The data center is being built on a speculative basis for one to eight tenants. "The reason it is being built is they see, and I happen to agree with them, a lack of quality data centers in the market today," Spillane says. "Across the country, you see there are limited options." The two-story facility is being constructed on a 12-acre site near the Tri-State and Eisenhower expressways.

"Chicago, as a whole, is really a great place for a data center," Spillane says. Telephone cables and fiber are installed along railroad tracks making it "really a crossroad in the United States for fiber" in addition to relatively inexpensive electricity costs compared to some other areas of the country. The cost is about 5 cents per kilowatt hour as opposed to as high as 9 cents per kilowatt hour in some areas of the country, he says. The asking rate for the building will be $36 per sf triple net, Spillane tells GlobeSt.com. Construction on the building will begin this summer and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2008.

The reportedly $175-million project will be one of the largest data centers in the country and will have the largest power capacity in the area, Spillane says. The center will have 40 megawatts of power, which could be expandable to 60 megawatts, Spillane says. The next highest capacity in the Chicagoland area is 25 megawatts with others being around 15 megawatts, Spillane says. The facility will also different from the norm in that it will be a purpose built facility as opposed to being an existing building renovated into a data center. More than 45%, 200,000 sf, of the building will have a raised floor of three to four feet and there will be 21-foot high ceilings.