A property tax incentive approved today by City Council will support the redevelopment of the former Sun-Times printing plant on the Lower West Side as a state-of-the-art data center.

The Class 6(b) incentive will help Quality Technology Services (QTS) rehabilitate the 317,000-square-foot building at 2800 S. Ashland Ave. into a facility that houses data servers and other equipment to store, back up and transmit vast amounts of digital information. QTS will lease directly to tenants, such as financial institutions, healthcare facilities and government agencies.

“Investments like the one QTS is making to build a mega data center here are the reason that Chicago will be a technology and data capital for the 21st Century,” Mayor Emanuel said.

The $119 million first phase will be followed by later build-outs planned for the 29-acre site. The first phase will create up to 20 permanent jobs.

Total tax savings over the 12-year incentive period are estimated at $11.4 million.

The building ceased operating as a printing plant in 2011 after the owners of the Sun-Times outsourced the newspaper’s printing operations. In June 2014, the City Council approved the release of a City of Chicago deed restriction on the property to allow for its redevelopment as a data center.

Started in 2003, QTS is one of the country's largest data center providers to high tech, financial, health care and government customers.

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