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ustralian firm HMC Capital has acquired a warehouse in Elk Grove Village from Prologis for $440 million, marking one of the largest commercial sales in the Chicago area this year. The high price is notable given that Prologis is currently converting the 189,000 square-foot property into a data center with partner Skybox Data Centers. The redevelopment will be completed before HMC Capital takes over, resulting in a 176,000 square-foot facility.
The sale highlights Elk Grove Village's emergence as a regional data center hub, with several projects underway, including a 1 million square-foot development led by Aligned Data Centers. Both HMC and Prologis are betting big on the growing data center market: HMC launched the DigiCo REIT in November, valued at $1.8 billion, while Prologis plans to spend between $7 billion and $8 billion over five years developing 20 data centers.
The demand for data centers is driven by cloud storage needs and support for artificial intelligence, with major companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft expanding their infrastructure. This trend has also attracted significant investments from firms such as Blackstone, Brookfield, and KKR.
