Illinois
The single most useful thing an Illinois landowner can know right now is that the state's Data Center Investment Program stopped accepting new agreements on 1 July 2026, on the governor's direction, for a period of two years. Agreements already in place are being honoured. What that means for you is practical: a developer approaching you either signed before the cutoff, is planning without the state exemption, or is working from information that is out of date. It is a fair and revealing question to put to them. On the ground itself, send us your county, a rough acreage, and what runs near you electrically. We check public records at no cost and answer either way.
Everybody asks this first and it deserves a straight answer. We will not print a per acre figure for Illinois, and in this state there is an extra reason for that beyond the usual one. The economics have genuinely shifted with the incentive pause, and any number you were quoted a year ago was calculated against a different set of rules. What we can do is be exact about what moves it now.
Illinois row crop ground has one of the most established land markets in the country, which sets a real floor. A project has to be worth more than the farm rather than merely worth something, and that has always been true here.
Where a state tax exemption covered part of a project's arithmetic, a marginal site could work. With that paused, the ground has to carry more of the case, which concentrates interest on properties with genuine transmission access rather than spreading it thinly.
A site in PJM territory and a site in MISO territory face different interconnection queues, and time to connect is part of what a developer is buying. Two otherwise similar farms on opposite sides of that line are not equivalent assets.
An option buys a developer exclusivity while they establish whether they can build. In Illinois that window may well straddle the end of the two year pause, so the rules could move while your ground is committed. Ask what happens to the arrangement if they do, and make sure the answer is written down rather than described to you.
An option rarely interrupts farming, so the corn and beans go in much as they would anyway. What is worth agreeing up front on Illinois ground is who carries the cost if survey or boring work disturbs tile. On land this heavily drained that is a practical question rather than a hypothetical one, and it is far easier settled before somebody puts a rig in a field.
Large low buildings, a substation, security fencing, and lighting through the night. We will not describe it as anything gentler. Quieter than an interstate, considerably busier than corn.
The governor's stated grounds for the pause included the effect of data center demand on household energy costs, along with water use and community impact. That is not a fringe objection here, it is the official position of the state, and you will hear it repeated at a county board meeting.
The programme is suspended rather than abolished, and existing agreements are being honoured. What replaces it, and on what conditions, is not settled. Anybody telling you confidently what Illinois will look like in 2028 is guessing.
No. It means projects have to work without the state exemption, which narrows interest to genuinely good sites rather than eliminating it. Illinois still has substantial transmission, generation, and demand. What has changed is that a marginal site is now much less likely to attract anybody.
Possibly, and it is worth asking directly. New agreements stopped on 1 July 2026. If they hold an agreement entered into before that date it is being honoured. If they do not, and they are describing the exemption as available to them, they are either mistaken or hoping you will not check.
Because they sit in different grid regions. Northern Illinois is inside PJM and central and southern Illinois is inside MISO, and those are separate interconnection processes with separate queues and timescales. Two similar farms on opposite sides of that boundary are not equivalent for this purpose.
Nobody knows, including us. It is a two year suspension rather than a repeal, and what replaces it, if anything, will depend on the legislature. Anybody telling you confidently what the rules will be is guessing, and you should treat a plan that depends on that guess accordingly.
There is no fixed number and anyone offering one without seeing your ground is guessing. Contiguity and what runs near you electrically matter far more than the total, and in Illinois right now the electrical question carries more weight than it did a year ago.
Do not sign and do not treat a deadline in the letter as binding. Ask whether they hold a pre-existing agreement under the state programme, and whether they are buying for themselves or for a party they have not named. Have an Illinois attorney read it. That applies to a letter from us as much as from anyone.
Frequently nothing. Plenty of arrangements involve part of a property while the remainder carries on in production. Raise it in the first conversation rather than assuming, and we would far rather you did.
Illinois is split between two grid regions, which is unusual and consequential. Northern Illinois, largely ComEd territory, sits inside PJM. Central and southern Illinois, largely Ameren Illinois territory, sits inside MISO. Those are separate interconnection processes with separate queues and separate timescales, so which side of that line your ground falls on genuinely affects how quickly a project could connect. Beyond the two large utilities, rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities serve a considerable share of the countryside. Your bill names your provider, and it is the first thing we check.
The important fact about Illinois is that its data center incentive is currently closed to new applicants. The Data Center Investment Program, administered by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, exempted qualifying data center equipment from state and local sales tax for ten years. To qualify, a project and its tenants had collectively to invest at least 250 million dollars over sixty months and create at least twenty full-time jobs paying 120 percent or more of the county median wage. Unusually among the states in this network, it also required the facility to be carbon neutral or certified under a recognised green building standard. A separate credit covered a share of construction wages in underserved areas. On 5 June 2026 the governor directed the department to stop processing new agreements from 1 July 2026, for two years, after the legislature did not act on a framework. The stated reasons were the effect of data center demand on household energy costs, water use, and the impact on local communities. Agreements entered into before that date are being honoured. Three things follow for a landowner. A developer approaching you is either grandfathered, planning without the state exemption, or out of date, and asking which is a fair question. Site quality now carries more of the argument, because the ground has to justify a project that no longer gets help from the state. And the pause is a suspension rather than a repeal, so what the rules look like after it is genuinely unknown, and anyone telling you otherwise is guessing.
Programs change. Confirm anything that matters to your decision with your own advisor before acting on it.
ComEd territory inside PJM, where most existing Illinois development sits, with real transmission and proximity to Chicago. Land here is priced for that and the readily usable ground has largely been taken.
Running west and south from the Chicago area through DeKalb, Lee, Ogle and their neighbours, with strong transmission, generation nearby, and farm ground at a fraction of collar county prices.
Ameren territory inside MISO, through the counties around Bloomington, Decatur and Champaign. Very productive farmland with an established market, which sets a firm floor under what a project has to beat.
Existing heavy industry, barge access, and generation along both rivers, with transmission built for loads that in some cases no longer exist. Sites of that kind are worth identifying rather than assuming about.
Coal country with generation history, cooperative and Ameren territory, lower land prices, and a transmission picture that varies sharply county by county. The economics changed here with the pause more than anywhere else, because these are exactly the sites the incentive was helping.