With Ashburn Buy, AREP Hopes to Establish Itself in the Data Center Industry
AREP enters data center industry
By Daniel J. Sernovitz
Equinix, Digital Realty, QTS Realty Trust … and American Real Estate Partners?
It might seem discordant to include AREP, primarily a developer of office and mixed-use buildings, on a list of heavyweights in the data center industry, but the Herndon-based commercial real estate firm hopes to have its name on such a list before long.
The firm recently teamed up with Chicago-based investment management firm Harrison Street to acquire a 10.3-acre development site in Ashburn, one of the largest data center hubs in the world, and plans to develop a two-story, 265,000-square-foot shell for data center use on the site at 21455 Beaumeade Circle. The pair hope to begin construction later this year after closing the $21.5 million acquisition form an affiliate of Chirisa Investments, which had larger ambitions for the property when it paid $15.4 million for it in 2018.
