Chapter 2
Chicago Data Center Market
North America Data Center Trends H2 2025
3 Minute Read
3 Minute Read
Colocation Insights
- Strong demand from large tech and AI-related companies is continuing to push up rental rates and drive the overall vacancy rate to 1.9%.
- New supply is seeing strong preleasing, with a less than 10% vacancy rate for projects that will deliver by year-end 2027.
- AI demand is expected to grow exponentially in 2026.
- No contiguous data center space of 5 MW or more is available.
Market Trends
- Data center projects serviced by ComEd face power delivery delays until 2032 or later.
- ComEd now requires 10-year letters of credit to back its transmission revenue on projects of 50 MW or more.
- New data center development is moving outside the Chicago suburbs, targeting power sites of 500 MW or more.
- Developers are focusing on power availability rather than location for new data center sites.
- Anticipated revisions to Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in 2026 are expected to drive large-scale development growth.
Notable Activity
- Prime Data Centers fully leased its Elk Grove Village campus.
- Aligned Data Centers secured an anchor tenant for ORD3 in Elk Grove Village.
- CyrusOne signed the first lease for its Wood Dale campus.
- Equinix announced its first Illinois hyperscale campus will be developed in Minooka.
- PowerHouse Data Centers partnered with Hillwood on a 1.8 GW campus in Joliet.
- CoreWeave became one of Chicago’s largest data center tenants.
Figure 1: Historical Market Information
Figure 2: Historical Supply and Demand
Figure 3: % of Total Primary Market Inventory
Figure 4: Market Fuel Mix
Figure 5: Average Asking Rates
Report Contacts
Property Type
Data Center Solutions
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