940735721622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Placeholder\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1750589843_18_placeholder.png\")
<\/p>\n