BYTEGRID®, Holdings LLC has announced the acquisition of a 70,000 sq ft, Tier III data center on 5.25 acres of land in Aurora, IL, approximately 30 miles west of downtown Chicago.
Under a sale and partial leaseback agreement, BYTEGRID acquired the facility from Continental Casualty Company, an affiliate of CNA Financial Corporation, the country’s eighth largest commercial insurance writer headquartered in Chicago.
CNA built the facility in 2007 to meet the emphasis that CNA placed on business resilience and the need for increased capacity and scale over time, as well as the stringent financial services industry regulatory and compliance requirements. The facility features 34,000 sq ft of raised floor and is generally regarded as one of the premier enterprise data centers in the Chicago market. CNA will continue to occupy approximately 30% of the facility and remains the primary tenant under a newly created long-term lease agreement.
BYTEGRID will immediately convert the facility into a multi-tenant data center and begin leasing approximately 25,000 sq ft of enterprise-class, Tier III data center space featuring 6 megawatts of power capacity available to serve enterprise, government, and service providers seeking premier multi-tenant data center space in suburban Chicago.
The facility is connected with multiple tier one telecommunication and fiber carriers with others now expressing interest in establishing a presence in the facility based on BYTEGRID’s plans for additional enterprise, government and service provider customers coming online and its attractive proximity to downtown Chicago.
“CNA’s success and leadership position has been built upon a long-term commitment to customer satisfaction combined with strong financial acumen,” said Thomas Pontarelli, CNA’s executive vice president and chief administration officer. “Our partnership with BYTEGRID allows us to lower our future IT operating costs and to leverage alternative facilities while taking advantage of BYTEGRID’s proven data center operations experience and all the benefits a multi-tenant data center has to offer.”
“We are extremely pleased that CNA selected us to not only be their partner, but also to participate in helping them solve some of their key business challenges,” said Kenneth Parent, BYTEGRID’s CEO. “Our blueprint for converting single tenant data centers to multi-tenant data centers is proven as a complimentary strategy for large organizations seeking to optimize IT performance and operating costs in a way that is completely transparent.
“The Chicago market continues to show strong demand and represents a natural next step in our national expansion strategy. The Aurora facility is world-class and well suited for large organizations with the demanding requirements for security and reliability. We are committed to the market and will continue to evaluate additional expansion opportunities here.” Parent added.
