CyrusOne Aurora
$1B+, 40MW initial data center in Aurora, Illinois. Under construction.
Key facts
- Operator
- CyrusOne
- Size
- 40 MW
- Location
- Aurora, Illinois
- Stage today
What to do next
Next step: Already operating — the leverage now is enforcement: noise and water conditions, tax revenue tracking, and any expansion filing, which reopens the record.
What has happened so far (15 events)
- 2016-03-31financing
CyrusOne LP acquired CME Group Chicago-Aurora I data center in Aurora, Illinois for $131.1 million, establishing CyrusOne original Aurora campus. · source - 2024-01-25vote
Aurora Finance Committee recommended approval of a Memorandum of Reimbursement between the city and CyrusOne for the Bilter Road data center property. · source - 2024-02-09announcement
Aurora officials confirmed negotiations with CyrusOne to rezone 30 acres on Bilter Road for a new data center building, while the city sought to recapture part of the $9.3 million it spent on the I-88/Eola interchange in 2008. · source - 2024-02-13vote
Aurora City Council approved the Memorandum of Reimbursement with CyrusOne for the 2725 Bilter Road site. · source - 2024-10-02construction
Governor JB Pritzker, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, and CyrusOne CEO Eric Schwartz held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $350 million, two-building (446,000 sq ft), 40 MW data center campus on Bilter Road, expected to open in early 2026. · source - 2024-10-03incentive
Coverage confirmed the project was approved under the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity data center investment incentive program and includes a Project Labor Agreement with IBEW. · source - 2025-04-01utility
Equipment repairs at the Aurora CyrusOne data center required extended backup generator use over multiple days, producing noise nearby residents called unlivable. · source - 2025-05-20utility
CyrusOne installed a temporary generator sound wall at its Aurora facility amid escalating resident noise complaints. · source - 2025-05-21filing
The City of Aurora issued code-enforcement citations against CyrusOne over noise from backup generators and rooftop chillers at the Diehl/Eola Road data center. · source - 2025-09-25moratorium
Aurora City Council unanimously enacted a 180-day citywide moratorium on new data center and warehouse development applications and expansions, driven substantially by resident backlash over CyrusOne noise complaints. · source - 2025-10-09ruling
Aurora and CyrusOne signed a legal agreement resolving the May 2025 noise citations, setting a compliance timeline for permanent generator and chiller sound fixes and a $40,000 fine. · source - 2025-11-28operational
A cooling-plant failure at the CyrusOne-owned CME Group data center in Aurora caused temperatures to exceed 100F and halted CME derivatives trading for nearly 10 hours, disrupting global futures and options markets. · source - 2026-03-24vote
As its 180-day moratorium expired, Aurora City Council approved strict siting and performance rules on new data centers: mandatory noise/water/sound studies, daytime/nighttime decibel caps (56/46 dB), and generators/chillers set back 1,500 feet from homes. · source - 2026-07-09coverage
Residents near the CyrusOne Aurora data center said noise (measured around 80 decibels) continued disrupting daily life despite the company rooftop sound wall and ComEd-partnered generator-runtime reductions. · source - 2026-08-03coverage
Public radio coverage examined how Aurora (centered on the CyrusOne facility) and DeKalb have taken different regulatory approaches to data center noise, water and energy impacts amid continued resident complaints. · source
Find the paper trail
Find the paper trail (0 filed · 12 places to look)
State environmental permits
Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.
- Illinois EPA — Bureau of AirThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
- Search Illinois EPA — Bureau of Air for this projectsearchThis state publishes no searchable permit database, so a written records request to the agency is the reliable route. Use this search only to find the right office.
County & town filings
The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.
- Search Aurora planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
- Search Aurora property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.
Utility & grid records
The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.
- PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- MISO (Midwest & Gulf) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- Illinois Commerce Commission — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
- FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
- Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.
Federal databases
Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.
- EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site.
- EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
- EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.
Around here
- Aurora community briefing — Expiredterm ran to 2026-03-24
- Illinois briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in Illinois
- CloudHQ Mount Prospect — Mount Prospect Under construction
- Karis Critical Plum Farms Data Center — Hoffman Estates (Cook County) Withdrawn
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “CyrusOne Aurora”, aigridwatch.com/projects/cyrusone-aurora-il, retrieved 2026-10-11.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.
Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).