QTS Acquires S. Side Data Center

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.