Chicago: The site plan for Metro Edge Development Partners' Chicago data center approved

The Chicago, Illinois data center of commercial real estate finance firm Metro Edge Development Partners has been granted site approval. The corporation received site plan approval for its IMD1 data center from the Chicago Department of Planning and Development this month.

IMD1 will be a five-story building with 20MW of power and 184,750 square feet of data center space at 1951 West Hastings Street. The undertaking came to light in September 2022 when Metro Edge carried out 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 endeavor, requiring an investment of $257 million. The property is currently vacant. This year, construction will commence, with a 2024 completion date.

The company has previously stated that the healthcare industry will anchor it, and it was receiving "numerous pre-leasing requests" from businesses. Metro Edge was established in 2020 and focuses on data centers, life sciences, and technology-driven developments in predominantly urban areas. This is the first data center initiative for Metro, which is collaborating with T5 and CBRE. The facility will be designed and built by Corgan, Clune Construction, Power Construction, and Ujamaa Construction.