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WGN, Nexstar Selling Part Of Broadcast Tower Site For New Elk Grove Village Data Center

Johnson Meets With Neighbors Receptive To Project; Nexstar To Erect 2 New Broadcast Towers On North End Of Remaining Parcel

Proposed data center site plan at the current WGN broadcast tower site at 720 Rohlwing Rd., Elk Grove Village. (Elk Grove Village submitted image)

Another one million sq. ft., three-building data center is proposed for a location just outside Elk Grove Village currently owned by WGN Radio and its parent company Nexstar Media Group.

Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson made the announcement during his Thursday, June 9 State of the Village address to the GOA Regional Business Association.

The address of the 100-acre site in unincorporated Schaumburg Township, 720 Rohlwing Rd., contains a radio tower for WGN 720 AM. Johnson said Nexstar plans to sell 35 acres of the transmitter site to an undisclosed data center developer for an undisclosed fee. He said Nexstar and WGN would retain 65 acres and build two new radio transmission towers further north on the site.

Johnson said he and the village have been working for about a year and a half with WGN and Nexstar to sell part of the property to the right type of developer. The mayor said he was told the site is critical for WGN’s broadcast coverage needs.

When contacted, Nexstar/WGN officials declined to comment on the pending deal.

Johnson said he met with about 65 residents living in incorporated Elk Grove Village adjacent to the tower site on Thursday, June 2. The meeting, held at Belvedere Banquets on Devon Avenue, was not publicly announced in advance by the village. He said 125 neighbors were invited by the village. At the end of the meeting, neighbors gave a standing ovation for the proposal, the mayor said.

Johnson said a data center is ideal, as data centers have few employees, generate little traffic, and make little noise. There would also be berms and substantial stepbacks separating the data center from neighbors. 

After another broadcast tower was recently brought down at Devon and Rohlwing in Itasca, across from Elk Grove Village, WBBM and CBS sold the site to a trucking logistics company. Johnson said Nexstar could have sold its property for a similar type of use, but area neighbors would have found such a sale unacceptable. 

WGN broadcast tower and remote broadcasting building for 720 AM at 720 Rohlwing Rd., just outside Elk Grove Village. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)

The proposed site would include a new ComEd substation, according to renderings released to the Journal. The two new towers would stand on wetlands next to a water detention area, each with a 750-foot circumference falling zone designated around them.  

Johnson said the next step, expected soon, is to annex the 100-acre parcel into Elk Grove Village before developers of the data center submit plans.

At Thursday’s State of the Village address, Johnson said Elk Grove Village has become the No. 2 location for data centers in the United States. Eleven data centers currently operate in the village totaling 3.5 million sq. ft., he said.

Rendering of the planned new data center at 720 Rohlwing Rd., on land being sold by Nexstar/WGN. (Elk Grove Village rendering)

Additionally, a 500,000 sq. ft., three-building data center campus for Microsoft is under construction between Oakton Street and Higgins Road west of Busse Road in the Elk Grove Technology Park, and Prime Data Centers began demolition on a site just east of Busse Road off Oakton to build a three-story, nearly one million sq. ft. data center in two phases, bringing the total planned data center space from those three developments to nearly 5 million sq. ft. he said in total the village would soon have 6 million square feet of data center space with other developments.

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One response to “WGN, Nexstar Selling Part Of Broadcast Tower Site For New Elk Grove Village Data Center”

  1. Cindy B. says:

    Where will the wildlife, such as coyotes, who live there now go?

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