Data center developer Karis Critical is planning a data center development outside Chicago, Illinois.

The Chicago Tribune reports Karis initially filed to develop two 211,000 sq ft (19,602 sqm) buildings at a site in Naperville, totaling 72MW. The Tribune now reports, however, that the company has scaled back its plans to develop one 36MW building on the 40-acre property.

On a dedicated project website, Karis describes the project as a “best-in-class, boutique data center campus.”

“In response to local feedback, Karis has scaled the scope of the campus and narrowed its request,” the company said. “Currently, only approval to construct the Phase One building is being requested by the company.”

The development is proposed for the former Alcatel-Lucent campus at 1960 Lucent Lane, located on land formerly owned by Nokia. The buildings on the 40-acre property were demolished in 2023.

“The staff report from the city’s planning department at planning commission was supportive of phase one development, but I think they sort of wanted to see how everything worked with phase one before moving into phase two,” Russ Whitaker, an attorney representing Karis, told the Tribune.

Whitaker noted that the city has confirmed that its power load would currently be able to handle the first phase, but not necessarily both phases.

At a meeting last week, the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission voted to delay making a recommendation to the city board until its next meeting in November.

Karis describes itself as an investor in land, energy, and infrastructure for data centers.

Karis Critical is also developing a data center in Dekalb, Illinois. Earlier this year, the firm acquired 180 acres of land in the Hoffman Estates area of Chicago.

The company last year filed to develop a nine-building campus outside Chicago in Merrillville, Northwest Indiana. It purchased land in Ohio in September.

The previous building at 1960 Lucent Lane, totaling around 515,000 sq ft (47,845 sqm), was built around 2000 by Lucent. Lucent's predecessor, Bell Labs, had been present in the area since the 1960s.

Franklin Partners purchased the 40-acre parcel at Naperville and Warrenville roads for $4.75 million in April 2023. Nokia, which had acquired Alcatel Lucent in 2016, was consolidating workers at the property into a larger neighbouring building.

Franklin was reportedly considering a proposal to build a five-story industrial facility at the northwest corner of the property at one point but later dropped the idea after the Naperville city council made it clear it would not be supported.

Karis first filed plans to develop a data center at the site last month. The development is intended as a colocation campus set to host multiple customers in the local area.

NCTV17 reports a number of local residents have opposed the proposals at recent county meetings, with a potential against the development garnering around 2,000 signatures.

Local opposition group, the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force (NEST), has called on the city to adopt a six-month moratorium on the approval or permitting of data centers in order to better understand their impact on the local area and introduce more stringent ordinances.

Hut 8 eyes Batavia for colocation development

In nearby Batavia, Kane County, Hut 8 is hoping to develop a 50MW, 120,000 sq ft (11,148 sqm) data center at 1780 Hubbard Avenue. The city council approved a services agreement with Hut affiliate Batavia DC Corp. in July.

The $500m facility will reportedly be for traditional colocation, rather than cryptomining. The data center is not expected to begin operations around 2027, launching with around 20MW and reaching 50MW in phases through to 2031.

Nasdaq-listed Hut 8 currently has more than 19 data center sites either in operation or in development, including ten Bitcoin mining projects, five high-performance computing data centers, and four power-generation assets across the US and Canada.

As well as colocation, Hut 8 offers GPU-as-a-Service through its Highrise brand. The firm spun out its cryptomining operations into a separate company, American Bitcoin, which is hosted out of several Hut 8 sites.

The company announced plans to develop four new sites across the US in August, totaling 1.53GW of capacity, across Louisiana, Texas, and Illinois. Currently, all of the firm’s traditional colocation facilities are in Canada, with its current US facilities across Texas and New York hosting cryptomining hardware.