Microsoft Signs Long Term Lease for $500 Million Data Center Near Chicago

Cityfeet / GlobeSt.com - November 9, 2007

Microsoft Corp. has signed a 15-year lease for a 550,000-sf data center at 601 Northwest Ave. The data center is being developed by a partnership of information technology company Ascent Corp., based in St. Louis, and property management company Koman Group, based in Creve Coeur, MO. The estimated cost of the project is $500 million.

The two-story building will be constructed on a 14-acre site near Interstate 294 and Interstate 290. The joint venture had acquired the slightly more than 14 acres and planned to construct a speculative building between 430,000 sf and 475,000 sf, says Phil Horstmann, president and CEO of Ascent. “Our original vision for the project was a purpose-building, speculative, multi-tenant data center,” Horstmann says. Microsoft’s lease rate was not disclosed but Jones Lang LaSalle had been marketing the building with an asking lease rate of $36 per sf, triple net.

The building was expected to have at least 200,000 sf with a raised floor and have 21-foot ceilings. The building was expected to have 40 megawatts of power with the ability to expand to 60 megawatts and, with working on the plans for the building with Microsoft, “The capacity has grown,” he says. The joint venture will also have its own power substation on the property.

The building is expected to be completed in the spring and open in April, according to a press release from Microsoft. The building will house “tens of thousands of servers providing information and web-based applications to Internet users worldwide,” according to the press release. Sphere: Related Content