Digital Realty Expands Ashburn Campus

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One of the data centers at the Digital Realty Trust campus in Ashburn, Va.

Digital Realty Trust has acquired 34 acres next to its huge data center campus in Ashburn, Virginia and will use the land to add as much as 400,000 square feet of new data center space. The company has already begun construction on a 135,000 square foot data center that will come online in the fourth quarter of this year.

The expansion by Digital Realty, the largest data center landlord, is driven by dwindling data center capacity in northern Virginia, where large users of data center infrastructure have recently signed leases to lock down finished space. Digital Realty says there are more big leases on the horizon.

"The addition of the property contiguous to our existing facilities in Ashburn allows us to create a datacenter campus environment that will deliver significant operating economies of scale and sufficient new inventory to meet the ongoing demand in this top tier market," said Michael F. Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Trust. "We currently are tracking a significant number of datacenter requirements in the market and are on schedule to complete the construction of the next phase, a 135,000 square foot facility, in the fourth quarter of 2009."

Demand for data center space  in northern Virginia is expected to  be boosted by the Obama administration's stimulus package, which includes more than $3.4 billion in spending for IT projects. 

Virginia recently passed tax incentives designed to attract major data centers to the state, which offers exemption from sales taxes on computer equipment for projects that generate capital investment of at least $150 million and create at least 50 new jobs.

Digital Realty Trust says it bought four parcels of land contiguous to its existing campus in Ashburn, which houses three data centers that are all at least 100,000 square feet. One of the parcels of land includes a utility substation that will support additional expansion. Digital Realty says it has a total power capacity of 225 megawatts for the site. The company recently boosted its redevelopment budget.

The new 135,000 square foot datacenter facility will ultimately support four 2.25 megawatt Turn-Key Datacenter pods totaling 68,000 square feet of raised floor and approximately 7,500 square feet of office space.

Digital Realty Trust owns 75 properties spanning 13 million square feet of space in 27 markets throughout Europe and North America.