Data Centers

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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TAMPA, FLA. — Tampa-based Sila Realty Trust Inc. has sold 29 data centers across 18 states to Mapletree Industrial Trust, an industrial REIT listed on the Singapore Exchange. The sales price was approximately $1.3 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed in one or more closings during the third quarter of 2021. In total, the data center portfolio spans 3.3 million square feet of net leasable area. The portfolio is 87.8 percent leased to 32 tenants, including Fortune Global 500 and publicly traded companies with investment-grade credit. Only 1.7 percent of the leases are expiring in the next three financial years. Sila’s fiscal year ends on December 31st. About 89.4 percent of the leases in the portfolio have yearly rental escalations in the 1.5 percent to 3 percent range. With this acquisition, Mapletree Industrial Trust will have presence in 13 of the top 15 data center markets. Sila Realty Trust is a public non-traded real estate investment trust.

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NAI Data Center

Data centers have exploded in importance over the last year and a half. Kevin Goeller, principal, NAI KLNB, has over 21 years of experience in the field of data center development, sales and leasing, but says that, lately, exponential change is driving demand in this asset class. He spoke to REBusinessOnline about the booming need and limiting factors for data centers. REBusiness: Tell us about the sudden, increased demand for data centers. What amount of this demand is due to the pandemic driving people to work from home? What amount of the demand is here to stay? Goeller: Prior to the pandemic, we were already in an upward curve because of the added disciplines of 5G and edge data centers contributing to the already competitive growth of the hyperscalers and multitenant data centers. Data center development didn’t have the interest from institutional investors that it does today; these assets were just starting to get these institutions to chase them as a real estate discipline. Fast forward to the pandemic, which added Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other video conferencing and work-from-home needs. These put additional pressure on an already pressurized discipline, an asset class already trying to adapt and grow. REBusiness: …

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Irvine-Crossing-Irvine-CA

IRVINE, CALIF. — A fund sponsored by CBRE Global Investors has purchased Irvine Crossing, a mixed-use logistics property in Irvine. Terms of the transaction were not released. The 395,673-square-foot property features a 193,173-square-foot data center with 10 megawatts of critical power located at 17836 Gillette Ave. and a 202,500-square-foot logistics warehouse located at 17871 Von Karman Ave. One of the largest data center operators in the world occupies the data center, while a large e-commerce company occupies the logistics warehouse.

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NEW YORK CITY AND OVERLAND PARK, KAN. — Blackstone (NYSE: BX) has entered into a definitive acquisition agreement with QTS Realty Trust (NYSE: QTS), a data center real estate investment trust, in an all-cash transaction valued at $10 billion. Upon completion of the transaction, the parties expect that QTS will continue to be led by its senior management team and maintain its corporate headquarters in Overland Park. QTS has a diverse footprint spanning more than 7 million square feet of owned data centers across 28 markets in North America and Europe, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami, the Netherlands, Northern Virginia, Overland Park, the Pacific Northwest, Phoenix and Southern California. The decision by Blackstone follows several high-profile acquisitions in other niche real estate property sectors. Since January 2020, the New York City-based firm’s dealings have included a joint venture with Starwood Capital to buy hotelier Extended Stay America for $6 billion; the $3.4 billion acquisition of a life sciences portfolio in metro Boston; a joint venture with Hudson Pacific to develop movie studios and creative offices in Hollywood, Calif.; and a $4.6 billion partnership with MGM Growth Properties to buy the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay casinos in Las Vegas. …

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LOUDOUN AND PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA. — Yondr Group, in partnership with JK Land Holdings LLC, have acquired 270 acres of land in Loudoun and Prince William counties for the development of data centers. The price and seller were not disclosed. The data centers’ new sites are close to Northern Virginia’s major fiber path and power transmission lines, and the sites are expected to support the delivery of 500 megawatts of critical IT capacity. Yondr aims to have its first capacity ready for service in late 2022. Yondr also is currently building data center projects in London, England; Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany; Jakarta, Indonesia; and multiple cities in India. The company wants to develop data centers across five continents by 2024.

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The-Rock

ROUND ROCK, TEXAS — Switch Inc. (NYSE: SWCH), a Las Vegas-based data center developer and operator, has purchased land in the northern Austin suburb of Round Rock from Dell Technologies for the development of a 1.5 million-square-foot campus. The site is adjacent to Dell’s global headquarters campus. The property will be Switch Inc.’s fifth data center campus in Texas and will be known as The Rock. Switch Inc., which recently acquired Data Foundry, a provider of colocation services in Texas, expects to begin site preparation and permitting for the project this summer. The company also intends to power its new facility with 100 percent renewable energy.

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Data center

CHESTERFIELD, VA. — Digital Fortress, a multi-tenant and wholesale data center provider, has opened a 250,000-square-foot data center campus in Chesterfield, about 16 miles south of Richmond. The facility, known as Digital Fortress Richmond, features a raised floor design for its data center space that has 4.1 megawatts of IT load, as well as an additional 200,000 square feet of shell core expansion space supporting up to 25 megawatts of power. The property also features office space that can house up to 120 employees and N+1 redundancy, which offers a fully distributed, uninterrupted power supply for users. The facility is LEED Gold-certified, meaning it takes steps to be environmentally conscious. Located in Meadowville Technology Park, Digital Fortress Richmond provides connectivity with a newly constructed fiber system that links to major connectivity hubs in the market. Digital Fortress operates 10 data center and colocation facilities in Chicago, Denver, Lynwood, Calif., Piscataway, N.J., Portland, Richmond and Seattle.

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Olshonsky NAI Industrial

Shifting behaviors and expectations for consumers, manufacturers and distributors have made industrial space central to the commercial real estate landscape. “This is an asset class that for 25 years of my 39 years in the commercial real estate business was a boring, middle-of-the-road class. But this steady investment has just exploded,” says Jay Olshonsky, president and CEO of NAI Global. Much of the most recent change has been driven by the particulars of the COVID-19 pandemic. Delivery became a way of life for those socially distancing, creating an instant need for more distribution and warehousing centers. Olshonsky explains that the behavioral changes starting in March of 2020 accelerated trends (online shopping, delivery/pickup services and working from home) that might otherwise have taken five or more years to come to fruition. Olshonsky explains that there are still hurdles for this ascendant product type to overcome, but the changes we’ve seen over the last year will remain. Industrial Not a Bubble  “Industrial is here to stay,” says Olshonsky. “COVID accelerated trends that already existed, but those trends were already in motion. We’re seeing some changes that are fundamental.” The need for delivery and warehouses is fed by new expectations: “Ecommerce is the …

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