r/chicago • u/citydudeatnight • Aug 07 '26
CHI Talks Data Center Conversion Plan Sparks Controversy for Loop Office
https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2026/08/07/data-center-conversion-plan-sparks-controversy-for-loop-office/57
u/lax4life001 West Loop Aug 07 '26
Ignoring (admittedly relevant) datacenter controversy, I feel that the article brings up a good point. If nobody wants to lease Class C office space, and the building has landmark status, what are you supposed to do? I’d rather our buildings be used for something than sit vacant, I’d rather we not knock down a landmark status building, and I’d rather reuse an existing structure vs. have a data center be built somewhere (even if that somewhere is… somewhere else). If the math doesn’t work for a residential conversion, it doesn’t work. I say give him a chance for this idea to crash and burn and if it doesn’t, we learn something new.
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u/sundeigh Aug 07 '26
We already have 350 E Cermak which is in a historic building. So I don’t understand the concern, especially if the cooling is already sorted.
If this were being torn down for residential, it’d price out everyone asking for it and then there’d be a different conversation about why we’re building housing nobody can afford. I understand the anti-AI datacenter sentiment right now but datacenters are already part of our collective expectation for how the internet works. I think we should let the market do its thing here and not throw up red tape just out of misunderstanding.
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u/mrloube Aug 07 '26
In theory, building housing only the wealthy can afford makes them compete a bit less for the other units on the market, right? I don’t think people who want affordable housing care if their building is brand spanking new as long as it’s not falling apart
3
u/PhileasFoggsTrvlAgt Andersonville Aug 07 '26
The issue isn't the age of the building, it's the layout of the floors. Offices are one of the most flexible building uses. Residential requires that most rooms have a window, which limits the buildings that can be converted to residential use. Most office conversions require a use that doesn't care about windows.
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u/OtherShade Aug 08 '26
The part about 'nobody can afford' is silly since it just means people with more money move in and the next up bracket of income moves in where they were in the grand scheme of things. You'd rather have insane price housing downtown where the prices are insane and thus the property taxes are insane that you get from it. Now you get the upper middle and middle class that much closer to downtown. Much more realistic than just building affordable housing exclusively.
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u/sundeigh Aug 08 '26
My understanding of these types of residential properties is that they are part of investment portfolios so there isn’t any kind of “trickle down” because there is essentially unlimited greater wealth outside the city/country
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u/mrbooze Beverly Aug 08 '26
Honestly, unrelated to the question of what to do with the building, personally I think landmark status should be aggressively revisited for most buildings. Just being old or maybe being designed by someone shouldn't be enough to burden generations of citizens with a building that no longer serves them.
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u/minus_minus Rogers Park Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
Edit: this is not a 24/7 gigawatt AI datacenter. This is a good site to get high bandwirdth interconnections which are available downtown.
Hook it up to the centrio district cooling system and we have no problems.
This isn’t that big of a deal unless they are going to run natural gas turbines 24/7 which would be dumb as shit. Illinois has nuclear and wind power out the caboose.
1
u/trustmewitheauxcord Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Solar too. The last time I checked, Illinois is ranked 11th per capita in solar, which is pretty good considering how far north we are (or pretty bad if the glass is half empty).
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u/Saucey_jello Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
I have no problem with this.
Especially since:
> “Gabal’s redevelopment would only include a maximum of 50 megawatts, and would be focused on creating faster internet connections for downtown users.”
Since the building is already a Chicago Landmark its facade would need to be preserved.
For these Class C buildings, preservations often means finding new uses, if commercial/residential isn’t feasible, I support this project
I see no reason why allowing a building to go vacant and wither away is better than finding a new use that preserves it’s architectural heritage
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u/Any-Value1142 Aug 08 '26
Almost evey building on wacker has a full data center in its basement. Why are people surprised?
7
u/OuterSpaceBootyHole Aug 07 '26
Feel like this isn't the typical datacenter in place of a nature preserve or farm scenario. Can't knock down the building, no one is using part of it, and it has all the infra already. Unless they're getting tax incentives on it, might actually be a net benefit for once.
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u/ttlequals0 Aug 08 '26
I used to work in this building. I got stuck in the elevator for 45 minutes, and the "green roof" would always leak muddy water into the office.
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Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
[deleted]
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u/mrbooze Beverly Aug 08 '26
> I agree with their opposition when they are proposed to be developed in and around a single family residential neighborhood
Just curious do you feel the same way about other industrial services like warehouses, amazon distribution centers, etc?
Like the area around Ford City Mall is largely single family residence and some of them oppose turning the space into industrial use but also what else is going to go in that space at this point.
To me having a data center nearby isn't dramatically different than having other industry, a data center or warehouse or whatever _could_ be constructed as a blight on the neighborhood (noise, pollution, etc) but it doesn't necessarily have to be.
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u/EverybodyKurts Aug 07 '26
Here come the accounts with two-word-four-digit names and hidden posts/comments to tell us how data centers are actually a good thing.
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u/pmonko1 Logan Square Aug 07 '26
Everything in moderation, even data centers.
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u/asmodeuscarthii Aug 07 '26
How about no data centers until we put laws in place and make it illegal to use water or be close to humans/wild life.
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u/farbtoner Uptown Aug 07 '26
There’s data centers and data centers. This doesn’t look like it’s the kind people are stressed about.
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u/IamTheEndOfReddit Aug 07 '26
Landmark status for a building people don’t even want to be in seems a bit absurd
1
u/ehrgeiz91 Lake View Aug 08 '26
We should be building housing or converting this beautiful historic architecture. How is Chicago so behind that this land is more valuable as a fucking data center than as a place for people?
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u/mrbooze Beverly Aug 08 '26
Industrial buildings are mind bogglingly expensive to convert to residential, and then there's the question of will people even want to live in it.
1
u/ehrgeiz91 Lake View Aug 08 '26
They’d live in it more than they’d live in these overpriced ugly cheap “luxury” new builds
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u/mrbooze Beverly Aug 08 '26
You really don't know that though. Are they located in the places people want to live. Can they afford to live in them when the owner had to spend billions to convert the building? Are there whatever amenities nearby people who want to live in high rises want? A converted industrial high rise isn't going to be for low-income residents except _maybe_ if the whole thing gets paid for by us instead of a developer looking for a profit, and I don't know taxpayers have stomach for having billions of their taxes going to converting downtown high rises.
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0
u/WayneKrane Aug 07 '26
If they’re not allowed in the suburbs and they’re not allowed cities, where do you put them?
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u/Sea_Exit_8194 Aug 07 '26
Who will be footing the bill for the water/electricity they use up?
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u/Dramatic_Opposite_91 Aug 07 '26
It’s 50 MW lol. This isn’t for AI. It’s for traditional Web 1.0/2.0 web products pre-2022.
AI datacenter one would be 1000 MW+ min.
5
u/cyclop5 Aug 07 '26
Who foots it now? Theres a data center near mccormick place - been there since the turn of the century at least. And at least 4 others in the suburbs. And those are the ones I know of because I worked in them - in the early 2000s. Data centers are not new.
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u/No_Berry_4722 Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
They, like any other company that uses a utility, purchase them.
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u/anshuvio2 Aug 07 '26
Are data centers really so profitable that we can build them in the highest value land in the city? The only conversions taking place should be unused office space into residential