A $20 billion, 795-acre data center in the city of Joliet, Illinois, has been given the green light.

On 19 March, the backers behind the so-called ‘Joliet Technology Center,' which will consist of 24 two-story, 144,500 sq ft (13,425 sqm) data center buildings, received permission from the Joliet City Council to annex a land parcel surrounding S. Rowell Road and Bernhard Road.

The data center’s annexation request was also recommended for approval by the Joliet planning and zoning commission earlier this month.

Although the decision to approve or reject the request was meant to be announced after a public hearing on March 16, the meeting’s six-hour length led local officials to postpone their decision, according to reporting by Shaw Local.

The council’s decision has angered some residents concerned about the campus’ impact on utility bills and the character of the local area, and some have accused city officials of corruption.

But the campus has also drawn support from members of the local building union, which will stand to benefit from the construction jobs that will be created.

According to site plans submitted by the applicant PowerHouse Hillwood Holding, the data center campus will be built in four phases, with each phase accompanied by the construction of a six-acre substation.

Development will be handled by data center firm PowerHouse Data Centers, and the campus will offer up to 1.8GW of capacity at completion.

A staff report also claims that the data center would also generate $310 million in property taxes and $40m in utility taxes over 30 years without taking any economic incentives or tax abatements.

Hillwood claims that it will generate around $2.1bn in local tax revenue, as stated on a website for the campus called ‘Yes to Joliet Jobs.’

Although the data center project was first proposed in October 2025, delays and postponements meant that the proposal was only considered in March.

Hillwood Holding is part of the Perot family of companies, which are entities linked to businessman and former presidential hopeful Ross Perot.

Founded in 2022, PowerHouse is a wholly-owned division of American Real Estate Partners. The company has projects in operation and development across Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. The company’s pipeline reportedly totals more than 6GW of capacity.

Joliet is located around 40 miles southwest of Chicago, and south of Aurora, both of which are Illinois' major data center markets.