228-acre CyrusOne data center agrees to pay Yorkville $15 million up-front, city imposes water use limits

The developers of the CyrusOne data center in Yorkville have agreed to pay the city $15 million up-front on the issuance of the first building permit. The City Council has to approve the agreement.

The developers of the CyrusOne data center in Yorkville have agreed to pay the city $15 million up-front on the issuance of the first building permit. This comes in the face of new water usage requirements imposed by the city and plans by the developer to shrink the foot-size of the site layout. The City Council has to approve the agreement.

The 228-acre CyrusOne data center was the first project approved by the city. The 1,037-acre Project Cardinal and the 540-acre Project Steel data center soon joined the city’s Eldamain Corridor industrial transition. The developers of Project Cardinal previously agreed to pay Yorkville $51 million and the developers of Project Steel previously agreed to pay the city $40 million.

City Administrator Bart Olson previously said the money would fund city improvement projects, the Yorkville 115 School District expansion, the Bristol Kendall Fire Protection District expansion, and local charitable community organizations. The CyrusOne data center property is located at the northeast corner of Faxon Road and Eldamain Road. Amendments to the site plan is the second largest alteration the developers have submitted to the city since City Council originally gave the green light to the project.

The site originally included nine two-story data center warehouse buildings totaling around 2.45 million square feet. The site now includes eight single-story warehouses totaling 1,854,805 feet. The warehouses will now have a maximum height of 50 feet 10 inches.

All warehouses will be constructed in phases over a 10-20 year construction period. The first building is expected to be up and running by the end of the first quarter of 2028. With the amendments, the distance from a warehouse to the nearest residential structure has increased from 732 feet to 833 feet.

The increase setback is because the site is now more condensed with the warehouses. The site will have an 800,000 square foot electrical substation to power the campus. CyrusOne secured a full electrical capacity allocation of 480 megawatts from ComEd.

The site will be energized by the end of 2027, according to city documents. Construction at the site began earlier this spring. New water usage standards Similar to agreements between the city and Project Cardinal and Project Steel, the city is imposing water usage standards for the CyrusOne project.

According to the city, the developer is installing a closed-loop cooling system which is far more water efficient than an open-loop air drying cooling system. While it is more expensive for the developers to install, closed-loop cooling systems dramatically reduce water consumption by data centers. Project Cardinal is installing a closed-loop cooling system.

Project Steel is likely installing a closed-loop system to abide by the city’s new water regulations. While the CyrusOne project was initially projected to consume 500,000 gallons of water per day, the modifications will now reduce it to a maximum of 40,000 gallons per day. With the average home consuming around 300 gallons of water per day, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CyrusOne’s maximum water usage is around the equivalent of 133 homes.

If water usage exceeds the average daily limit or if any day exceeds 1.7 times the average allotment, the city will impose financial penalties, according to city documents. The city is also monitoring sound pollution with penalties imposed if the data center campus exceeds limits. According to the city, the developer has agreed to continuous noise monitoring and will be required to install noise monitoring devices.

Echoing the call from residents at city meetings, the city will conduct ongoing traffic monitoring during the lengthy construction period to determine compliance with the city’s traffic plan. The developer is paying the costs for reconstructing both Faxon Road and Beecher Road. The improvements include railroad crossing work that will be designed and constructed by the city with costs born by the CyrusOne.

Roadway improvements are expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 2027 and the railroad crossing work is expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 2028. CyrusOne is a Texas-based development company. CyrusOne and Green Door Capital were involved in another project in town, a 128-acre data center, which is no longer moving forward according to city officials.