A deed restriction between the City of Chicago and the owners of the former Sun-Times printing plant on the Lower West Side will be formally terminated to allow for its redevelopment as a data center under a plan approved today by City Council.

The termination of the restriction will enable the sale of the 317,000-square-foot facility at 2800 S. Ashland Ave. to Quality Technology Services (QTS). The company is proposing to convert the property into a multi-tenant data storage facility and build out the 29-acre site in phases with a 10-year investment of more than $440 million.

The agreement, established through a City-owned land sale in 1999, required the facility to operate as a printing plant and employ 400 people. In 2009, the Sun-Times was sold to a group of Chicago-based investors and subsequently filed for bankruptcy. The new owners outsourced printing operations and the facility closed in 2011.

Started in 2003, QTS is one of the country's largest data center providers to high tech, financial, health care and government customers. The project will create up to 80 jobs.

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