360TCS Data Center Targets Financial Niche

360 Technical Center Solutions (360TCS) has opened a new data center in Lombard, Ill. and is focusing on providing high-density data center space to Chicago-area financial firms. The facility has opened with an anchor tenant in Wolverine Trading, a Chicago trading specialist that’s also an equity investor in 360TCS.

At 8,000 square feet, 360TCS is a relatively small facility, and will be built out in two phases. “We have a unique niche target market,” said Don Welbourn, Director of Sales for 360TCS. “We are not focusing on selling large contiguous footprints. This facility will appeal to a specific type of client. With the center’s high density capabilities, equipment that would occupy 10 or more cabinets in most facilities can be compressed in to three or four.”

The growth of low latency trading has boosted business for providers like Equinix (EQIX) and Savvis (SVVS) in the New York and Chicago markets. Wolverine provides technology solutions for high-performance trading, including real-time market data feeds that enable algorithmic trading. The availability of these data feeds is a key step in attracting trading operations and building a financial ecosystem within a data center.

Derivatives Exchange Boosts CRG West in Chicago

The International Derivatives Clearing Group (IDCG) said today that it has deployed its over-the-counter interest rate swap exchange at a Chicago data center operated by CRG West. IDCG’s exchange requires low latency connectivity to clear and settle interest rate swap contracts and other fixed income derivatives contracts. It will operate from CRG West’s Chicago data center at 427 LaSalle (pictured at left), which offers access to Chicago’s primary fiber routes.

The IDCG hopes to address a major issue in the recent credit crisis: the inability to price and trade derivatives, which are financial instruments based on the price of other assets. The IDCG says one its goals is to reducde “counterparty credit risk associated with the current market dynamics.” Its investors include the NASDAQ OMX Group, which operates the NASDAQ stock exchange. “Our goal here is to bring transparency to an opaque market,” NASDAQ OMX Group CEO Bob Greifeld told analysts last week in describing its investment. The IDCG has applied to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to be designated as a derivatives clearing organization. 

“The demand for low-latent connectivity necessitates a flexible robust offering to the trading community,” stated Gerry Lawlor, IDCG Chief Technology Officer in New York, NY. “CRG West’s offering is second-to none and we look forward to expanding that high-quality service to our own client base.”

Grubb & Ellis Expands Data Center Practice

Real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis Company (GBE) has formed a new unit to focus on the data center sector, and has hired industry veteran Jim Kerrigan to direct the effort, the company said today.  Kerrigan, formerly a principal at Staubach Company, joins Grubb & Ellis as Senior Vice President and Director of its National Data Center Practice.

Joining Kerrigan at Grubb & Ellis is David Horowitz, who joins as an Associate Vice President. Both will be based in the company’s downtown Chicago office.

“Our corporate clients have very specific real estate needs related to data centers, and these needs are rapidly becoming more complex as technology progresses,” said Jack Van Berkel, Chief Operating Officer and President, Transaction Services. “Jim’s status as the leading data center expert in the real estate services industry makes him a valuable addition to our team, and reinforces our unwavering commitment to providing our clients with unmatched service and expertise.”

Northern Trust Plans $50M Rochelle Site

Chicago-based financial services firm Northern Trust Corp. will build a $50 million data center in Rochelle, Illinois, the company said late Monday. City officials said last week that the town’s second major data center project had been finalized, but did not identify the tenant. Northern Trust joins Allstate, which broke ground on a 52,000-square-foot data center in January.

Northern Trust will build an 80,000-square-foot data center in the new Rochelle Business and Technology Park. “The decision to locate the new Northern Trust data center in our Business and Technology Park sends a strong message to the business world that Rochelle is a great place to locate facilities dependent upon state-of-the-art fiber-optic technology,” City Manager Ken Alberts told BusinessRockford.

$50 Million Data Center for Chicago Suburb

Rochelle, Illinois is about to get a second major data center project. A “nationally recognized” company will build a $50 million data center in the new Rochelle Business and Technology Park, according to city officials, who say they will reveal the tenant’s identity tonight.

Allstate Insurance Co. has announced plans to build a 50,000 square foot data center facility in Rochelle, a western suburb of Chicago. The company is reported to be spending $50 million in the facility, and will receive $278,000 in tax incentives and job training funds from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

MaximumASP Opens Chicago Data Center

Managed IT services provider MaximumASP has opened a new data center in Chicago, the company said this week. The 22,000 square foot facility will provide off-site disaster recovery for MaximumASP’s existing Louisville data center, offering SAN-to-SAN data replication via a private connection to allow rapid-restore capabilities in both locations.

“This expansion was a no-brainer for us and was driven by customer demand and a need for a separate new high-power-density location,” said Wade Lewis, MaximumASP’s Managing Partner. “We work hard to stay on top of all the latest developments in the IT infrastructure industry. With that priority in mind, and the steady growth of our customers, a data center expansion was a necessary move for us. After an extensive nationwide search Chicago was the location of choice for us.”

Stargate Sets Opening of Chicago Site

Stargate Colocation will officially open its new 86,000 square foot data center in Oak Brook, Illinois with an open house on Dec. 4, the company said this week. The StarGate facility is the latest in a series of data center announcements and openings in the busy Chicago market. The new facility will hold up 2,200 cabinets, with a hot-aisle containment system for temperature control that will allow it to host high-density blade server installations.

Stargate will offer tours of the new data center at 3 pm. You can register online or check out a virtual tour of the facility on the company’s web site at Stargate.com (which is one of the Web’s oldest domains, registered in August 1986).

WiredTree Plans 60,000SF Chicago Facility

Managed hosting provider WiredTree will expand into 60,000 square feet of new data center space at 427 LaSalle Street in Chicago, the company said today. 427 LaSalle was bought in May by CRG West, which said at the time that it would renovate the building to add six megawatts of emergency back-up power.

WiredTree was founded in June 2006, and is among the new providers offering a “network within a network” design combining public and private networks. After just a year, the company needs more data center space.

“After an extensive evaluation process, we selected this facility because it has the redundant infrastructure and controls in place that our mission-critical hosting requires,” said Zac Cogswell, WiredTree president. “Not only has the facility been recently renovated, it’s located just a couple of blocks from our corporate headquarters in downtown Chicago.”

Allstate Plans 50,000SF Illinois Data Center

Allstate Insurance Co. has announced plans to build a 50,000 square foot data center facility in Rochelle, Ill., a western suburb of Chicago. The company, which recently bought 25 acres of land in the Rochelle Technology Park, is reported to be spending $50 million in the facility. The insurer will be the first tenant in the 160-acre business park, and receive $278,000 in tax incentives and job training funds from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

“This new data center facility will provide Allstate with additional hosting capacity for its business applications,” said Catherine Brune, Allstate’s Chief Information Officer. “We expect to make an additional multi-million dollar investment for computer related equipment in the facility over the next several years.”

The company spent three years scouting locations in the Midwest before choosing Rochelle, according to CB Richard Ellis Vice-President Chad Freese. “We were all over the region, including Wisconsin and Indiana, and there were 29 locations we were originally looking at,” Freese told local media. “During the last 18 months we narrowed the selection down to three finalists and it became clear Rochelle had the most going for it in the Midwest. These city leaders in Rochelle are the most forward thinking and enterprising individuals when it comes to competing for projects like this. They have really positioned Rochelle well for the future.”

Huge Spec Data Center Planned in Chicago

Property management company Koman Group and IT facilities specialist Ascent Corp. are teaming on a joint venture to build a 441,000 square foot data center in North Lake, Illinois (Chicago market). The $175 million project at 601 Northwest Ave. is being built on a speculative basis for one to eight tenants, according to Globe Street, a real estate trade publication.

Construction is expected to commence this summer and be completed in early 2008. The facility is being planned for 40 megawatts of power, with the capability to expand to 60 megawatts, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, which is the leasing agent for the project. The developers say they will have a dedicated substation on the 12-acre property, with power available at 5 cents per kilowatt hour. The facility will be two stories, with 21-foot ceilings.

In announcing the enormous project, the developers cite “a lack of quality data centers in the market today.” While that reflects the consensus view in the industry, comments in the Globe Street article will probably raise an eyebrow or two.