For those interested in economic development, few things are more frustrating than untapped potential. For Carol Stream, a community known for its thriving industrial sector, the epitome of untapped potential was, until recently, an abandoned property that sat vacant for nearly a decade.  

Once the site of a sprawling chemical plant—complete with a production facility, a warehouse, and an R&D laboratory—the property was abandoned in the early 2010s. At the time, many in the community assumed that a buyer would soon come along. Yes, the property needed work; the buildings had to be demolished, and the soil remediated. But then again, it was 11 acres at the heart of central DuPage, in a community with one of the region’s highest industrial concentrations. Of course it would sell.

But then, it didn’t. Nearly ten years passed, and nothing happened. Occasionally, a developer would express interest, then pull back. The longer the property sat vacant, the less appealing it seemed—between its boarded-up windows and faded 1970s aesthetic, what had once been a community showpiece was on its way to becoming an eyesore.

Then, within the past few years, the story took an unexpected turn. A developer acquired the property; the aging chemical plant was demolished; the soil was remediated; and a buyer, Oppidan, purchased the land. Now, construction is underway on a 90,000-SF data center—the first of its kind in Carol Stream. What was once an eyesore is on its way back to becoming a showpiece, and possibly an inspiration for further development.  

“This is our first data center,” says Don Bastian, Community Development Director at the Village of Carol Stream. “We have manufacturing businesses, distribution warehouses, logistics facilities, food processing operations, and steel fabricators. But this is the first time we’ve welcomed a data center into our diverse business community.

“And to see the land, this land that sat unused for years, being redeveloped with a modern building and new landscaping—we’re very excited about it.”

For the community, this is a good ending to what was becoming a long and drawn-out story. For the rest of Chicagoland, however, this is only the latest development in a story that’s just begun: the rise of a new generation of data centers.  

Data 2.0

Data centers are nothing new; in fact, their roots stretch back to the 1940s, when a single computer could fill an entire warehouse. But now, due to rising consumer usage and more data-intensive technologies—from state-of-the-art quantum computers to your iPhone’s “Genmojis”—the demand for data is quickly rising. And the demand for data centers is rising with it.

According to an industry profile from the Greater Chicagoland Economic Partnership (GCEP), within the past four years, the size of the U.S. colocation data center market has doubled. (“Colocation” refers to facilities that rent space where businesses can house their servers.) Think about that: Four years ago, in 2021, we were using a not-small quantity of data. Since then, the market, or at least a significant measure of its footprint, has doubled. It’s not showing any signs of slowing down, either. As of 2024, AI-related data represented about 20% of new demand. As the technology scales up, so will the need for storage capacity.

To account for this rising demand, data centers are cropping up all over the nation, including right here in DuPage County.

In Carol Stream, the previously mentioned 90,000-SF Oppidan data center is set to open in 2026.

In Itasca, Japanese company NTT DATA has recently purchased two office buildings; it plans to demolish them to make space for a cloud storage facility. This will be the fourth of its data centers at Hamilton Lakes, a sprawling corporate campus that historically focused on office and hotel space.

In Wood Dale, development is underway on a new CyrusOne location, West of Route 83, between Bryn Mawr Avenue and Foster Avenue. The site will house six data centers, for an aggregate footprint of about 1.4 million-SF. That’s a lot of server space.

But will it be enough? Probably not. To keep pace with demand, businesses must exponentially increase their data storage capacity, which means they’re going to have to build more data centers. To do that, they’re going to have to find The Goldilocks Zone.

The Goldilocks Zone: What Makes Chicagoland ‘Just Right’ for Data Centers?

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that you can’t just build a data center anywhere. Servers are fickle. Their cargo is precious. Their thirst for energy is high. And they don’t like hurricanes, earthquakes, or wildfires, which threaten to instantly wipe out exabytes of precious data. To host a data center, a location must meet a long list of conditions—everything must be “just right.” The few that do are considered Goldilocks Zones. Chicagoland is one of the best.

Ranked among the top two markets for data centers globally, the Chicagoland region offers all the conditions data centers need to thrive. State tax incentives and relatively affordable land make it a cost-effective location, while access to abundant water and affordable, reliable energy—not to mention the “free cooling” you get during a Chicago winter—provide the power and natural resources that data centers need.

Meanwhile, Chicagoland’s larger plats of available land make it possible to develop hyperscalers, large-scale facilities designed to store and process data from billions of users. A deep, diverse workforce and a local pipeline of nationally renowned academic institutions offer all the talent that facilities need to function. And access to a skilled labor force means that facilities can be built efficiently and go to market faster—a critical feature for an industry where speed is everything. (Read more about what the region offers data centers here.)

Another key advantage is Chicagoland’s diverse economy. The region is a hub for many of the most data-intensive industries, including finance, administrative services, logistics, life sciences, and the government sector, as well as a massive consumer base, meaning there’s always a high demand for local data centers. As these industries grow, and as the region invests in quantum computing and other high-tech fields, that demand is only rising.

Of course, that’s just one side of the story. Because while Chicagoland is transforming the data center market, data centers are returning the favor.  

From ChatGPT to GDP: How Data Centers Impact the DuPage Economy

One common criticism of data centers is that they don’t create many jobs and therefore don’t generate significant value for communities. There’s a kernel of truth here—a typical data center will have a smaller staff compared to similarly sized facilities from other industries—but it ignores the potentially transformative economic impact that data centers have on the communities around them.

Starting with the staff: While data centers tend to create relatively smaller quantities of jobs, the ones they do create are high-earning. According to a report provided by JobsEQâ, the average data center employee in the Chicagoland region earns over $142,000 annually, meaning they have greater spending power than most employees from other sectors and can inject more money into the local economy. Beyond their own earnings, every data center position is estimated to create more than four jobs in the region, for a total of over $474,000 in additional earnings. It’s the data center domino effect.

And that’s only accounting for regular staff. Building a facility like the Oppidan data center in Carol Stream—not to mention the six that NTT is developing in Wood Dale—requires numerous construction jobs. Much like white-collar staffing positions, construction jobs generate additional employment; every construction role creates an estimated 1.64 additional jobs, producing over $239,000 in additional earnings. Factor in the cost of construction materials, as well as the fees for permitting and utilities, and you can see how data centers generate more revenue for communities than meets the eye.

In Wood Dale, for example, CyrusOne estimates their financial investment in the project will be over $1 billion. When all six buildings are complete, the City is projected to generate at least $2 million in annual utility taxes alone, money that can be reinvested in the community. Countywide, data centers have a significant impact on gross domestic product; in 2022, sectors directly related to data centers (such as computing infrastructure providers, data processers, and web hosting businesses) produced nearly $1 billion in GDP, with an average worker output of $986,000.

As impressive as those figures are, they don’t cover the full impact that data centers are making across DuPage. For Carol Stream, the new Oppidan facility is about more than generating revenue; it’s about taking a stagnant, abandoned property and transforming it into an attractive showpiece, one that’s both grounded in the community’s past and looking forward to the future. For Itasca, NTT DATA’s new cloud storage facilities aren’t “just another” development; they represent a reimagining of a suburban office park, one potential solution to a widespread challenge. 

As communities across DuPage grapple with new ways of working, shifting industry trends, and other complex challenges, they’re rethinking economic development norms and repurposing spaces in creative ways. And while data centers aren’t the solution to everything, one thing is certain: They’re a key part of the equation.

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Learn more about data centers in DuPage County.