CHICAGO—QTS Realty Trust, one of the nation's largest data center providers, just completed the $18 million acquisition of the former Sun-Times press facility, a 317,000-square-foot building located on 30 acres at 2800 S. Ashland Ave. The company has had a busy month. Last week, it finished its acquisition of McGraw Hill's large-scale data center in New Jersey.
The Chicago facility currently has the capacity for about 134,000-square-feet of raised floor and 24 MW of power. QTS intends to redevelop the building and increase its size to about 400,000-gross-square-feet with raised floor capacity of about 215,000-square-feet and 37 MW of power. Company officials say that based on prior investment in the facility, they expect to develop the data center space at below market rates.
"Our strategy and business model is to provide an integrated technology platform on top of world-class infrastructure," says Chad Williams, chief executive officer of QTS. "This acquisition strongly supports our growth philosophy. We look forward to bringing the QTS brand of operational excellence and premium customer experience to the Chicago data center market."
The expansion further illustrates the increasing interest in Chicago from data center companies. For example, as reported in GlobeSt.com in May, Ascent Co., a St. Louis-based provider of data centers, sold its CH2 Data Center Facility in suburban Northlake to Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT, Inc. for $211.7 million. As part of the deal, CVMC REIT will provide new capital to expand the center's capabilities and Ascent will continue to operate it.
“The city's telecommunications infrastructure, its central and low risk location which should be of particular interest to the east and west coast businesses, the area's low power costs, and the climate that lends itself to even better operational numbers from an efficiency standpoint,” Phil Horstmann, the chief executive officer of Ascent, told GlobeSt.com.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
