Zayo Group subsidiary zColo (Zayo Colocation) has launched its first data center in Chicago, taking space within Digital Realty Trust’s building in the financial district downtown, the company announced earlier this week.

The location at 600 South Federal St. gives zColo proximity to one of the world’s largest financial markets, home to the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

While it offers high power densities (up to 200 watts per square foot, according to zColo), the new data center’s biggest play is network connectivity, courtesy of zColo’s parent company. Zayo operates a 70,000-mile global network and will offer connection to this network out of the new facility, including its new network route that connects Chicago to Seattle.

The network will provide customers access to 18 key buildings in the Chicago metro, including carrier hotels and stand-alone data centers. This means access to some of Chicago’s largest traffic exchange points.

Connectivity options also include 32 other carrier networks, as well as in-suite cross connects.

zColo’s space within Digital’s 160,000 sq ft data center measures about 12,000 sq ft. The colocation company has built out 5,300 sq ft of raised floor in Phase I and says it has already pre-leased 20% of it.

The company has contracted for 2MW of power, coming in through a single utility feed from ComEd (Commonwealth Edison). Utility power is backed up by a 2MW generator with enough fuel stored onsite for a 12-hour full-load run.