Digital Realty Buys Rolling Meadows Atrium Campus for $81.5M
Digital Realty acquired two large suburban Chicago properties in Rolling Meadows and Stickney for data center development, totaling $171.5 million. These purchases occur as the region faces significant hurdles, including local opposition leading to moratoria, power grid strain, and a state-level pause on data center tax incentives. Future development at these sites depends on navigating permitting and power challenges.
Digital Realty, an Austin-based real estate giant, has acquired two significant properties in suburban Chicago for a total of $171.5 million, signaling its intent to expand data center capacity in the region. The company paid $81.5 million for the 40-acre Atrium office campus at 3800 Golf Road in Rolling Meadows, a site that industrial developer Brennan Investment Group had purchased for $27 million in 2023 and planned for a warehouse campus before flipping it to Digital Realty.
This acquisition closely followed Digital Realty's $90 million purchase of the 119-acre Hawthorne Race Course property in Stickney. These investments reflect the booming demand for data centers in Chicago, which ranked as North America's fourth-largest primary data center market in early 2026. However, Digital Realty faces considerable challenges, including power grid delivery delays from ComEd extending to 2032 or later, and new utility requirements for 10-year letters of credit on large projects.
Local opposition is also mounting; Stickney trustees enacted a six-month moratorium on data center development due to concerns over power grid strain, water consumption, and noise pollution. Other communities like Aurora, Sugar Grove, and Naperville have also implemented moratoria or stricter zoning. Furthermore, Governor JB Pritzker directed the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to pause all new agreements under the state's Data Center Investment Program, which had provided nearly $1 billion in tax exemptions since 2020. Chicago's Data Center Working Group has also recommended stricter oversight, including an end to energy secrecy and dedicated permitting requiring environmental impact studies and noise monitoring, moving beyond classifying data centers as offices under zoning rules.
The swift development of these sites remains uncertain given the complex permitting, power, and regulatory environment in the Chicago metropolitan area.