CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
The Active Infrastructure team has extensive experience in the greater Chicago metropolitan area. Over the past two decades, our team has successfully executed multiple build-to-suit and tenant fit-out projects and invested hundreds of millions of dollars throughout the market.
Latency
The third largest city in the United States, home to the Chicago Board of Trade (now CME group), NYSE Chicago, and headquarters of 15 Fortune 500 companies, Chicago has one of the most robust fiber networks in the world with ultra-low latency peering to major domestic and international markets.
Taxes & Incentives
Under the Illinois Data Center Investment Tax Exemption, new and existing data centers and their tenants can qualify for a 100% exemption from sales and use taxes for up to twenty years. To qualify, a data center project must meet certain investment and employment generation qualifications, including a $250 million minimum capital investment over five-years, creation of at least twenty full-time or full-time equivalent new jobs with minimum compensation requirements, be carbon-neutral or attain certification under one or more green building standards, and must enter into a project labor agreement for the construction period. The program also provides data center owners and operators with a tax credit of 20% of wages paid for construction workers for projects located in underserved areas.
As Illinois does not levy a tangible personal property tax on equipment, it is highly favorable for qualifying data center projects to invest in Chicago from a tax perspective. The Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity and the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning & Development are responsible for economic development initiatives to bring data centers to the region.