Switch and Data Leases North Jersey Site

Switch and Data (SDXC) has leased a 163,500 square foot building in North Bergen, New Jersey to expand its data center network. The building is currently a data center for Sungard Availability Services, a disaster recovery specialist. Sungard's lease expires Jan. 31, after which Switch & Data will take over the facility, according to lease documents filed with the SEC.

Switch and Data said in April that it expected to add 1,000 cabinets to its data center footprint in 2007, primarily by building out expansion space in existing sites. An example of that approach is the company's recent expansion at the Infomart, a carrier hotel in Dallas where Switch and Data already leased space.

The lease of the Sungard facility is a slight departure from that approach, but consistent with the company's plan to avoid new construction projects. The new facility provides Switch and Data with substantial expansion capacity for 2008 in a key business and connectivity market. The company has data centers at three carrier hotels in New York - 60 Hudson Street, 111 Eighth Avenue and 65 Broadway.

The lease by Switch and Data continues the strong activity in the New Jersey data center market, which benefits from strong demand from Wall Street financial firms and enterprise companies based in New York. Equinix (EQIX) is about to open a huge new facility in Secaucus, not far from the new Switch and Data site. Savvis (SVVS) and AT&T (T) recently announced new data centers in Piscataway, while a developer has proposed a 1.4 million square foot data center campus in Old Bridge.

The new facility at 5851 Westside Avenue in North Bergen is owned by Hartz Mountain Industries, and is described in an online brochure from the developer and an IPIX virtual tour on the Sungard site. The three-story facility has dual power feeds and four 2.1 megawatt generators, and is located in an Urban Enterprise Zone with access to major highways and the Lincoln Tunnel.