Morris approves data center for development south of Route 6 near Gun Club Road

The Morris City Council approved four agreements for the development of an AI data center on 158 acres of the Clarius Property south of U.S. Route 6 crossing over Gun Club Road Monday night.

The measures result in the city annexing the property into city boundaries, amending the annexation agreement, approving the redevelopment and financing of the property for improvements, and approving a utility infrastructure and service agreement.

The property is to be developed in two 1.3 million-square-foot phases, and these agreements give the city time to prepare for each of those, Mayor Chris Brown said.

Each phase will take two years to complete, he said, and it is expected to be 2027 or 2028 before construction begins.

“Everything’s very preliminary,” Brown said. “Obviously, a lot of it will be AI with that coming around. You’ve got Meta, Google, Microsoft, those types of things. We don’t know anything yet. What we’re waiting for is for them to close on the property. They’re still waiting on for their power answers from ComEd. They’re in the queue and studying to look at what they need for power to operate.”

Brown thinks they’ll know about their power needs by the middle or end of September.

Aindrea Hogan, vice president of Development for the Grundy Economic Development Council, shared some points about the project from Nancy Norton, the president and CEO.

“While data centers typically don’t include a large number of people on-site, the positions they offer are well-compensated and contribute significantly to the local economy,” Hogan said. “Additionally, the construction and ongoing maintenance of these facilities provide substantial opportunities for the regional trades and contractors.”

Hogan said this would provide substantial tax revenue to local taxing bodies.

“They’ve been touted as a once in a generation windfall in many areas, not only because of the significant tax revenue, but also for the long-term economic opportunities that they can help in local areas in which they support technological advancement.”

Data centers do, however, require access to significant water and power resources, according to Hogan. She said that at the current pace of technological advancement, though, that it’s difficult to predict what demand will look like by the time the data centers are fully constructed.

Brown said concerns over power usage is a legitimate concern, but he said Morris purchases its electric in aggregation, and it just recently signed a three-year deal at the beginning of August.

“The best part is, this is what we’ve been trying for,” Brown said. “More importantly, with all the truck traffic around here, this will save us from the 1,000 or more trucks that could be on that 2.6 million square feet of warehouse.”

Brown said the projected water usage could be upwards of a million gallons for the first phase of the project, but that would be the peak numbers on the hottest days of summer. He said the city is confident those numbers will be quite a bit lower.

Brown also said the city is working on putting a new three-million-gallon water facility out near the Morris Airport, and he said the city is in good shape water-wise. It’s wells are 1,500 feet deep, and he said the Illinois State Water Survey said the aquifers are in great shape.