Western Hospitality Partners Data Center, Pekin, Illinois

New York City-based Western Hospitality Partners wanted to buy about 320 acres of Pekin's 1,000-acre Lutticken Farm, between Illinois Route 98 and Sheridan Road in Tazewell County, Illinois, to build a data center, offering $4.5 million, about $14,000 an acre. By May 2026 the deal was dead: Western Hospitality Partners sent the city a letter dated May 5, 2026 terminating the agreement and asking for its $85,000 deposit back. "It's a clean break. This contract is over. It's terminated. It's done," city attorney Jim Vasselli told the council on May 12.

Opposition built quickly in January 2026, when residents delivered nearly 2,000 petition signatures to the council, and the Tazewell County Data Center Opposition group passed 2,200 members on Facebook. In February, council member Dave Nutter said he would vote no after hours of public comment: "It is not the right fit for Pekin, Illinois." On March 9, 2026, Mayor Mary Burress announced the city would not pursue the project, saying, "When a project creates this level of uncertainty and division, it's important to step back and carefully consider whether moving forward is truly the right path."

The city had bought the whole farm for $14 million in 2025, and officials had said the data center would bring about $20 million a year in property taxes and more than 100 full-time jobs. With the deal off, the city is looking for other developers for the farm, and still owes the first payment, due in May, on the $12.5 million loan it took out from Morton Community Bank to buy the land. "We did hear your voice, please don't think that we did not," Burress told residents.

Tazewell County has since stopped accepting data center petitions while it drafts a zoning ordinance; the county board passed a resolution, not a moratorium, in early May 2026 barring new petitions until the ordinance is finished. "You can't replace it," land use committee chairman Russ Crawford said of the Mahomet Aquifer, a concern the ordinance is meant to address.