Equinix Retires Mortgage for Ashburn Campus

Colocation provider Equinix has gained control of one of its most important real estate assets, paying $93 million to retire the mortgage on its data center campus in Ashburn, Virginia. The company said in an SEC filing that it prepaid a mortgage with a unit of iStar Financial that was secured by the 32-acre business park in Ashburn, Virginia, which houses six Equinix data centers that serve as a key hub for Internet activity.

The mortgage was prepaid to iStar Tara LLC  for 105 percent of the outstanding principal balance of the loan. When interest and other charges sre added in, the total was $93.8 million. At its annual analyst day in November, Equinix indicated that it might retire the loan, citing an "inflexible debt structure."

The Equinix Ashburn campus includes more than 620,000 square feet of data center space. The campus is one of the Internet's busiest intersections, managing digital traffic flow between the nearly 200 networks that meet inside the buildings. The campus is a strategic focal point for Equinix, which has built a prosperous business helping companies avert Internet traffic jams.