Funding has been partially raised for the upcoming Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park on the South Side. Announced just over a year ago, the massive park will be anchored by California-based PsiQuantum. The company has now raised $1 billion to help kick off construction of its Chicago facility, which is being developed by Related Midwest and CRG.
Site context map of Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park via Google Maps
Quantum Park will be built in phases and will be home to multiple computing and technology companies, as well as various universities from across Illinois. The first phase of Psi’s campus will be located on the southeast corner of the 128-acre site that once housed the former South Works steel mill. Design work for Phase One is currently underway by Lamar Johnson Collaborative.
Site plan of Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park by Lamar Johnson Collaborative
The first phase of the larger project will focus on an 88,000-square-foot office and lab building, along with initial spaces dedicated to constructing and developing the quantum computer. Future phases will include a cryogenic cooling facility and three data/computing buildings, to be built in separate phases. These efforts will ultimately create the world’s first commercial quantum computer.
Rendering of phase one of Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park by Lamar Johnson Collaborative
PsiQuantum is partnering with the University of Illinois for the development of its facility. This leaves nearly 300 acres available for additional office/lab space, data centers, and other computing infrastructure. Additionally, the project will preserve and expand the existing park on the north end of the site, including a public lakefront walkway.
Site plan of Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park by Lamar Johnson Collaborative
The overall park is expected to cost $9 billion to construct, with PsiQuantum committing at least $1.1 billion to qualify for $200 million in state incentives. Work on the first phase is scheduled to begin early next year, with completion anticipated in 2028. A timeline for future phases has not yet been announced.
Rendering of Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park by Lamar Johnson Collaborative
While not all of PsiQuantum’s $1 billion will go to the park, part of it will be used to kick things off. Meanwhile, other investments have already begun to emerge near the site, including IBM’s new research facility, a $300 million Advocate Health hospital slated for completion by 2029, and Inflection Quantum’s announcement of its own facility and computer on the campus.
Subscribe to YIMBY’s daily e-mail
Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates
Like YIMBY on Facebook
Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews
Im looking forward to seeing new developments of grocery store ,affordable housing and 🙏few more things in this area of the south east side,YIMBY thank you for the update
Pretty Exciting Project. Especially for the South Side.
Quantum tech is a big gamble, but it’s great to see some activity on this long-dormant site.
this is exceptionally good work by Governor Pritzker to bring this next generation job building factory to Chicago. Super excited and happy to see Chicago at the forefront of this technology wave.
I understand the uneasiness some of this development may cause in the community, but the investment will be immense.
Not everyone is destined for high-tech and cutting-edge research. I, myself, can’t even begin to understand coding. Maybe if I put all my effort in, but it bores me. These jobs will be for a new kind of resident that’s apart from the region’s status quo. Not saying it’s impossible to find plenty that would be interested scattered about, but it’s not like the populations living adjacent to Argonne and Fermi. There will be some amount of gentrification that follows.
I hope the areas around can work with this project and understand that there’s more good than bad that will follow. More jobs needed to support the facilities, more tax money to spend on infrastructure, and a new industry that WILL prop up other services. It is all a net good for the region.
Drew, the community has been trying to work with the project, but the project has refused to work with the community. The developers and project stakeholders have held sham public meetings during which the concerns of the community were farted off. The structure of the deal with the city, moreover, precludes any tax revenue reaching the neighborhood for the next 20 years, as it is partially subsidized by future tax abatement. The community, as you point out, will NOT benefit from this project and will be replaced, as you point out, by a new type of resident.
Manipulation of quantum particles may create a wormhole and flip the Earth inside out. But 99.9999999% chance of the project going bust within 10 years. So, not the end of the world.
This looks awesome.
I worry about the environmental harm, water usage of this thing. We know how data centers are unhealthy to live around.
Probably a lot better than the former steel mill.
Almost universally, employees with the highest skill set can dictate to work close to their place of employment. Other than Beverly, there is not one neighborhood within reasonable proximity that high income workers would seek to reside. Perfect opportunity for the disbanded Lincoln Yards. Sounds like another in a very long line of poor planning decisions by the city of Chicago.
You’re playing great offense for this article. If it were a net good they would have looped the community in on the project early on instead of fast tracking it through city council and lying to the community, who was never actually given the facts. For a 9 billion dollar project, 150 jobs is a drop in the bucket. And at what cost? Sawyer Water Purification Plant is right next door. So a couple transient jobs to dig up contaminated soil next to the intake for the entire south side? There’s a reason billionaires put this on the table specifically for one of Chicagos poorest black and brown neighborhoods.
This seems unimaginably unattractive for prospective employees. Almost universally, employees with the highest skill set can dictate to work close to their place of employment. Other than Beverly, there is not one neighborhood within reasonable proximity that high income workers would seek to reside. Perfect opportunity for the disbanded Lincoln Yards. Sounds like another in a very long line of poor planning decisions by the city of Chicago.