Equinix Plans New Chicago Data Center

Equinix said Wednesday that it has bought a large Chicago property for conversion into a 228,000 square foot data center. The company also detailed plans to expand its facilites at its northern Virginia technology campus, which it recently purchased from the landlord.

Equinix has been seeking to expand its network of mission-critical facilities, and said growth of enterprise demand in the Chicago market will support the additional space, which will supplement Equinix's existing IBX (Internet Business eXchange) center in downtown Chicago. Equinix will pay $9.75 million for the site, with closing contingent upon an engineering review and additional site analysis.

Equinix also detailed plans to invest $50 to $55 million to build out one of the undeveloped sites within its 461,681 square foot northern Virginia data center campus. The center will feature an updated design that will enable Equinix to expand its capacity and support the increased power and cooling demands of customers. Equinix intends to open the new center for customers in early 2007.

"Demand and pricing trends in these markets make new green field builds financially attractive for Equinix again," said Peter Van Camp, CEO of Equinix. "Today's announcement is a continuation of our ongoing expansion program to enable us to grow the company with the potential to generate annual revenues of $500 million over time."

Equinix is considering several partnering and financing options for the Chicago site, including a phased build-out as demand emerges. The purchase followed a nationwide demand study Equinix conducted in 2005, and is designed to build on the company's success with the Equinix Financial eXchange, which offers mission-critical hosting and data solutions for Chicago financial service providers. The new center will interconnect with Equinix's downtown facility through redundant dark fiber links, offering direct access to the more than 75 networks already operating in Equinix's downtown IBX center.