Commercial real estate investment firm Metro Edge Development Partners has gained site approval for a data center in Chicago, Illinois.

First reported by Urbanize, the company this month gained site plan approval from the Chicago Department of Planning and Development for its IMD1 data center.

Located at 1951 W. Hastings Street, IMD1 will be a five-story facility offering around 184,750 sq ft (17,165 sqm) of data center space and 20MW.

The project was first announced in September 2022, when Metro Edge executed a 75-year ground lease on a 1.97-acre parcel in the Illinois Medical District (IMD). This will be the company’s first data center project, with $257 million to be invested in the development.

The plot is currently empty. Construction will commence this year, with a 2024 delivery date.

The company has previously said it will be a healthcare-anchored facility, and it is fielding ‘numerous pre-leasing requests’ from firms.

Metro Edge was founded in 2020 and targets data centers, life sciences, and technology-oriented developments in primarily urban locations around the country.

This is seemingly Metro's first data center project, and the company is partnering with T5 and CBRE. Corgan, Clune Construction, Power Construction, and Ujamaa Construction have been tapped to design and build the facility.

Metro Edge CEO Craig Huffman was previously co-founder at private equity real estate investment manager Ascendance Partners and co-founder of Cradle Real Estate Group before that.

Update: In Metro Edge's own announcement on the news, Huffman said: “This site approval solidifies our vision and promise to create robust, reliable, and digitally advanced ecosystems.”