An office building in Chicago, Illinois, has been bought and is set to be converted into a data center.
Citing Cook County property records, CoStar reports an affiliate of real estate firm Prime Group bought 400 S. LaSalle St. from options exchange company Cboe Global Markets for $12 million.
The 385,000-square-foot (35,770 sqm), six-story office building previously served as Cboe’s headquarters. The company first confirmed plans to move out of and eventually sell 400 S. LaSalle in 2019.
Prime told CoStar the site was acquired in a joint venture with Capri Interests, with the purchase backed by a $7 million loan from a Cboe affiliate.
The companies said the aim is to convert the building to a data center, and have been working to acquire and develop the site for more than a year. The developers are working with ComEd to increase the available power for the site to 50MW. Further details on timelines haven't been shared. Work is underway to find an end user for the redeveloped property.
“The acquisition of 400 South LaSalle exemplifies our continued commitment to the revitalization and growth of downtown Chicago," Prime grounder and EVP Mike Reschke told CoStar News. "The building is very well suited for adaptive reuse and conversion to data center use, bringing more supply to a sector that has shown fast-growing demand for space and power capacity.”
Cboe told the publication it hasn’t needed the site since moving its headquarters to the Old Post Office in 2020 and shifting its open-outcry trading floor to the Chicago Board of Trade Building in 2022.
As part of the LaSalle Street Reimagined initiative, developer Urban Resolve last year proposed to convert the site into a 226-bed student housing complex, featuring a food court, fitness center, mental health center, and esports arena.
