DuPont Fabros Signs First Santa Clara Tenant

dft-santaclara

An aerial view of the new DuPont Fabros data center being built in Santa Clara, Calif.

Announcing milestones on both coasts, developer DuPont Fabros Technology said Tuesday that it has signed up the first tenant for its new  data center in Silicon Valley, and has bought land for a new facility in its core Northern Virginia market. The company also said its earnings nearly doubled from the same period last year, as new tenants came online and began paying rent.

In April the company signed one pre-lease in phase one of its SC1 project, which is currently under construction in Santa Clara, Calif. The seven-year lease provides the tenant with 2.28 megawatts of critical power load. The lease is expected to commence in the third quarter, when the building opens for customer operations. The customer was described as a "Fortune 50 technology company with excellent credit."

Further Expansion in Ashburn

DuPont Fabros (DFT), which operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT), also said Tuesday that it has entered into a contract to purchase 23 acres of land adjacent to its ACC data center campus in Ashburn, Virginia. The company expects to close the $9.6 million purchase before the end of 2011. The land will be used to build additional data centers in Ashburn, one of the hottest data center markets.

Revenues increased to $68.5 million for the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 20 percent over the first quarter of 2010. This increase is primarily due to leases commencing at CH1 Phase I, ACC5 Phase II and NJ1 Phase I. The leases represented 5.1 megawatts of critical load and 24,683 square feet of raised floor space.

Strong Leasing in First Quarter

DuPont Fabros also said it signed five leases in the first quarter totaling 13.65 megawatts of critical load and 74,982 raised square feet with an average lease term of 7.9 years and contract value of $230 million. That includes two leases at ACC5 Phase II totaling 4.55 MW of critical load and 22,000 raised square feet, and three pre-leases at CH1 Phase II totaling 9.10 MW of critical load and 52,982 raised square feet.

"We started strong in 2011, leasing 16 megawatts of critical load year to date, which is approximately 70 percent  of the total leased in 2010," said Hossein Fateh, President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, "Also, we remain on time and budget to open our new developments, SC1 Phase I and ACC6 Phase I, in the third quarter of 2011. These two developments total 31.2 megawatts, representing a 20% increase in our operating portfolio. We continue to see good demand for our wholesale locations."