Sustainable energy investment and development firm Energy Solutions Group and United Leasing and Finance are investing $28 million to expand Digital Crossroad’s Indiana data center.
The money will be used to expand the recently constructed data center in Hammond, Indiana.
Construction on the first 6MW phase of the 105,000 sq ft (9,700 sqm) DX-1 building finished last year. The investment will allow work to continue on the next phase to expand the facility to meet demand. The facility can reportedly support up to 20MW of capacity, with Digital Crossroads saying a dedicated onsite substation can provide more than 100MW of capacity for the whole campus.
“The Digital Crossroad data center is a perfect example of what Energy Solutions Group hopes to accomplish across the country,” said Bryan Rishforth, executive chairman of Energy Solutions Group. “There are so many heavily industrialized areas of the country that are primed for this type of transformative repurposing, resulting in a revived local economy and improved environmental conditions.”
“Leasing activity at the Hammond campus has exceeded our expectations,” said Thomas P. Dakich, managing member for Digital Crossroad. “We are excited to work with Energy Solutions Group and United Leasing and Financing to continue building out this massive data center campus using renewable energy sources.”
The DC campus is based on the site of the former State Line Generating Plant; a coal-fired power plant on the Lake Michigan lakefront at the border of Hammond and Chicago. Originally built in 1928, the plant had a maximum power capacity of 515MW. The site closed in 2012 and was later earmarked as a campus in 2018 as a potential Amazon headquarters location.
“We’re proud to support the renewable energy sector, especially projects like Digital Crossroad,” said Martha Ahlers, president of United Leasing and Finance. “This is an especially exciting project for us because it’s right in our home state of Indiana.”
Earlier this month it was announced Digital Crossroad would be hosting a greenhouse robotics research project in partnership with Purdue University.
