New, Large-Scale Data Center Planned in Maryland After $100M Land Deal
By Keith Loria June 28, 2021 12:47 pm
reprints
A joint venture between TPG Real Estate Partners and Quantum Loophole has acquired a 2,100-acre property in Frederick, Md., from Alcoa Corporation for $100 million.
The site will be redeveloped into what its backers are calling a first-of-its-kind, gigawatt-scale data center community.
“Demand for cloud computing and cloud-based services has grown rapidly over the past decade, and Frederick County is an important growth outlet for the Northern Virginia data center market,” Ty Newell, TPG Real Estate Partners’ managing director, said in a statement. “With industrial zoning and access to significant power capacity, the development site will offer several benefits to a fast-growing hyperscale tenant base that is intensely focused on speed of delivery.”
Located at 5601 Manor Woods Road, the land was once the site of a smelter and was marketed as the largest parcel of contiguous commercially zoned land in the Washington-Baltimore region.
Coming in at around $47,619 an acre, the price is considerably lower than land in the data center sites of Northern Virginia’s Loudoun and Prince William counties, which command around $1 million an acre, based on deals over the past year.
The scheduled development plan includes a design for sustainable power and water use, investments in robust fiber connectivity, and a nature-first aesthetic to protect views and reduce visibility from public roadways, protecting existing historical structures.
“This project marks the first comprehensive approach to data center development inclusive of environmental impact, efficiency in power use and distribution, fiber connectivity, and a streamlined approach to construction,” Josh Snowhorn, Quantum Loophole’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Together, we are implementing a truly powerful next-generation clean cloud community that will reshape the industry, raising the bar for accountability, sustainability, and planned future data center development to the next level.”
Houlihan Lokey served as financial adviser to Quantum Loophole, while law firm Jackson Walker and David Severn of Offit Kurman were the company’s legal advisers.
