March 16, 2021
Datacenter FrontierFor the past five years, American Real Estate Partners has been the steward of a piece of Northern Virginia’s data center history. The developer is now looking to own a bigger part of Ashburn’s cloud-powered future.
American Real Estate Partners (AREP) owns Quantum Park, the former UUNet site that was a key connectivity hub dating to the early days of the Internet. In January, the company acquired a property near the center of “Data Center Alley” where it plans to build a new data center. It’s the first step in a strategic expansion into the data center market in Loudoun County and beyond.
“We believe the data center market is still in its early growth stages, and there’s a long trend for the development of data centers,” said Doug Fleit, the CEO and co-founder of American Real Estate Partners.
AREP teamed with investment firm Harrison Street Partners to acquire a 10-acre property at the intersection of Beaumeade Circle and Loudoun County Parkway in Ashburn, where they plan to build a 265,000 square foot data center. Harrison Street has stepped up its focus on the data center sector, and Fleit is excited about the possibilities.
