Skybox Datacenters has completed construction of its Illinois data center.
The company this week announced it had completed work on the 30MW, 189,000 sq ft (17,600 sq m) facility in Elk Grove Village, the company’s first data center outside of Texas.
“Skybox is thrilled to launch our newest data center facility in Elk Grove Village, which offers innovative, sustainable and adaptable turn-key and powered shell solutions that will benefit our enterprise and hyperscale customers in Chicago and across the country,” said Rob Morris, CEO of Skybox Datacenters. “This project delivers the scale and the speed our clients need to be competitive in today’s economy – and would not be possible without support of ComEd and its continued focus on reliable, sustainable access to support the thriving data center ecosystem in this region.”
The company said the facility – a retrofit of an existing warehouse owned by Prologis – was under construction for six months. Skybox first officially announced the project in March 2021; at the same time also announced it was selling its 26MW Houston One facility in Texas to Element Critical.
“Prologis is pleased to be part of this important project that is strengthening the digital infrastructure of the region,” said Jeff Folkman, Prologis’ Market Officer for Chicago. “It has been great to partner with ComEd, Elk Grove Village and Skybox on this project. Given our significant presence in the Chicagoland market, we look forward to future opportunities to work with community leaders on similar projects that will make the region an even better place to live and work.”
Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is providing power to the facility. The energy company said it had been involved with bringing six data centers to Illinois in the last year, and brought a new substation in the area online.
“ComEd is proud to electrify new data centers throughout the region which create jobs and generate investment for the communities we serve,” said Gil Quiniones, CEO of ComEd. “With their first Illinois data center, Skybox is the latest example of companies investing in Northern Illinois due to affordable rates, access to clean energy, and unparalleled reliability.”
Elk Grove is already a major hub of data centers in the midwest. Stream Data Centers announced plans for a second facility in Elk Grove late last year, Microsoft is currently building a data center in area, while T5 announced a new facility in Elk Grove Technology Park in January last 2020. In September 2021, Prime Data Centers announced plans for new 150MW campus in Elk Grove. The company said it plans to invest around $1 billion developing a 750,000 square feet, 150MW campus featuring three three-story facilities.
“We are pleased that Skybox chose Elk Grove Village for the site of their newly operational 30 MW data center facility. This significant investment by Skybox furthers our reputation as a regional center for high-tech business development and innovation,” said Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson. “Elk Grove Village would not be able to attract world-class data center operators like Skybox without the expanded power capacity that ComEd has provided through their proactive investment in infrastructure in our community.”
Prologis and Skybox are also looking to develop a data center in Northern Virginia. Last month Prologis filed for permission with Loudoun County’s Planning Commission to develop a new 500,000 sq ft (46,500 sqm) data center on a 19.5-acre industrial site that it currently owns in Sterling, Virginia.