Compass Datacenters, alongside partners from the Village of Hoffman Estates and ComEd, celebrated the start of work to transform the former Sears Headquarter site into a hyperscale data center campus.
Compass will construct five hyperscale data centers on the nearly 200-acre site. Construction of the campus will generate 1,000 local jobs. Once it becomes operational, the project will represent approximately $10 billion in local investment.
The future of Sears’ expansive, seven-building campus had been in question since it filed for bankruptcy in 2018. Lack of demand for office space following the pandemic, when so many started working from home and did not return to traditional offices. Those circumstances made finding a new owner challenging.
The Dallas-based hyperscale data center developer closed on the site in September 2023 and began creating plans to transform the space. Since closing, business and nonprofit groups have had access to the site to repurpose equipment, furniture and other supplies. First responders have used the buildings for training while Compass worked with Hoffman Estates on plans for development. Now, the site is being readied for structural demolition which will commence this summer, with construction slated to kick off next year.
“We are very pleased to welcome Compass Datacenters to Hoffman Estates. The redevelopment of the former Sears headquarters into a data center campus begins a new chapter for this high-profile property and continues the technology diversification of our tax base,” said Mayor William McLeod, the Village of Hoffman Estates. “Although still preliminary, the investment by Compass will be in the billions of dollars and will have positive effects for our community for years to come.”
“At Compass, we go slow before we go fast,” said Compass CEO Chris Crosby. “We’re taking a methodical approach to demolition and doing all we can to minimize waste. It will take over a year to complete this work, setting the stage for Compass to do what it does best – building sustainably and building to last.”
As buildings come down, concrete, stone blocks and asphalt from the existing site will be repurposed as fill to make the site even and as aggregate in concrete production. Compass uses an artificial intelligence application to help optimize these types of locally available materials for concrete production to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Compass buildings are constructed using modular designs, which means many of the components are prefabricated offsite and then assembled onsite in a streamlined fashion. This construction method allows for rapid building, but more importantly it provides numerous safety benefits for local crews.
