Base Partners Purchases LA Facility

Base Partners Inc. has begun developing a 116,000 square data center it recently purchased in El Segundo, Calif. in the Los Angeles market. The facility includes a newly constructed 20 megawatt substation on site, which the company says will be crucial to supporting high-density installations.

The speculative project is another sign of developers' confidence in the data center market in general, and in El Segundo in particular. The LA suburb, located near Los Angeles Airport, was the focus of a high-tech building boom during the dot-com era, including large data center projects built by Exodus and AboveNet that stood empty for years before being bought up in September 2005 by Equinix and 365 Main. The emergence of online video and gaming were major factors in the shift in sentiment towards El Segundo, as access to Los Angeles-area entertainment companies is viewed as critical to gaining traction in those fast-growing businesses.

Base Partners is based in San Francisco, and led by several executives with experience in technology real estate. Company president Aaron Wangenheim worked on technology properties for The Staubach Company, while chief of real estate operations Jean Ann Krupp held a similar position at Digital Island from 1999 to 2003.

"This project will offer Southern California data center users an unprecedented level of security and flexibility," said Krupp. "Critical to the success of the project is the ability to provide up to 300 watts of power per square foot, at a price that will be as low as 7.9 cents per kilowatt hour."

Base Partners' ambitions extend beyond the El Segundo project. "We're also looking for possible development sites in other parts of the country," Krupp told Commercial Property News. "The demand is going to be there on the East Coast and in places such as Texas and Arizona, and we expect to deliver eight facilities in the next three years."