Aligned Breaks Ground on Chicago Hyperscale Data Center Campus

Demand for Rapidly Scalable Infrastructure Drives Aligned’s Latest Market Entry

Aligned, a leading data center provider offering innovative, sustainable and adaptable colocation and build-to-scale solutions for cloud, enterprise, and managed service providers, announces it has broken ground on its latest hyperscale data center campus in Chicago, Illinois.  The first data center being constructed on the 18.5-acre campus, known as ORD-01, is a 520,000 square-foot, 48 MW facility (expandable to ~60 MW).  Upon completion, Aligned’s Chicago campus will offer 100+ MW of capacity.

“Whether by rail, road, air, or network packet, Chicago has long served as a major infrastructure hub for the nation’s commerce and now, a rapidly transforming digital economy.  We’re excited to bring our adaptive infrastructure and ExpandOnDemand^TM capabilities to serve the needs of fast-growing customers in the Chicago market,” says Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned. “The city’s central location, attractive data center sales tax incentives, long-haul connectivity and access to ample renewable energy options make it an ideal site for hyperscalers, cloud companies, and multinational enterprises to deploy their mission-critical infrastructure.”

Located at 505 Northwest Avenue in Northlake, IL, ORD-01 will feature the Company’s patented and award-winning Delta³™ cooling technology, which utilizes up to 80% less energy and 85% less water than traditional cooling systems to improve power usage effectiveness (PUE), reduce environmental impact, and lower the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for customers. The Delta³ cooling systems allow customers to ExpandOnDemand, incrementally scaling in place up to 50 kW per rack without stranding capacity.

”The City of Northlake welcomes Aligned. Northlake is well positioned in the Chicago market being centrally located and having great infrastructure to support the new facility,” adds Northlake Mayor Jeffrey Sherwin.  “This will be Northlake’s third data center development.  We work closely with developers to make their projects a reality. Their success is our success.” 

ORD-01 is strategically positioned at the convergence of over 12 metro, long haul and international fiber networks, offering customers extensive local and global connectivity options. With direct access to existing power and municipal utility resources, the facility will draw redundant, critical power from two on-site substations with 170 MW total capacity. Economic stability, low utility costs, and attractive tax incentives, including exemptions from sales and use tax for qualifying data centers via the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, make Chicago one of the most affordable and sought-after data center markets in the U.S. In a fast-growing market where data center space is becoming scarce due to the expansion of hyperscale companies and cloud service providers (CSPs), Aligned’s Chicago data center will add significant capacity for businesses seeking to locate their mission-critical infrastructure in the region.