ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ComEd joins Skybox Datacenters, a national data center provider, in announcing the completion of a 189,000-square-foot data center in the heart of Elk Grove Village. The new facility is Skybox’s first data center in Illinois and will expand hyperscale digital infrastructure to meet commercial data needs in the region. In addition to creating jobs and local investment for the area, Skybox’s new facility benefits from clean, reliable and affordable energy access provided by the Illinois competitive energy market and ComEd.
Over the past year alone, ComEd helped bring six new data centers to northern Illinois, generating over $2 billion in investment and hundreds of construction jobs in the coming years. While Northern Illinois is already home to more than 70 data center facilities, that number is expected to rise in the years ahead as companies continue to make plans for 2022 and beyond.
“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.”
Completion of Illinois’ newest data center follows a six-month construction effort, where an existing distribution and logistics building was retrofitted with structural improvements, redundant 34kV lines and a two-tiered service plan by ComEd to bring competitive, reliable energy. This project is a new joint venture between Prologis Inc, the global leader in logistics real estate, and Skybox Datacenters, a leading national data center developer. The project will create at least 20 competitive full-time positions and employ over 200 positions during construction.
“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.”
“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.”
The new Skybox data center is located in Elk Grove Village, which received a major boost in 2021 when ComEd’s newest substation came online. The five-acre facility is part of ComEd’s long-range plan to provide more power capacity to support future growth and operation of data centers in the region, which includes Elk Grove’s Tech Park and the Western O’Hare industrial corridor.
“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.”
Data center development has seen record growth in the past couple of years, driven in part by competitive energy costs in the region and assistance offered by a new data center tax incentive program by the State of Illinois. A recent report by Cushman & Wakefield finds Chicago ranks second in the world for data centers based on the current real estate market conditions, the digital ecosystem, sustainability and regulatory environment.
“Illinois’ robust electric utilities make it an ideal location for data center operations,” said Intersect Illinois Vice President of Business Development Paulina San Millan. “We are pleased to welcome Skybox’s new data center to Illinois, and fortunate to have ComEd, a company focused on reliable, sustainable and affordable energy, supporting the development of this exciting project and important sector.”
A dependable energy supply market with costs significantly lower than coastal urban metros continues to attract companies to Northern Illinois. Thanks to these competitive advantages – and continued grid reliability investments by the company ComEd ranked in the top 20 energy companies for economic development, according to Site Selection magazine, compared with over 3,300 electric companies evaluated nationally.
About ComEd:
Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NASDAQ: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with approximately 10 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 4 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population. For more information visit ComEd.com, and connect with the company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
