Nexstar Media Group Data Center, Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Nexstar Media Group and its development affiliate, IL_720 Rohlwing Rd. LLC, are building toward a data center campus on part of the WGN radio tower site at 720 Rohlwing Road in Elk Grove Village, Cook County. The Elk Grove Village plan commission approved a three-building campus in June 2023, and years of power-supply delays have pushed the developer's deadline to start construction to September 30, 2027.

WGN and Nexstar announced in June 2022 that they would sell 35 acres of the 100-acre tower site, then in unincorporated Schaumburg Township in Cook County, to an unnamed data center developer. Mayor Craig Johnson said the village had worked with the broadcaster for about eighteen months to find a buyer, and that residents at a meeting on June 2, 2022 "gave a standing ovation for the proposal." He said data centers "have few employees, generate little traffic, and make little noise."

The plan commission unanimously approved the three-building campus by IL_720 Rohlwing Rd. LLC on June 5, 2023, with pickleball courts for the park district included on the site. A redevelopment agreement signed in July 2023 set a phased timeline, but the first deadline passed with nothing built. The village has since moved the construction deadline to September 30, 2027.

Power issues have continued to dog the project. Johnson said Nexstar now envisions four data center buildings spread across a larger portion of the 102-acre site and no longer needs to replace the old towers, since radio transmission can be handled other ways. To bring in power, the village agreed in January 2026 to sell Commonwealth Edison a vacant 1.2-acre parcel at 300 East Devon Avenue for about $3.6 million.

At the village board meeting of August 11, 2026, residents living near the site voiced concerns over continuous noise, wildlife and water use. Martinique Pozniak played a recording of noise from Microsoft's Oakton Street data center at 10 p.m. and asked the village to study low frequency sound and its effect on people and wildlife.

Johnson declined to pay outside consultants for noise or water studies, saying modern data centers recirculate deionized water in closed loops. Late that evening he and a reporter visited the Microsoft and T5 sites, and found the Microsoft noise comparable to a home air conditioner.

Johnson's answer was the alternative: Nexstar first wanted to sell the land to a trucking and logistics operator, and he said he steered it toward a data center to keep up to 850 trucks a day out of the neighborhood.