PowerHouse and Hillwood Announce 1.8GW Illinois Data Centre Campus

PowerHouse Data Centers and Hillwood have announced the Joliet Technology Center, a $20 billion data centre campus south of Chicago that will deliver an extraordinary 1,800 MW of capacity at full buildout. At nearly 2 gigawatts, this would be one of the single largest data centre campuses on Earth - comparable to the output of two large nuclear reactors. The 795-acre site will ultimately house 24 data centre buildings, with the phased development expected to span a decade and initial capacity available by late 2027.

The location selection reveals the strategic logic driving current data centre site decisions. Joliet, located approximately 45 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, offers proximity to Chicago's established interconnection ecosystem (including the 350 E. Cermak carrier hotel, one of the world's most connected buildings) while providing dramatically lower land costs and access to ComEd's robust grid infrastructure. The site avoids the congested PJM territory that has constrained Northern Virginia development, instead connecting to the MISO regional grid which has greater available capacity.

The $20 billion total investment would make the Joliet Technology Center one of the largest single-site capital projects in Midwestern history, comparable in scale to major automotive manufacturing plants or petrochemical complexes. The construction phase is expected to require 3,000-5,000 workers at peak, creating enormous demand for skilled trades including electricians, ironworkers, pipe fitters, and heavy equipment operators. The permanent operational workforce, once fully built out, would number approximately 500-800 positions.

For the Joliet region, the economic impact extends well beyond direct employment. Data centre campuses of this scale generate substantial property tax revenue (estimated at $100-300 million annually at full buildout), require extensive local services (security, maintenance, landscaping, food service), and attract secondary businesses that serve the data centre industry. However, the community transformation can be disruptive: similar projects in rural Virginia and Indiana have strained local housing markets, overwhelmed road infrastructure, and altered the character of previously agricultural communities.

The PowerHouse/Hillwood partnership is notable. Hillwood, the development company founded by Ross Perot Jr., brings extensive experience in industrial-scale real estate development including the AllianceTexas logistics hub near Fort Worth. PowerHouse brings data centre-specific expertise in power procurement, facility design, and tenant relationships. This combination of traditional real estate development capability with specialised data centre knowledge is becoming the model for mega-campus developments as projects grow beyond the scale that pure-play data centre companies can self-fund.