Chicago & Midwest + Finance | January 29, 2019

Illinois Needs to Incentivize Data Center Investment: Report

Although Chicago is the nation’s third largest data center market, Illinois has shown significantly weaker growth in the sector than states which offer data center incentives, according to a new report published by Mangum Economics. The study was funded by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and several data center owners.

The report notes that 30 states have incentives specifically targeted at attracting data centers, as part of expanded economic development efforts. Illinois isn’t one of them.

One that does is Virginia, home of the nation’s largest data center market. The Northern Virginia data center market grew by 16% between June 2017 and June 2018, compared to 7% for Chicago. The markets in Atlanta and Phoenix have also outpaced Chicago’s.

“Virginia has become the go-to location for the digital industry, and has one of the most aggressive incentives to date,” said Jeff Ploetz, sales executive at QTS Data Centers.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).