Data center site offices in Illinois: The Grid, nationwide.

Illinois has 19 data centers under construction and 153 announced as of March 2026, with 78 operating, the fifth-largest announced pipeline in the country, concentrated in the Chicago suburbs, Elk Grove Village by O'Hare, Aurora, DeKalb, Yorkville and Franklin Park, according to Aterio.

Where are data centers being built in Illinois right now?

Elk Grove Village. The industrial park beside O'Hare is the densest data center cluster in the Midwest: Digital Realty, DataBank, CyrusOne, Iron Mountain, Stream and a dozen more, on fiber that has run through the village for twenty years, with new buildings going up between the old ones on paved lots with tight pads.

Aurora and the Fox Valley. CyrusOne, Digital Realty and Iron Mountain built the western cluster along Interstate 88; the campuses keep adding buildings, and greenfield parcels toward Sugar Grove and Montgomery are in permitting.

DeKalb. Meta's campus at DeKalb, west of Aurora on Interstate 88, is the state's hyperscale anchor, a multi-building program on former farmland with its own substation.

Yorkville and Kendall County. The next ring out: campus-scale parcels along Illinois 47 that have drawn announced projects on a scale the county has not seen, most of the 153 announced.

Franklin Park, Northlake, Hoffman Estates and the city. The inner suburbs carry colocation buildings on redeveloped industrial sites, and Chicago's South Loop carries the carrier hotel and its neighbors.

Illinois attracts the work with the O'Hare fiber hub, ComEd's grid, and a data center tax exemption enacted in 2019 that abates state and local sales taxes on qualifying equipment for 20 years. Phases and names change quarterly; JOLT checks each project against a county filing or local reporting at every refresh of this page.

Which hyperscalers, developers and general contractors are active in Illinois?

Meta at campus scale; Microsoft and Google with facilities and land in the suburbs; CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain, DataBank, Stream, Prime, T5 and the colocation operators at Elk Grove and Aurora.

The general contractors with data center groups working in Illinois include Clayco, headquartered in Chicago and one of the largest data center builders in the country; Turner; Mortenson; Holder; Whiting-Turner; Power Construction; Clune; Pepper; and Walsh. Illinois timelines run 14 to 20 months from permit to energized on a suburban site with existing utilities, among the fastest in the country, and a Chicago winter falls inside almost every one of them. The electrical contractor mobilizes first, often on a generator, in a lot that was plowed that morning.

What does an Illinois data center site office need?

Cold, wind, snow and a paved lot.

Cold. Chicago averages lows in the teens in January and sees minus 10 to minus 20 in a bad stretch, with a wind off the lake that makes it worse. The Grid has two 12,000 BTU cold-climate mini-split heat pumps rated to heat at -13 F, behind R-19 closed-cell foam walls and an R-30 roof.

Snow. Thirty-six inches a year in the suburbs. Keep plowed snow away from the office and its two steel personnel doors.

Paved lots. Most Illinois data center sites are paved industrial parcels, and an Elk Grove pad is often a corner of a parking lot between two buildings. Every Grid receives four-point anchoring; the owner's engineer and the authority having jurisdiction set any project-specific criteria.

Freeze-thaw and drainage. The Grid is leveled on cribbing at its four corner castings, so the compacted bearing surface must drain away from the doors. Plan the bearing surface and access with the site-requirements checklist.

How does The Grid get to an Illinois site?

The Grid travels as a legal-width flatbed load; route surveys, pilot cars and oversize permits are unnecessary.

For Illinois sites, DC Deploy includes freight, tilt-bed placement or crane set, leveling on cribbing, four-point anchoring, an electrical rough-in walkthrough with the site electrician and end-of-term pickup; review nationwide delivery for the full package.

What does a Grid cost on an Illinois data center site?

Illinois teams can compare both builds, deposits, add-ons and protection on the data-center pricing page. DC Deploy is quoted per campus.

Illinois sales tax is added where it applies; the state's data center exemption covers the owner's equipment, not a rental office. DC Deploy is quoted for the specific campus.

What is the power picture in Illinois and when does temp power land?

ComEd serves the Chicago suburbs and northern Illinois, which is to say every data center cluster in the state, and carries a large-load pipeline measured in gigawatts, with interconnection programs that commit capacity against long-term contracts and transmission cost-sharing. The suburban clusters sit on ComEd's densest grid, and temporary construction service on an Elk Grove or Aurora site is usually live before the office lands. On a greenfield in DeKalb or Kendall County, the GC's temporary service can trail the first mobilization by two to six weeks, in winter.

Grid Command's 50 A generator inlet with a mechanical interlock lets a generator power the office until the electrician gets a 60 A circuit to the pad; the site electrician sizes the generator and confirms the load plan. JOLT's 25 kW standby generator is $1,850/mo plus fuel.

Do you need a permit for a temporary site office in Illinois?

In the Chicago suburbs, yes, more often than in most states: Elk Grove Village, Aurora, Franklin Park, Hoffman Estates and Northlake each issue a temporary-structure permit under the project's building permit, with a fee and an anchoring detail, and some ask for the vendor's certificate of insurance and a site plan showing the unit's position relative to the lot lines. DeKalb County, Kendall County and the City of DeKalb fold the office into the project permit with the detail on file.

Confirm the requirement with the authority having jurisdiction named on your building permit. Bring the village's or the GC's anchoring and insurance requests to the data center specialist before the delivery window.

How long is an Illinois site office term?

Short. An Illinois building on a suburban site with existing utilities runs 14 to 20 months from permit to energized, so a single-building placement is a 12-to-18-month term, and JOLT's 12-month minimum with month-to-month after it fits without a renewal. A DeKalb or Kendall County campus runs four years across several buildings, and on those the office moves every 12 to 15 months as a building turns over: one or two $1,250 relocations, not a new mobilization.

For a GC running three or more Illinois buildings, compare rental with the purchase and 36-month lease-to-own rows on the Grid buy page.

How do multi-building Illinois campuses use a Grid Campus?

A DeKalb campus with several buildings is built one or two at a time, and the GC's project office, the owner's rep, the electrical and mechanical contractors and the security office all move as buildings turn over. A Grid Campus places 2 to 12 Grids in a row or stacked two-high; each stacked pair uses a Stack Kit with a stair tower, landing and guardrail at $395/mo plus $1,500 setup. An order of 6 or more Commands earns a 5 percent rent credit each month for the first 12 months.

Put the ComEd service milestone in the mobilization brief

The office power question is smaller than the permanent campus load, but it lands earlier. Procurement should ask the electrical lead for the planned temporary source, its location, the responsible contractor and the date it becomes available at the office pad.

The project electrician should obtain the serving utility's current material, identify the applicable construction-service arrangement and confirm the office connection. A campus load announcement does not answer either question.

The distinction matters between a redevelopment parcel in Elk Grove Village and a greenfield phase in DeKalb County. Existing utility infrastructure near a property line does not prove that a usable circuit reaches the chosen office corner. Ask for the temporary one-line and logistics plan together before selecting Core or Command.

Core fits a team that already has suitable shore power, fiber and its own access system. Command adds the generator-ready inlet, CONNECT, WATCH and badge-ready doors when those early services are unsettled. The electrician still owns the connection and load plan for either build.

Do not let a tentative source become a purchase assumption. Record the fallback decision date, any generator selection and the party responsible for fuel. JOLT's generator add-on includes the published fuel billing rule; customer-supplied equipment remains part of the customer's electrical plan.

Village and county approvals need separate checks

Illinois data center corridors cross many municipal boundaries. Elk Grove Village, Franklin Park, Northlake, Aurora and Hoffman Estates have their own building departments. DeKalb and Kendall projects may involve a city, county or both, depending on the parcel.

An Aurora team should ask its permit coordinator whether the Grid position belongs on the main permit set, a temporary-structure submittal or a revised site logistics plan. Keep the building department's answer with the permit record.

Submit enough information for a useful review: office location, both door approaches, electrical routing, bearing surface, anchoring approach and relation to fire access. Show fencing and nearby stored materials as they will exist during the office phase, not as they appeared on an early bid plan.

A move is a second jurisdiction check. Shifting an office from a gate lot to the active building can change setbacks, fire-lane access and proximity to excavation. Confirm whether the approval follows the unit or only the approved spot.

Tight industrial sites deserve a joint walk by logistics, safety and the electrician. Mark the position and door swings before placement. Check that snow storage, dumpster service and delivery queues do not consume the access route later.

Treat winter access as an operating scope

The National Weather Service Chicago office provides winter weather preparedness guidance for northern Illinois and northwest Indiana. Use the forecast and alerts when planning placement, relocation and pad inspections. Weather information does not decide whether a local permit or engineered detail is required.

Assign snow removal around both personnel doors and the route to the office. Do not let a plow plan turn an approved placement into a blocked exit or push meltwater toward the bearing points.

Inspect the surface after freeze-thaw cycles and after nearby trench work. DC Deploy includes leveling on cribbing, while the project's site plan should address the bearing surface and drainage throughout the office phase.

Plan where deicing material and tracked moisture stop. Protecting records and electrical equipment begins with a clean entrance routine, while housekeeping inside remains the contractor's responsibility. Keep heaters, drying equipment and improvised electrical loads out of the office plan unless the site electrician has approved them.

Winter planning also affects a relocation. A position reachable in autumn may sit behind a snow-storage area or temporary enclosure by January. Review the current logistics drawing and the forecast before committing to the move date.

Compare Illinois office quotes on the same scope

Require each written quote to state the build, term, site ZIP, target window, delivery and placement scope, anchoring, electrical handoff, connectivity, access-control preparation, furniture and pickup. Put exclusions beside those lines rather than in a general note.

Use one-time and recurring categories. Rent belongs in the recurring column; placement, approved add-ons and a planned relocation belong in the one-time review. Do not compare only the first invoice or only the monthly rate.

Tax treatment should be a written procurement question. A permanent data center's incentive status does not answer how a temporary rental should be classified. Ask the project's tax adviser how the office should be treated instead of extending an equipment incentive by assumption.

Match the office to existing site services. A mature Elk Grove expansion may already have contractor fiber and badging available. An outer-ring greenfield may place more value on Command's included connectivity, cameras and generator-ready inlet during its first phase.

End with names, not departments. Identify the permit coordinator, site-logistics owner, electrician and person approving the quote. A clear responsibility line is more useful than an allowance that nobody recognizes when the office arrives.

Which Illinois counties and metros does JOLT serve?

All of them. The counties carrying data center construction today: Cook, which is Elk Grove Village, Franklin Park, Northlake, Hoffman Estates and the city; DuPage; Kane, which is Aurora and the Fox Valley; DeKalb; Kendall, which is Yorkville; Will; and Lake. Other Illinois counties can be quoted too; DC Deploy is quoted per campus in one business day and the window is 6–8 weeks.

Nearby markets with their own JOLT pages: Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio.

How do I reserve a Grid for an Illinois project?

Choose Core or Command and send the Illinois site ZIP, quantity, target date and project details through the data-center reservation path. The confirmation carries the delivery window; cancel free in writing more than 14 days before its first day.

How many data centers are under construction in Illinois?

Aterio's March 2026 count lists 19 under construction, 153 announced and 78 operating, the fifth-largest announced pipeline in the country.

Does JOLT deliver site offices anywhere in Illinois?

Yes. Illinois projects receive freight, placement or crane set, leveling, four-point anchoring, the electrical rough-in walkthrough and pickup within DC Deploy.

How long does delivery to Illinois take?

The Illinois on-site window is 6–8 weeks.

What does a Grid cost in Illinois?

For Illinois, Core is $1,950/mo and Command is $2,750/mo, with a 12-month minimum. DC Deploy is quoted per campus in one business day.

Is The Grid built for a Chicago winter?

Yes. Its R-19 closed-cell foam walls, R-30 roof and two cold-climate heat pumps rated to heat at -13 F support winter use; the site must keep a level, draining bearing surface and follow local requirements.

Who is the utility and how does that affect the office?

ComEd serves every Illinois cluster. Temp power is usually live on a suburban site before the office lands; on a DeKalb or Kendall County greenfield it can trail mobilization by 2–6 weeks, which Command's generator inlet covers.

Which Chicago suburbs have data centers under construction?

Elk Grove Village by O'Hare, Aurora on I-88, DeKalb, Yorkville in Kendall County, and Franklin Park, Northlake and Hoffman Estates in the inner ring.

How does a container office handle a Chicago winter on a paved lot?

The Grid uses two heat pumps rated to heat at -13 F behind R-19 closed-cell foam walls and an R-30 roof. DC Deploy includes leveling on cribbing and four-point anchoring, while the owner's engineer and authority having jurisdiction set project-specific criteria.