Data centers are a critical infrastructure that enables our modern society to function by storing, processing, and distributing data for use in various applications. For the software and services you rely on in your daily life to function, data must be stored, processed, and distributed from centralized access points across the country.

Approximately 25% of Naperville residents work from home, demonstrating the community’s reliance on connected, cloud-based technologies and software.

The Naperville data center campus will provide space to tenants from various industries, including finance, healthcare, education, transportation, entertainment, hospitality, and other sectors.

On a site that formerly housed a 600,000-square-foot office building and parking garages, Karis Critical has proposed constructing a modern, best-in-class data center campus. The renewed campus is approximately 65% smaller than the previous corporate offices and will generate less daily traffic, noise, and even use less water than the previous operations.

Buildout of the campus has been proposed in phases to allow the community to understand the long-term plan for the site.

Phase One of the campus will features a 211,000-square-foot building, with 30,000 square feet of Class-A office space to support the businesses that lease space on the campus. It is expected that companies from various industries and backgrounds will lease space on the campus to house their servers and equipment that support their cloud-based operations.

The campus will operate continuously, providing tenants with a secure, connected, and professionally managed facility that meets their needs. It is anticipated that each building would support approximately 70 full-time jobs, which will be staffed over three shifts.

It is projected that on a typical day for the building, 45 individuals would be on campus during the first shift, with on-site personnel ranging from 6 to 10 individuals during the second and third shifts. Approximately half of the employees on-site will be directly employed by Karis Critical, while the tenants will employ the other individuals working at the site.

As proposed, the new data center campus will have a smaller building footprint than the legacy corporate headquarters, have fewer daily commuters, and use less water daily. The reinvigorated property will create new jobs, support the attraction and retention of high-growth companies to Naperville, and unlock millions in new annual tax revenues that can be reinvested in services and initiatives that enhance the quality of life for residents and families.

The multi-phase project has been designed to attain the high standards for environmental stewardship, responsible operations, and safety as established by the City of Naperville and State of Illinois. The developer has designed the data center campus, which will also feature up to 30,000 square feet of Class-A office space, to meet Naperville’s standards. This design incorporates architectural and landscaping features that help integrate the campus with the surrounding neighborhood in a manner consistent with the property’s legacy as a corporate headquarters.

The former corporate campus dates to 1966, when it was developed to support AT&T Bell Labs. Today, Nokia has ongoing operations at the remaining portion of the former 200-acre property. This property was home to one of Naperville’s largest employers, with thousands of employees commuting to the site daily.

The business was a heavy user of electricity. As part of its commitment to responsible planning, as the city grew, some of Naperville’s key infrastructure, including its roadways, electric grid, transmission network, and other essential services, were designed and built to accommodate modern business operations at this property.

Over the decades, the front building eventually vacant for nearly a quarter of a century before it was demolished.

In June 2023, the Naperville City Council unanimously approved a zoning amendment that covered this property, designating data centers as a conditional use that is appropriate for the site. Karis Critical has provided a comprehensive development application detailing how its proposal complies with the city’s zoning codes, while requesting commonsense modifications, such as unified fence heights across the campus or to prevent the overbuilding of parking lots.

Rejuvenation of the corporate corridor is needed to ensure the continued economic vitality of Naperville and support the local tax base. The value of property in this area has not kept pace in the community. The Naperville Development Partnership’s Naperville I-88 Corridor Strategy established aspirational goals to add 15,000 high-paying jobs in the corridor by 2045, resulting in $900 million in additional labor income and $2.6 billion more in output.

No public land is being used as part of this development, and the data center campus will be constructed and operate entirely on property that is part of the legacy campus, commonly known as the AT&T Bell Labs / Lucent / Nokia property.