Potential Harvard Motorola site buyer eyeing solar-powered data hub, office space development

A Canadian company Green Data Center Real Estate is attempting to purchase the sprawling former Motorola campus in Harvard and convert at least part of it into a solar-powered data hub service.

The Harvard property had been tied up in court proceedings as its current owner, Xiao Hua “Edward” Gong, is under criminal investigation in Canada, but the U.S. Marshals Service received permission in September to sell it. That process has been ongoing and U.S. Department of Justice officials in court declined as recently as Wednesday to name the would-be buyer.

Crain’s Chicago Business, however, reported Thursday that Green Data was the potential buyer, and the company’s CEO, Jason Bak, along with Harvard Mayor Michael Kelly and City Administrator Dave Nelson, confirmed the information to the Northwest Herald on Friday.

“Part of our model and where we think the industry is going – Google is doing something similar in Tennessee – by building your own generation, you can have control of your largest expense as a data center,” Bak said. “The property is amazing. It’s been vacant a long time.”

He said he believes sites large enough and outfitted to host a solar power generation component as well as another use likely will be in higher demand soon, with the maturation of markets for cryptocurrencies and cannabis, which, like data storage, require massive amounts of energy to produce.

The plans include using part of the campus, about 400,000 of the 1.5 million square feet available in the buildings on the campus, for the solar-powered data hub and using the majority of the site’s buildings as office or industrial space aimed at hosting technology businesses.

Bak believes there may be companies with a need for renewable, low-cost energy such as solar power or data services that may find leasing space at the site appealing.

Solar panels will be installed on building rooftops and on the ground, and the generation project will cost $60 million and generate 56 megawatts of power, according to a news release from Solar Alliance Energy, another Canadian company Bak helped lead for 17 years before resigning in December. That firm is partnering with Green Data on the project.

“The company reached out to us during their due diligence probably four weeks ago, somewhere in there. The property is appropriately zoned. This kind of use fits in for what the facility was intended to be to begin with,” Nelson said.

Kelly, along with Bak, expressed confidence that Harvard could be attractive enough to tech companies and workers that they may co-locate and lease space in the office portion of Green Data’s project, assuming the deal goes through.

“We are the municipal entity in the entire process who has the most vested interest in its result. The city is the smallest player in terms of authority, but we certainly are doing everything we can to make this happen,” Kelly said. “In the end, if everything goes through as planned, it will be a big win for the community.”

Bak also pointed to Facebook’s $800 million data center in progress in Dekalb, as well as Microsoft’s plans to build a $200 million data center in Hoffman Estates, as evidence that the technology scene is strengthening in the area and a healthy sign for local economies.

“We would like to think we’re in an interesting triangle, and this is the emergence of a new data center district, and we have the right address,” Bak said.

He thinks the data service portion of the project to convert the former Motorola campus could use up to 100 megawatts of power, once it’s fully booked.

So Green Data is still in talks with electric utility ComEd about connecting the solar array to the grid and selling the excess solar power in the to the utility in the summer months, while having ComEd provide power when more than what is produced on site is needed.

Green Data also will use natural gas to produce some energy on-site, and the company plans t seek incentives from the state to assist with returning the property to a usable condition. After sitting vacant for 18 years, some parts of the building were not well-maintained, a pipe has burst, and there is presence of mold that will have to be remediated.

But state Rep. Steve Reick, R-Woodstock, whose 63rd District includes Harvard, said Green Data has not responded to his request for company financial information and job-creation plans that he would need to review before supporting the provision of any government assistance to the project.

“This building has been vacant for too long. The people of McHenry County have looked at that building and seen it as a symbol of something that is terribly wrong with our economy,” Reick said. “The people of McHenry County deserve to hear from these guys and hear what they’re actually going to do, how they intend to pay for this and how much economic activity they’re going to bring.”

The data center use is not Reick’s preferred outcome for the property, he said.

“I would rather see a manufacturing facility with people actually going and punching a clock and making things,” Reick said.

Bak said Green Data will be forthright about its plans for the site and present them publicly, once the sale closes. He plans on attending a Harvard City Council meeting next month to meet with local officials, he said.

The sale could close on the property at 2001 N. Division St., Harvard, on July 27, Justice Department representative Mary Butler said during a court hearing Wednesday. Butler said in April that the closing could have be mid-May, which was a monthlong delay from a previously expected April deadline.

Federal officials overseeing the sale have been tight-lipped about Green Data being the party involved in the potential purchase. The U.S. Marshals Service did not return a request for comment Friday.