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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
PROPOSED RESOLUTION FOR COOK COUNTY GRANT TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOR THE ILLINOIS QUANTUM AND MICROELECTRONICS PARK (“IQMP”) PROJECT
WHEREAS, on September 19, 2024, the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved an amendment to the Property Tax Incentive Ordinance to create the Class 8 MICRO incentive, which provides significant tax reductions to manufacturers of semiconductors, microchips and associated components. This incentive is aimed at positioning Cook County as a leader in the growing semiconductor and microchip manufacturing industries and aligns with the State of Illinois’ Manufacturing Illinois Chips for Real Opportunity (MICRO) Act; and
WHEREAS, one proposed beneficiary of the Class 8 MICRO tax incentive is the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (“IQMP”) located at 8080 South DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, the former site of the U. S. Steel South Works plant, which will become a state-of-the-art quantum computing center, including a cryogenics facility. The facility will include quantum computing, microelectronics and affiliated industries and suppliers, workforce development facilities, and cryogenic facilities essential for research and development in next-generation microelectronics and quantum technologies (the “IQMP Project”); and
WHEREAS, along with the new tax incentive, Cook County announced its commitment to support the development of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, which is expected to generate over $20 billion in local economic impact and create hundreds of high-quality jobs for residents in the coming years; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (University of Illinois) will operate and manage IQMP through the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Technology Park, LLC (IQMP LLC), a single member limited liability company. The IQMP will be the governing body for the overall development for programming, master planning, business development coordination, tenant relations, shared workforce development, community relations, and the pursuit of federal funding and other competitive opportunities for the IQMP; and
WHEREAS, the State of Illinois, by and through its Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (“DCEO”), entered into a grant agreement with the University of Illinois for the IQMP Project in the amount of Ninety-Nine Million Dollars ($99M) for a term beginning November 1, 2024 through December 1, 2027 for the costs and expenses associated with the design, engineering, purchase and installation of the equipment and systems required to establish the Cryoplant infrastructure at the IQMP site. ; and
WHEREAS, the grant funds provided by the State of Illinois to the University of Illinois for the Cryoplant infrastructure will be utilized to construct two (2) cryogenics facilities at the IQMP site, including “Cryoplant A” to be used by PsiQuantum, the anchor tenant, and “Cryoplant IL” which will be shared among other tenants are the IQMP cryogenics facility. A Cryoplant is an industrial scale system for providing cooling based on liquid helium, and generates temperatures as low as a few degrees Kelvin, which is near absolute zero; and
WHEREAS, Cryoplant A is intended to meet the initial demands of PsiQuantum, the anchor tenant of the IQMP site; Cryoplant IL will meet the need for a shared cryogenic facility capacity to be used by other tenants of the IQMP including the University research community; and
WHEREAS, IQMP solicited proposals for the design, manufacturing, installation, operations and maintenance of equipment necessary for Cryoplant A and Cryoplant IL. The firm selected and engaged to do this work is Linde Kryo Technic (LKT), an Original Equipment Manufacturer from Switzerland; and
WHEREAS, the University of Illinois entered into an Engineering and Procurement contract with Linde Kryo Technic for Cryoplant A and the IQMP Shared Cryoplant (Cryoplant IL) to provide cryogenic helium cooling systems and an operations and maintenance contract for the operations of the systems; and
WHEREAS, DCEO, the University of Illinois and IQMP, LLC will coordinate State grant support for the Cryoplant infrastructure with Cook County support for the IQMP Project to align with the State of Illinois’ funding initiatives to establish the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park; and
WHEREAS, Cook County has allocated Twenty Million Dollars to support the costs for establishing the quantum computing facilities and other ancillary expenses where anchor tenant, PsiQuantum will be located; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau of Economic Development proposes to enter into a grant agreement with the University of Illinois in the amount of Twenty Million Dollars to cover the remaining costs to purchase Cryoplant A and Cryoplant IL as well as to support the site preparation and other ancillary expenses for the anchor tenant, Psi Quantum’s, location at the park; and
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Cook County Board of Commissioners hereby approves the issuance of a grant agreement between the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development and the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois in the amount of Twenty Million Dollars for the IQMP Project, including the costs associated with the purchase and installation of the Cryoplant resources, equipment, facilities and resources that are required to support the quantum computing facilities to be built in the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park. Such grant agreement shall align with the grant agreement between DCEO and the University of Illinois with respect to performance measures, reporting and the claw-back of funding in the event of failure to meet such performance measures.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Cook County Board of Commissioners recognizes that time is of the essence and authorizes the Chief of the Bureau of Economic Development to enter into the grant agreement with the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois that outlines the terms and conditions governing the purchase of such Cryoplant resources, equipment, and facilities.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Cook County Board of Commissioners hereby authorizes the Chief of the Bureau of Economic Development or its designee to modify the grant agreement with the University of Illinois based upon need and utilization.
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