Courtesy Brennan Investment Group website
Our Board of Trustees had an unannounced guest speak last Monday evening at their regular monthly meeting. The unofficial transcript of what was discussed goes something like this:
Cecola: So, we have, um, somebody be the name, a guest in the audience out there, who somebody approached the Village regarding, um, data center, and we invited him to come and speak for about five (5) minutes, so (unintelligible) here. Um, there’s nothing to be voted on, there’s nothing to (unintelligible) the Trustees know the Village know (unintelligible with multiple people speaking).
Speaker: This doesn’t amplify, (unintelligible). To start I just wanted to thank everybody for your time (unintelligible interruption), oh sure, Jack Brennan, with Brennan Investment Group, and I just wanted to start by thanking you because I know I was squeezed in last minute here, so I’ll keep it very brief.
Uh Brennan, we’re owner and operator of commercial properties throughout the US. We’re headquartered in Rosemont, but we have about nineteen offices across the US, and um, the purpose of tonight’s very brief presentation is, just was hoping to get some feedback on a proposed development in Barrington Hills.
We have a hundred and ten (110) acres site under contract roughly at the corner of Penny Road and 68, uh, in Barrington Hills that’s adjacent to, you know, the Palumbo tucking depot and all of that, and, um, our company over the last five years has done a lot on the, uh, Artificial Intelligence data center side. We’ve developed a number of campuses for Microsoft and a hand full of kind of third-party data center end users, and are working on one in Rolling Meadows right now.
Uh, I was introduced to this site through a friend of mine and, long story short, just given it’s proximity to the high voltage lines owned by ComEd, it makes itself a perfect powered land, so I, and um, you know our proposal for this, for this property here would, um, you know, would nbe to develop a data center campus.
The benefits, um, of this proposed development is first very low impact. Typically, these are fully enclosed with abundant privacy landscaping and walls and all the features so that it’s not a nuisance from a viewing standpoint. They also to emit very little noise. There’s virtually any (no) employees. There’s no burden on any roads.
Um, and then from an economic incentive standpoint, um, typically a project of this size would cost about two billion to develop, so from a real estate property tax you’d be looking at between twenty and forty million annually in real estate tax. And then on top of that there’s a utility tax for the, uh, for the electric which goes to the municipality, and a project of this size would generate over ten million annually, in, um, utility tax, so anywhere from thirty to fifty million in revenue for a project such as this.
So, you know, first off I know this is out of character, uh, just for Barrington Hills in terms of the history, but you know I did think it in was kind of compelling we’re working on a number of these throughout the US, and, um, just kind of wanted to open up for feedback, because if it’s a quick no, I understand. Um, but at the same time, you know, I do think that it, um, it could be a great outcome, so, and, and, very feasible. We have end users that would move in quickly here, so just kind of wanted to open it up to any specific questions or any feedback you may have.
The discussion which ensued lasted twenty minutes. The presentation and discussion begins at the 29:10 of the meeting recordings found here. First, last and most frequent comments were made by Trustee Laura “AB” Ekstrom (She should seriously consider allowing that perpetual sunburn on her tongue heal one of these days).
The proposal may be brought before the Village Plan Commission in 2026, and there are some considerations residents should be made aware of.
The 110-acre property appears to border Barrington Hills and East Dundee. It is unclear if our Village still has a current Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with East Dundee. Given the magnitude of this development, we doubt if anything like this would have been foreseen or would stand up in court if Brennan wished to de-annex.
Our Village has boasted lower taxes and levies for over a decade, however that has likely come to an end. The Village Treasurer suggested that for a number of reasons, the Village reserves will require some attention. Any potential litigation would likely be costly and maybe even cost prohibitive.
If you are surprised by this news, we were too. Hopefully in the new year our Village Board will take a more proactive role in keeping residents informed if this proposal moves forward.
Related: “Hoffman Estates could see third data center campus with sale of Plum Farms property”