News Updates

A huge investment in a brighter future: breaking ground on the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) was delighted earlier this fall to take part in the groundbreaking of the single largest economic development investment in our region’s history. The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) will be built at the site of a former U.S. Steel mill. The mill once made the steel that became the Golden Gate Bridge and 875 N. Michigan Avenue (formerly known as the John Hancock Center).

The IQMP is transformational in its ambition and scope. This 325-plus-acre site was once a symbol of the industrial might of Chicagoland. By the early 1990s, the site sat vacant. Over the next 30-plus years, the site had several failed redevelopment efforts. Nothing could ever fully address its size and scale, but the IQMP changes all of that.

CMAP is proud to help bring this economic development opportunity to fruition. The agency’s leadership in the creation of the Greater Chicagoland Economic Partnership made it possible to attract PsiQuantum as the anchor tenant. The Palo Alto-based quantum company will be building the U.S.’s first full-tolerant quantum supercomputer in Chicagoland. 

The GCEP organized a regional pitch. It highlights the incredible assets that an emerging technology like quantum would need to be successful in its ambition and scale. The Greater Chicagoland Economic Partnership’s efforts brought together over 75 business, civic, community, public, and philanthropic institutions to showcase Chicagoland and Illinois’ partnership.

Companies like IBM, Infleqtion, Defense Advance Research Project Administration, and several others will join the IQMP and solidify the site’s redevelopment. CMAP will work with the IQMP, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and others to support development of the site and its surrounding area.