Plans to convert a landmark Washington Park bakery into a data center are moving forward, three years after those plans were announced. CIM Group acquired The Schulze Baking plant at 55th Street and Garfield Boulevard for $7.5M, Crain's Chicago Business reports. The deal allows the seller, Ghian Foreman, and 1547 Critical Systems Realty to repurpose the historic bakery into a data center.

Foreman will remain the general manager of the redevelopment and construction is expected to begin within the next 60 days to convert 25K SF into data center space.

There have been plans to reposition the 220K SF building into a data center dating back to 2005. Foreman announced his partnership with 1547 in September 2015. CIM and 1547 have partnered on three other data center projects.

The project is part of a $150M redevelopment known as Midway Technology Center. The building will need major upgrades, including additional power capable of handling the demands from servers.

Although Chicago is a top-three data center market, there are some questions about whether there is demand outside of the downtown core. But projects like QTS' Pilsen data center indicate there is demand for a well-constructed data center, regardless of location, and 1547 has a pedigree.

1574 Critical Systems Realty CEO and Managing Partner Todd Raymond is a participant at Bisnow's Data Center Investment Conference & Expo, Aug. 28 at 350 East Cermak.