GI Partners Pays Record $750M for Elk Grove Village Data Center

GI Partners has paid $750 million for a fully leased data center at 800 E. Devon Ave. in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, a record price for the O’Hare-area submarket and one of the largest data center trades in the Chicago metro this year. The seller, a subsidiary of Australian asset manager HMC Capital, had paid $712 million to acquire and convert the 189,240-square-foot building from a Prologis-built warehouse into a leased data center, a project it closed in 2024.

Why it matters

For developers pricing data center shells in the Chicago metro, this trade resets the basis conversation. GI Partners is paying roughly $3,963 per square foot for a stabilized, leased asset, a number that has little to do with construction cost and everything to do with power. Chicago is one of the few metros left where utilities can still commit meaningful capacity near a major airport hub, and that scarcity, not the shell itself, is what a buyer is underwriting at this price. GI Partners already holds stakes in two neighboring Elk Grove Village data centers acquired from Digital Realty in 2023, so this deal consolidates its position in a submarket where power availability, not land, is now the gating constraint on new supply.

The numbers

GI Partners paid $750 million for the 189,240-square-foot building at 800 E. Devon Ave., or about $3,963 per square foot. HMC Capital’s subsidiary had paid $712 million total to acquire and convert the same building, meaning GI Partners is paying roughly a 5 percent premium over that all-in cost for a fully leased, stabilized asset. GI Partners separately holds a 65 percent interest in two other hyperscale Elk Grove Village data centers it acquired from Digital Realty in 2023.

What’s next

The trade sets a new price benchmark for stabilized data centers in the O’Hare submarket and could pressure comparable Midwest assets with confirmed power allocations to reprice higher. Whether GI Partners keeps expanding in Elk Grove Village, where it now holds interests in at least three properties, is the next signal for developers watching how much basis buyers will pay for power certainty over new construction.