There is a new business park in the Chicago area.

This is not earth-shattering news for a market where the existing inventory of industrial space easily exceeds more than 1 billion square feet of space, and where sprawling new parks pop up as market boundaries expand west and south.

DuPage National Technology Park (DNTP), however, is not just another business park. It is a new park where technology infrastructure – connectivity, bandwidth and dual access – is likely more important than infrastructure typically associated with a new park (i.e. roads, curbs, sewers). It is a park that embodies how public-private partnerships are supposed to work. It is a park where high-paying, white-collar jobs loom as prevalent on the market as manufacturing and warehouse positions. Moreover, it is a park where technology and business will co-exist, side-by-side, with a variety of complementary uses.

DNTP, which is being developed and marketed by CenterPoint Properties, was dedicated this fall as representatives from all levels of government were on hand to point the spotlight on a project that will have a significant local, regional and national impact.

DNTP is the new, 800-acre park in West Chicago owned by the DuPage Airport Authority. It is located east of Kirk Road at Roosevelt Rood, Kress Road and Fayban Parkway, south of the DuPage County Airport and north of Fermi National Laboratory.

According to the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity, DNTP will create well over 2,000 new jobs. A significant number of those jobs will be white collar (Need to further characterize these jobs).

The master plan for DNTP, a one quarter mile square land mass, ultimately calls for more than 5.2 million square feet of space. On the south side of the park, 2 million square feet of space will be developed to serve industrial space users. Technology companies will occupy 2.6 million square feet and be centrally located in the park. The balance of the space, approximately 600,000 square feet, will complement these uses and is expected to include a conference center, restaurants and retail space.

“This is not just about developing a traditional business park, adding more than 5 million square feet of inventory to the market,” says Fred Reynolds, senior vice president of development, CenterPoint Properties. “DNTP is laying the groundwork, infrastructure and connectivity for business applications and product development, which is scalable and can grow for decades, even generations to come.”

At the core of the DNTP vision is the premise that the time-tested real estate axiom “location, location, location” needs to be altered in today’s technologically advanced and global business community.

“In today’s world, it’s not just about location,” says Reynolds. “It’s about connectivity, speed and bandwidth. Connectivity, and the ability to share information in an instant, can be the difference between success and failure.”

According to James Carlini, an adjunct professor at Northwestern University and president of Carlini Associates, the roads for commerce have become electronic. There are no “stagecoaches needed on the Internet.”

View a map of DNTP and different colored rings line the park. Each ring signifies another way in which connectivity can be secured and put to use.
In addition to creating a technology platform unlike anything ever seen in Illinois and throughout the Midwest and the world, the technology infrastructure of DNTP is designed essentially as a plug-and-play alternative.

“The design of the park gives tenants and users an extreme value proposition, all at a significant cost reduction and right at the curb,” says Reynolds.
To better understand the benefits of connectivity, consider that downloading a 90-minute movie using standard dial-up technology could take 426 hours (17+ days). In using DSL, cable or a T-1 line, the download time is much faster and can be reduced to almost 16 hours. Use DNTP’s 10gb fiber optic connection that goes straight to the source, and the downloaded time is a fraction of a second. This is critical to companies who need to download critical schematics, financial and research data, blueprints, medical imaging or complex video in an instant.

Unlike any park in the state and like only a few in the country, DNTP has a distinct point of differentiation that will make it stand out and allow it to attract Fortune 1000 firms that require broadband connectivity to create their globally competitive advantages.

“This type of connectivity is not a luxury, it quickly is becoming standard operating procedure,” says Jack Pressman, principal, ISG/Mercury- PATH, a technology consultant working with CNT on DNTP.

A further impetus for DNTP is the sheer volume of data that is produced today. According to Pressman, the amount of data produced worldwide is doubling every 18 to 24 months. This, along with legal requirements brought about by Sarbanes-Oxley and the Health Insurance Privacy and Accountability Act (HIPAA), continues to create a need for data storage and disaster recovery facilities.

With all of its technological features and ability to build a synergistic tenant base, DNTP is a logical destination for businesses involved in:
• Healthcare (biotech, hospitals, managed-care, pharmaceutical)
• Industrial/Products (energy, logistics, transportation, consumer goods, retail)
• Insurance (property and casualty, life insurance, health insurance)
• Professional Services (IT services, legal, management consulting, real estate)
• Telecom (services, products)
• Public Sector (federal/state agencies/ institutions, public/private educational institutions)

In order to execute the emerging technology-based vision, the DuPage Airport Authority selected Center- Point Properties to develop and market the park. The company has been involved in the park and the project since 1999, helping to further shape the vision and executable plan for DNTP, much like it did for the old Joliet Arsenal, which is now the CenterPoint Intermodal Centre (CIC).

A Rapid Response Team has been created as an integral part of the development team. This team of professionals provides complete design build services, from both the real estate and technology perspectives. According to Reynolds, this feature is a second- or third-level offering.
With recent transactions at the CIC in Joliet, CenterPoint is nearly 10 years ahead of projections, in terms of land absorption and development activity for the Intermodal facility schedule.

“We firmly believe DNTP will do for technology-oriented real estate developments what our CIC has done for logistics,” Reynolds said.

User / Location Benefits

• Ideal for local, regional, national and international R&D operations, and co-locations and headquarters.
• Flexibility in facility design and layout – all sizes and shapes welcome.
• Lower DuPage County taxes and overall operating costs.
• Considerable user-specific economic benefits and incentives available.
• Five-tier security for operations and employees.
• Strong, relevant highly educated labor demographics.
• Close proximity to dining, shopping and recreation.
• Abundant executive and affordable housing nearby.
• Adjacent to key transportation routes, public transportation, and DuPage Airport (7,570 foot runway).
• Collaborative campus environment supports pursuit of best practices.
• Newest member of the East-West (I-88) Illinois Research and Development Corridor.

Park Features

• All new scalable technology and utility infrastructure with geographic diversity.
• 10 Gigabyte bandwidth with complete multi-ring route diversity.
• Engineered for data speed, redundancy and survivability.
• Fully-improved sites with off-site detention.
• 99.999% network up time.
• Pre-qualified “rapid response” team in place to address specific infrastructure/network requirements.
• 21st Century collaborative business community.
• Stunning site aesthetics, roadways and landscaping.
• Fast-track permitting for all facilities.
• Environmentally sensitive design; LEED certification pending.
• Extensive list of planned on-site amenities.
Deal creativity and sophistication from Chicago’s most accomplished development team.
Mission-Critical, Data-Sensitive, Security-Sensitive Operations
The entire campus offers the benefits of high-capacity multi-directional, multi-carrier broadband lines supported by two Tier 1 NETPOP’s, along with redundant power grids, and five-tier security considerations. This dual-entry fiber design provides Level 7 path diversity to support the highest quality network performance with 99.999% uptime and allows for uninterrupted service in the event of a fiber line cut or other equipment/facility failure. This infrastructure supports all of today’s most sensitive, critical applications and anticipates those of the future. What is your network survivability plan?

StarLight
StarLight is a 1GigE switch/router facility for high-performance access to participating networks, and a true optical switching facility for wavelengths. Since summer 2001, StarLight management and engineering has been working with the international academic and commercial communities to create a proving ground in support of grid-intensive e-Science applications, network performance measurement and analysis, and computing and networking technology evaluations.

Multi-Carrier Access
The Park is installing an AboveNet multi-strand dark fiber dual-entry (level 7 diversity compliant) conduit and fiber infrastructure facilities that connect the Park directly to 3 key Chicago / Chicago Suburban carrier hotel locations.
These locations (600 S. Federal – Chicago, 710 N. Lake Shore Drive [StarLight] - Chicago, and 810 Jorie Blvd- Oak Brook) provide any tenant with the capability to access and major telecommunications carrier via a private multi-gigabit point-to-point dark fiber infrastructure.

Batavia Fiber Ring
The Park is providing a direct fiber link to the Batavia fiber network. This network provides direct cross-connection facilities to: I-Wire, NIUNET, IMBCA.
These networks provide a comprehensive data link to the State of Illinois research and education grid and the largest suburban municipal network in Illinois.

Intra-Park Fiber Ring 1
The DNTP has developed a completely redundant and diverse multi-ring fiber-optic infrastructure supported by two Tier 1 (NEBS (Level 3)) NETPOPs. This infrastructure meets the telecommunications industry’s highest standard for distribution of optically based services corresponding to Level 7 (SBC standard) route diversity and network survivability.
Fiber Ring #1 provides a multi-straw- multi-carrier flex duct system that provides the primary distribution infrastructure for NETPOP #1 (Main Communications Building), Batavia Fiber Ring, and the North / East primary carrier entrances.

Intra-Park Fiber Ring 2
Intra-Park Fiber Ring #2 provides the primary distribution infrastructure for NETPOP 2 located in the CenterPoint Smart Tech Facility. This Ring supports the primary AboveNet (south) and SBC (West) optical ring infrastructure.

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