In Oregon, Mission West Looks to the East

While western Oregon has been a hotbed of data center activity, developer Mission West Properties has decided to look east with a data center development in Ontario, Oregon, close to the border of Idaho.

California developer Mission West Properties (NASDAQ: MSW) is working with Chris Hardin of CDH Consulting on the new data center campus in southeastern Oregon. The project reflects a growing focus on the data center sector for Mission West, the real estate investment trust headed by Carl Berg. The company has been a major player in the real estate scene in Silicon Valley, developing properties for Microsoft, Apple, Equinix and Nvidia, among others.

Berg sees data centers as the next big opportunity. "With demand for cloud computing rising, we believe the need for mission-critical data center space will grow rapidly in the next two to three years, said Berg. “For prospective tenants, the Mission West/CDH Consulting property in Ontario will provide outstanding economic development incentives, low power costs and the ability to design and build a facility to suit specific needs.”

Oregon has been a hot spot for data center development. The state has no sales tax, as well as a climate that is ideal for free cooling – the use of fresh air cool servers, a strategy which can dramatically reduce the cost of operating a data center. The primary Oregon locations benefiting from the data center boom have been the Portland area – especially Hillsboro, a tech hub that grew up around a major Intel campus - and the small town of Prinevlle, where Facebook and Apple are building major data centers.

Can that success extend to Ontario? Hardin, an industry veteran who was worked with leading colocation providers, notes that the Ontario property boasts power costs of 4.65 cents per kWh, and will also include an onsite power sub-station. Idaho Power is able to provide two 50 megawatt power feeds from two separate substations, with the first available in 10 months. Idaho Power is also able to provide temporary/construction power of 1 megawatt) within 6 weeks.

The Ontario site also provides carrier neutral connectivity from Qwest, Level 3, Verizon, Integra, Time Warner, AT&T and 360 Networks. The developers say the state of Oregon can offer 20 consecutive years of real estate tax abatement valued at up to $22.4 million.

Mission West owns more than 100 properties totaling almost 8 million square feet, with major tenants including Apple and Microsoft.