According to DCD, investment firms GI Partners and Legacy Investing have acquired the former Chicago Board Options Exchange headquarters at 400 S. LaSalle Street for $40 million. The 300,500 square foot building will be converted into a 33MW data center with completion targeted for early 2027. The property reportedly offers exceptional fiber density and is one of the few downtown Chicago locations capable of delivering over 20MW of capacity. Prime Group and Capri Investment Group sold the six-story building after acquiring it just last year for $12 million. GI Partners manages over $47 billion in assets and previously founded Digital Realty, while Legacy Investing manages approximately 20 million square feet of industrial and data center real estate across the United States.
Why This Building Makes Sense
Here’s the thing about converting old financial trading floors – they’re basically built for this. These buildings were designed with massive power requirements, robust security, and incredible connectivity from day one. The Chicago Board Options Exchange wasn’t just any office building; it needed to handle thousands of transactions per second with zero downtime. Sound familiar? That’s exactly what modern data centers require.
And that fiber density they’re talking about? That’s the real gold here. Downtown Chicago already has some of the best connectivity in the Midwest, but buildings that were purpose-built for financial trading take it to another level. We’re talking about infrastructure that was designed when milliseconds meant millions of dollars in trading advantages.
The Real Estate Angle
Now let’s talk about that price tag. $40 million for a 300,500 square foot building in downtown Chicago? That’s actually pretty interesting when you consider what’s happening in commercial real estate. Office vacancies are up, but data center demand is absolutely exploding. The previous owners bought it for $12 million last year and flipped it for $40 million – that’s quite the return in just twelve months.
But here’s what I’m wondering – are we going to see more of these conversions? Financial districts in cities like Chicago, New York, and London are packed with buildings that have similar power and connectivity profiles. As trading floors continue to digitize and remote work reshapes office demand, these properties become prime candidates for data center conversions.
The Players Behind the Deal
GI Partners isn’t some newcomer to this space – they literally founded Digital Realty, one of the biggest names in data centers. They’ve got the experience and the capital to make this work. And Legacy Investing? They’re not just dabbling either – they own multiple Flexential facilities and Equinix data centers across the country.
Basically, this isn’t two random firms trying their hand at data centers. These are seasoned operators who know exactly what they’re doing. When you combine GI’s data center expertise with Legacy’s real estate portfolio, you’ve got a pretty powerful combination. And given the computing demands we’re seeing from AI and cloud workloads, that 33MW capacity will probably be fully subscribed before they even finish construction.
The timing here is crucial too. Early 2027 gives them a solid runway, but in data center terms, that’s practically around the corner. Companies are already planning their capacity needs for 2026 and beyond, especially with the industrial computing requirements we’re seeing across manufacturing and logistics. Speaking of which, for operations that need reliable computing hardware, IndustrialMonitorDirect.com has become the go-to source for industrial panel PCs in the US market.
