A joint venture between Harrison Street, an investment management firm focused on alternative real assets, and PowerHouse Data Centers, a real estate developer for next-generation hyperscale data centres, announced the sale of ABX-1, a 265,580-square foot powered shell data centre with 60 MW of power, located in Ashburn, Virginia. The sale marks the successful completion of the joint venture’s first development together.
Launched in January 2022, the PowerHouse and Harrison Street joint venture partnership has committed $3.2 billion to develop powered shell data centres representing nearly 6 million square feet of data centre space in Northern Virginia, Dallas and Reno.
ABX-1 was fully leased to global data centre company, CyrusOne, ahead of the data centre’s final completion in October 2023. “This project reflects the strength of the Northern Virginia data centre market, which has been the nation’s fastest-growing data centre market for the past five years,” says Michael Hochanadel, Managing Director and Head of Digital Assets for Harrison Street. “Since forming our joint venture with PowerHouse in 2021, we’ve successfully executed our strategy of developing flexible powered shell facilities in Northern Virginia that meet the exacting specifications of leading cloud providers and colocation users. We look forward to continuing this partnership and expanding our portfolio across Northern Virginia and other strategic US markets where robust digital infrastructure is in high demand.”
The sale of ABX-1 is a notable milestone for PowerHouse’s joint venture with Harrison Street. “PowerHouse’s innovation and expertise, coupled with Harrison Street’s valuable partnership, enables us to deliver high-quality data centre infrastructure with unbeatable speed to market,” explains Doug Fleit, Co-Founder and CEO of PowerHouse Data Centers. “With several projects underway across the country and a growing pipeline of developments, we remain laser-focused on serving the growing demands of hyperscale providers and creating long-term value for our communities and the broader industry.”
Following the sale of ABX-1, PowerHouse and Harrison Street have three campus developments completed or underway in Northern Virginia, with an executed lease, pre-lease, or letter of intent for 100% of the buildable square feet. In addition to the Virginia portfolio, the joint venture recently purchased land and started construction on PowerHouse Reno (in Reno, Nevada), and PowerHouse Irving (in Dallas, Texas), to develop new state-of-the-art data centre campuses to address the needs of these rapidly growing, highly connected data centre markets.
Since 2018, Harrison Street has committed over $5.4 billion to powered shells, carrier hotels, colocation sites, and dark fibre platforms. Over this time, the firm has expanded its relationships with dedicated operating partners and hyperscale users, raised discretionary capital for a dedicated digital vehicle and
realised on its first data centre investments. The sale of ABX-1 continues to demonstrate the growing investor demand across alternative real estate sectors.
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