Atlantic Metro Debuts NYC Data Center

Building a new data center in Manhattan is a major challenge. This week Atlantic Metro Communications and Data Center NYC Group announced the opening of new facility at 121 Varick Street, which previously housed printing firms and is being converted to data center usage. Atlantic Metro has opened a first phase that includes a meet-me room and 5,000 square feet of data center space.

The two companies plan to convert at least seven floors of the 12-story SoHo building into data center in a $100 million phased build-out. The key to making the project happen was convincing Con Edison to expand the building's power capacity. 121 Varick currently has 2 megawatts of power, but will be upgraded to 10 megawatts this fall.

"It was very difficult," said Stephen Klenert, the CEO of Atlantic Metro. "We put a lot of time and effort into the power issue. There's not a lot of space coming online (in Manhattan) because people don't have the power. That's the hurdle we had to overcome."

In addition to heading Atlantic Metro, Klenert is one of the four principals in Data Center NYC Group, which is responsible for acquiring and developing the space at 121 Varick. Atlantic Metro will manage the building's connectivity and colocation businesses.

"We (Atlantic Metro) bring the management and operation experience for data center and meet-me-room operations," said Klenert. "Data Center NYC Group brings expert builders, the actual housing, the financial stability, and secure properties to offer a safe data center facility for all of our clients."

The building previously housed advertising firms and printing operations, which operated heavy equipment on the site, which thus can support floor loads of up to 300 pounds a square foot. Each floor has a footprint of 10,500 square feet, and will support power loads of up to 250 watts per square foot, Klenert said.

Atlantic Metro Communications will operate the meet-me-room and colocation space for Data Center NYC Group. Construction is also currently underway for an additional 20,000 square feet of turn-key data center space, The building is located within a mile of the 111 8th Avenue and 60 Hudson Street carrier hotels. Fiber and copper metro cross connects are available to other major New York connectivity centers.