Data Centers

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ASHBURN AND ARCOLA, VA. — A joint venture between American Real Estate Partners (AREP) and Harrison Street has announced plans to develop six powered shell data centers in Virginia’s Data Center Alley for $1 billion. The campuses will span 2.1 million square feet across two sites in Ashburn and Arcola. The first project will include a portion of the former AOL headquarters on Pacific Boulevard in Ashburn. The development will feature four built-to-suit data centers delivering 300 megawatts (MW) of electrical power capacity. The second development will be located on Arcola Boulevard, directly across the street from a new development by Google and near Dulles International Airport in Arcola. The campus will include two built-to-suit data centers offering approximately 100 to 125 MW of electrical power capacity. The new buildings will range from 265,000 to 440,000 square feet in size. A timeline for the developments was not announced. The joint venture has also broken ground on ABX-1 at Beaumeade, a 265,000-square-foot, two-story, powered shell data center located on Loudoun County Parkway along the Ashburn Fiber Ring in Ashburn. The partnership acquired the site in January 2021 and has not announced a timeline for the project.  A number of large-scale data …

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LOS ANGELES — JLL has arranged the $389.2 million refinancing of One Wilshire, a multi-tenant data center located at 624 S. Grand Ave. in downtown Los Angeles. The borrower is GI Partners, an alternative investment firm based in San Francisco. The 30-story, 661,553-square-foot data center features five separate utility power risers and 13 onsite generators with fuel storage for 24 hours of operation, along with separate and redundant data risers. The property also features office space, a multi-tower antenna array and fiber connectivity to the rooftop. Kevin MacKenzie, Brian Torp, Jake Wagner, Samuel Godfrey and Darren Eades of JLL arranged the 10-year, fixed-rate, non-recourse, interest-only loan through Goldman Sachs. “As one of the largest internet exchanges in the world, One Wilshire is truly a best-in-class asset recognized as the premier telecommunications hub of the Western United States,” says MacKenzie. “GI Partners has done an excellent job managing the asset to maximize utilization and creating significant value.” The demand for fast, secure and reliable data storage and delivery is at an all-time high and will continue to escalate for the foreseeable future thanks to the widespread appeal of content streaming services, social media and virtual connectivity. As a data center market, …

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DALLAS AND DENVER — In two separate transactions exceeding $25 billion in value, data center REITs CyrusOne Inc. (NASDAQ: CONE) and CoreSite Realty Corp. (NYSE: COR) have agreed to be acquired. KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) are teaming up to acquire all outstanding shares of common stock for CyrusOne at $90.50 per share for a deal value of approximately $15 billion, including the assumption of debt. In the other mega transaction, telecommunications firm American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT) has agreed to acquire Denver-based CoreSite for $170 per share in cash. The total consideration for the transaction is approximately $10.1 billion, including the assumption and/or repayment of CoreSite’s existing debt at closing. The purchase price for CyrusOne, a Dallas-based company that owns and operates 50 data centers worldwide, reflects an approximately 25 percent premium over CyrusOne’s stock price on Sept. 27, which was the last day of trading before market speculation of a potential sale was published. KKR and GIP plan to grow CyrusOne’s global footprint of data centers following the closing of the acquisition. The company’s provides IT infrastructure for more than 1,000 clients, including 200 Fortune 1000 companies, according to CyrusOne. The transaction, which CyrusOne’s board of directors …

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At the mid-year mark, industrial occupancy in the greater Richmond area remains strong, closing with an overall occupancy rate of 93 percent in the categories we track (Class A, B select C vacant and investor-owned product with a minimum of 40,000 square feet total). Class A occupancy increased to 96 percent at the end of the second quarter, up from 93 percent at the end of the first quarter. Class B occupancy experienced a slight decrease to 91 percent, down from 92 percent at the end of the first quarter. CoStar Group reports overall industrial occupancy at 95 percent for product of all sizes, including investor-owned facilities, but excluding flex space (minimum 50 percent office). Richmond’s strategic Mid-Atlantic location along Interstate 95 provides access to 55 percent of the nation’s consumers within two days’ delivery by truck, and in addition to being the northernmost right to work state on the Eastern seaboard, Virginia has once again been named as the top state for business by CNBC. Business Facilities also ranked Richmond as one of the top locations for corporate headquarters. With 12 Fortune 1000 companies located in the region, Richmond is home to the most Fortune 1000 headquarters compared to …

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TEMPLE, TEXAS — Rowan Green Data, a data center developer and infrastructure provider with offices in Houston and Portland, will develop a $300 million hyperscale campus in the Central Texas city of Temple. The project will span approximately 135,000 square feet and have a power capacity of about 500 megawatts. In the data center space, the amount of electricity needed to power the servers and cool the equipment is the highest variable cost; as such, the size of data center deals is frequently measured by the consumption of megawatts rather than square footage. All factors being held equal, one megawatt of energy is enough to power 500 or so homes for a full year. The facility, whose hyperscale designation indicates that it will be marketed to large tech companies with heavy cloud-based operations, will be constructed in two phases on a 32-acre site. Construction of the first phase is slated for a summer-2022 delivery, and full completion is scheduled for 2023.

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ELK GROVE VILLAGE, ILL. — Prime Data Centers has unveiled plans to build a 750,000-square-foot data center campus in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village. The three-facility project will be one of the largest data center campuses in the O’Hare market, according to the company. Prime Data Centers plans to invest up to $1 billion for the project. A timeline for completion was not provided.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — PRP, a privately held real estate investment and management firm based in Washington, D.C., is making a sea change as it looks to bolster its logistics and data center portfolio and churn its office assets. The company is in the process of selling four office campuses in separate deals totaling more than $1 billion. At the same time, PRP is allocating $2 billion to acquire logistics facilities leased to credit-worthy companies in primary and secondary markets, as well as data centers and land zoned for future data centers. The specific locations of the assets were not disclosed. “The assets that we are acquiring are located in attractive markets backed by solid demographics, high barriers to entry and historically high industrial occupancy rates,” says Joe Neckles, managing director of net lease acquisitions at PRP. “The logistics and data center sectors remained highly resilient throughout the pandemic and continue to grow at rates well in excess of inflation.” The office assets that PRP is selling include Sequoia Plaza, a 370,000-square-foot campus spanning three buildings in Northern Virginia’s Arlington County. The property houses the headquarters of Arlington County’s Department of Human Services and the Arlington County Public School System. An …

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It seems as though we have recently seen significant weekly announcements about investment and job creation by major U.S. companies into the Research Triangle Park region, the area situated between the cities of Raleigh and Durham. For instance, tech titans Apple and Google declared plans to establish major engineering hubs in the region, adding heat to an already dynamic market. It is common knowledge that the Triangle area is respected for its large, highly educated workforce thanks to top-ranking colleges and universities, including Duke University, North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wake Tech, North Carolina’s largest community college, also serves as a vital engine, providing the region’s workforce with STEM candidates. These institutions supply existing and expanding businesses with an impressive talent pool. Theses factors, along with a business-friendly economic climate, have grown the Research Triangle into one of the nation’s largest research centers. Although local headlines continue to buzz with real estate business news, the Raleigh-Durham industrial market has witnessed steady real estate investments from life sciences and R&D businesses for decades. Over the past 24 months, however, demand for life sciences space has had a dramatic impact on traditional flex/light industrial users …

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Megan Eckart Baird Datacenter Development

As more aspects of our lives become digital, the need for data centers is increasing exponentially. COVID fast-tracked the upsurge in data center demand, as businesses worldwide transferred communications and operations to digital platforms — but the need for data centers is permanent. “With an increase in devices needing to connect to each other and the Internet of Things (IOT), the amount of data needed to do this will always be growing, furthering the demand for additional space within data centers,” says Megan Baird, Professional Engineer (PE), a senior project manager at Bohler, a land development consulting and technical design firm. Getting the right space with the right zoning, utilities and market timeline can be a daunting task that requires extensive planning. Baird says three major factors determine whether a site is a prime data center opportunity: utilities, zoning and space. Plus, Baird explains how to get a property to market once the planning is done. [box style=”4″] What’s Available to Help Developers Tax incentives vary by state and locality and can depend on the number of jobs created, equipment used or amount of money invested. Overlay districts are a regulatory tool where jurisdictions specify additional restrictions/allowances in addition to …

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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The STRO Cos., a New Jersey-based investment firm, has acquired a 141,000-square-foot office and data center that is situated on a 14.4-acre site in the Northern New Jersey community of Florham Park. The company purchased the asset from Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), which also occupies the building, for an undisclosed price. Jose Cruz, Michael Oliver, Steve Simonelli, Kevin O’Hearn, J.B. Bruno, Jordan Avanzato and Michael Kavanaugh of JLL represented BNY in the transaction. Prudential Bank provided acquisition financing.

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