After six years of plans to redevelop the shuttered MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island, the owners would like to demolish the building and build a data center on the property, according to city officials.
Builders Capital told officials it took leadership of property development in March and will propose a data center, said City Administrator Thomas Wogan.
But the project would require a special-use permit, and Blue Island officials have not received a formal proposal, Wogan said.
He said the city plans to give the proposal, if submitted, a fair hearing before the public, Planning and Zoning Board and City Council.
“They are going to present a case that all of the problems we’re hearing about data centers — environmental, quality of life around them, all of the noise, pollution, all these things — that they’re two steps ahead of them,” Wogan told the City Council earlier this month.
“We’re going to have to decide do we believe it, how do we verify it and is it something our community is willing to accept and welcome, and I think right now there’s a lot more questions than answers,” he said.
These discussions come on the tail of Joliet approving the state’s largest data center and as data center proposals have cropped up across the Chicago area including in Aurora, Naperville, Yorkville and Hobart.
Data center plans have stirred public controversy due to the massive needs of water and energy to run the them, and nearby residents worry could centers could sap up their own resources and drive up electric bills.
The Blue Island plan materialized when the previous developer, Lockwood Development Partners, lost control of the MetroSouth property to its financial backer, Builders Capital, said Wogan.
Lockwood proposed converting the site into a senior living facility, but failed to repay $44 million in loans to Builders Capital, and the capital company took over the site, Wogan said.
As of April 2026, Lockwood Development Partners are no longer developing the site into a senior living complex, despite the city approving plans for the project in 2024, said Wogan.
Lockwood developers had also said they planned to use the facility to house older military veterans when they acquired the property in 2020, but those plans failed to materialize.
The possibility of a data center has drawn public concern, particularly because the hospital brought a lot of jobs, revenue and engagement to the community — elements people worry a data center won’t bring, said 4th Ward Ald. Bill Fahrenwald and 7th Ward Ald. Joshua Roll.
Roll said he has heard concern and outright negativity from residents about any plan for a data center.
“Only a couple folks have sort of been more open-minded or taken a more pro-economic standpoint, but mostly there’s been a concerned outcry,” he said.
Fahrenwald said the hospital brought customers and traffic to town that boosted restaurants and businesses.
The hospital was the city’s largest employer before it closed in 2019. The owner at the time, Quorum Health, cited ongoing multimillion dollar losses when securing state approval to close it.
Residents expressed a strong preference for having a hospital return to the site, but city leaders said at the time they tried unsuccessfully to bring a hospital, citing changes in the health care industry.
“Everyone had a deep connection with the hospital, so that loss was keenly felt, and it was truly a tragedy for the town,” Fahrenwald said.
Fahrenwald said he would like to see the city find the highest and best use for the land and said he wants more details on a data center’s benefits. He said he would also like to know what revenue and jobs the center would produce.
“A big sterile building filled with computers, I’m not opposed to that generally, but I mean, it doesn’t really belong there,” he said. “It would really just kind of be a drain on the community as opposed to a plus. It’s not particularly something that would add any cultural or educational or employment benefit.”
Roll said he is concerned a data center would not bring long-term jobs. He said after construction, data centers often only need a few employees.
Some proponents of data centers, even union leaders, have spoken in favor of the potential jobs and property tax revenue a data center could bring.
Fahrenwald and Roll also expressed concern for environmental issues. Fahrenwald said he is concerned about possible higher utility rates, pollution and noise.
Roll said his top concerns are water and energy use, along with water and heat dumping. He also said the electricity that data centers draw from the grid can affect electricity prices. He said Builders Capital has indicated it would use generators, which can also make a lot of noise.
“If you use your laptop for a couple hours, you’ll hear that little fan spin,” he said. “A data center is like a computer the size of a warehouse, so the more the computers run, the more heat it creates … developers try to find places to dump that heat and the cheapest place is water evaporation.”
Roll said these centers use a lot of energy and need dense infrastructure, which is why urban areas, such as this Blue Island site, can sometimes be attractive.
The hospital site is rather urban, surrounded by neighborhoods and a third of a mile from the Blue Island City Hall.
Mayor Fred Bilotto said the city plans to have a transparent and deliberate process in evaluating any proposals.
“We understand the concerns being raised and take them seriously,” Bilotto said. “As someone who was born and raised in Blue Island and is now raising my family here, the future of this city is deeply personal to me.”
awright@chicagotribune.com
