Overview
- About 20 residents, small businesses and school leaders launched Southeast Neighbors for Quantum to support the 128-acre Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park at the former South Works site.
- The coalition says community gatherings will focus on job access and education pipelines already connecting the park with local schools.
- Construction is underway after a 2025 groundbreaking, with local reports saying the initial 300,000-square-foot facility could open in a little over a year and employ up to 150 people within five years.
- Opponents continue to seek a legally binding community benefits agreement covering tax relief, affordable housing and strict brownfield safeguards, citing tests that found arsenic and petroleum hydrocarbons and noting a remediation plan was filed late last year.
- Developers cite more than 50 public meetings, pledges of full remediation and parkland, while energy experts note the campus will require high electricity use even though quantum operations have minimal on-site emissions and cost impacts remain uncertain.