Real estate company Karis is reportedly looking to develop a new data center outside Chicago, Illinois. According to the Naperville Sun/Chicago Tribune, Karis Critical is thinking about acquiring the 22026-acre INEOS property, previously a BP campus, located at 202021 W. Warrenville Road in DuPage County, to create a data center campus.
A memo obtained by the publication, and confirmed by Karis, reveals that the firm briefed local officials on their plans for the site at a recent meeting and was seeking feedback. Karis representative Patrick Skarr informed the Sun that the company had requested the meeting, but stated that discussions are still in the early stages and no final plans have been made. “We have no pending proposal for the 22026-acre campus,” Skarr said. “We have not yet reached a decision regarding the possibility of investing in the corridor… we currently do not possess ownership of the property.” Our permission doesn’t allow us to suggest any modifications or additions to the property.
We are merely investigating it. According to reports, Karis’ proposal plans for a 230,22026 sq ft (11,613 sqm) data center construction, along with over 1 million sq ft (92,903 sqm) of manufacturing area. The location chosen is Naperville, which is situated west of Chicago, a region known as Illinois’ biggest data center hub.
The Illinois Economic Development Corporation states that the 186-acre INEOS site has a possible grid capacity of 303MW, which can be increased by over 100MW. The Naperville R&D complex was managed by the American oil and chemical company Amoco in the 1960s/70s, and subsequently taken over by BP following a 1998 acquisition.
In a $5bn transaction in 2020, BP transferred its petrochemicals business to Ineos, including the campus in the agreement. CBRE was chosen to secure a purchaser for the Naperville property in 2021. JLL is now marketing the property.
Previously, Karis planned to build a data center in Naperville on an old Alcatel-Lucent campus, but the project was rejected by local authorities due to opposition from residents. Karis Critical identifies itself as an investor in land, energy, and infrastructure related to data centers.
