Commercial Real Estate Finance

Following up on last Wednesday‘s Top 10 List, here is a ranking of the Top 10 Built-to-Suit Data Center Transactions of Last Year:

10. Umpqua Bank (55,000 square ft.)

9. NetApp, Hillsboro, OR (55,000 sf)

8. Equinix, Ashburn, VA (77,000 sf)

7. Adobe, Hillsboro, OR (100,00 sf)

6. Disney, Kings Mountain, NC (100,000 sf)

5. Amazon, Boardman, OR (120,000 sf)

4. Boeing, Quincy, WA (133,000 sf)

3. Chevron, San Antonio, TX (150,000 sf)

2. Time Warner, Charlotte, NC (178,000 sf)

1. Facebook, Forest City, NC (300,000 sf)

It’s interesting how an industry that’s defined by a microchip–the definition of small–could have such an appetite for space. And yet the Internet/software industry is buying up millions of square feet of space as its demand for data centers increases. This list of built-to-suit data centers has plenty of the usual suspects, such as Adobe, Amazon, Time Warner and Facebook (which earns the top spot on this list, with a new data center that’s nearly double the size of the number two entry).

Since these are built-to-suit properties, we can assume the buyers had some very specific technological needs, demands that couldn’t be met with any old building with lots of air-conditioning and access to the grid. It”s also worth mentioning the non-IT companies on this list: Chevron (CVX), Disney (DIS), Boeing (BA). In today’s business world, every major company requires space for data storage.

(Source: Grubb & Ellis)

#CRE #finance

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