Northwest Indiana Data Center Attracting Business
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowTenants are moving into the Digital Crossroad Data Center in Hammond, where the State Line Generating Plant stood for eight decades. The 105,000-square-foot facility opened in November and is attracting technology companies that require co-location workspace as well as data storage and support.
While the old power plant belched smoke into the northwest Indiana sky from its coal-fired burners to generate electricity for the Chicago area, this new, $40 million facility generates a different kind of business power.
“From the old cloud to the new cloud,” said Digital Crossroad Managing Member Tom Dakich in an interview on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick. “We’re getting big companies to come here, that are hyperscalers and large enterprise users.”
Dakich says the site was specifically targeted for development because of its close access to Chicago, proximity to Lake Michigan for water to cool data servers, and connection to a fiber line that is able to move large amounts of data.
“But the primary purpose of this is to literally create the connections that create the internet,” said Dakich.
In addition to its primary function, the Digital Crossroad building is also going to host a high-tech greenhouse as part of a project with Purdue University Northwest.
Last week, a team of researchers from the College of Technology at PNW received more than $1 million in federal grants and private funding to test advanced agriculture technology.
PNW says Project TRAVERSE uses advanced manufacturing technology, robotics and cyber-physical systems to develop and pilot test solutions, like remote planting and harvesting of a variety of crops.
As part of the project, the team will capture heat from the data servers and use it to heat the 4,000-square-foot greenhouse.