Quality Buys Huge DeltaCom Data Center

Quality Technology Group LLC has bought a large Georgia data center from ITC^DeltaCom for $25.8 million, the companies said in a press release. ITC^DeltaCom has been trying for some time to sell the massive Suwanee, Ga. data center, which various reports cite as spanning 376,000 square feet.

Quality has been "rolling up data centers and tech office space for pennies on the dollar of their development cost," according to the Kansas City Business Journal, which reports that Quality CEO Chad Williams has already bought data centers in Topeka, Wichita and Indianapolis and signed a 20-year lease on the former Cable & Wireless PLC data center in Lenexa, Kansas. The magazine reports that Quality is close to buying a data center in the New York market as well.

The Suwanee facility adds a ton of data center footprint to the effort, althought it's not clear how much of that 376,000 square feet is developed. Quality certainly got an attractive price at about $68 per square foot, considerably below other recent data center deals. The public information on the deal doesn't say how much of the property is leased, either. But a 376,000 square foot data center built in 2001 or so ... I'm guessing not a lot of it is occupied. The price certainly supports that assumption.

"This is a strategic purchase for Quality that will launch our managed service business to the national market," said Williams. "With strategic partners like (lender) Hillcrest Bank, we have been able to significantly grow our data center presence in 2005."