CoreSite Realty Corporation, a provider of high-performance data center and interconnection solutions, announced that its application with the Illinois Data Centers Investment Program has been accepted by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. CoreSite is pursuing a final incentive agreement related to its new ground-up data center development in downtown Chicago.
In June 2019, the State of Illinois established a new Data Center Investment Act, led by Governor J.B. Pritzker, legislators and business leaders and organizations. This legislation is one of the reasons that the Chicago metro ranked fourth among global data center markets in a recent survey.
“The establishment of the Data Center Investment Act was a great outcome for the State of Illinois and for data center businesses like CoreSite,” said Matt Gleason, CoreSite’s vice president and general manager. “We appreciate the efforts by everyone involved, including the work by the Chamber of Commerce, and the opportunity to be a small part of a great win for the state of Illinois and city of Chicago.”
CoreSite is building its new data center facility, known as “CH2″, at 550 W. 14th Place on Chicago’s Near West Side. The company’s CH2 data center is a purpose-built, ground-up development expected to be a 169,000 square foot facility at full completion. CH2 Phase 1, a 56,000-square-foot project, is targeted for completion in the second quarter of 2020.
CH2 is part of a connected campus, leveraging CoreSite’s existing CH1 data center, one of the top interconnected buildings in Chicago. CH2 is positioned to deliver a rich community of enterprises, content providers, network options of over 40+ domestic and international carriers, leading cloud service providers with native cloud on-ramps and best-of-breed solution partners. This strong ecosystem is designed to support the digital transformation and hybrid and multi-cloud demands of businesses with increasing data environments, high performance needs, growing interoperability demands and a need to be located near the network edge.
“The Illinois Data Center Investment Act is a great economic development opportunity for Illinois to attract the IT industry and related data center investment. In addition, the investment by CoreSite in Chicago is a great opportunity for CoreSite to leverage its connected-campus strategy, creating a strong ecosystem for enterprises and cloud and network providers to serve their end users in a strategic large US market,” said Erin Guthrie, Acting Director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
The Investment Program requires CoreSite to create 20 new full-time equivalent jobs and make a capital investment, together with its customers qualifying investments, of at least $250 million in a 60-month period at its CH2 location. The company must also obtain and maintain the requisite building certification, including, but not limited to, ENERGY STAR, a qualifying environmental-friendly program approved by the Investment Program.
