Real Estate Solutions for Data Center Development
Arnold & Porter's Real Estate practice advises investors, developers, and corporate users across the United States and internationally on the full development cycle of hyperscale powered-shell data center projects and other complex, infrastructure-intensive assets. Our team brings a multifaceted understanding of land assemblage, power procurement, and entitlement challenges unique to data center development, along with extensive experience in acquiring, financing, and developing complex real estate projects. That grounding informs how we structure and negotiate joint ventures with co-developers and institutional investors and how we secure acquisition, pre-development, and construction financing tailored to each project's phased capital needs.
Our team works closely with colleagues in the energy group on construction and electric service agreements with utilities and private generation providers — an increasingly critical workstream as hyperscale demand strains grid capacity nationwide. As needed, we bring in colleagues with corporate, cybersecurity, environmental, finance, tax, telecommunications, and CFIUS capabilities to address the broad range of issues that data center transactions present.
Acquisitions: We advise on acquiring land assemblages at various entitlement stages for future data center developments and completed projects, including carrier hotels and other colocation facilities. Our acquisitions practice includes negotiating purchase agreements and conducting due diligence tailored to data center projects. This work spans easement and title issues, survey matters, power capacity, interconnection queue position, environmental conditions, tax incentives, and, where applicable, CFIUS considerations.
Debt Financing: We guide clients through every phase of financing their real estate projects. Our team negotiates loan documents for initial land acquisition and pre-development, secures construction financing tied to critical power delivery and pre-leasing milestones, and structures stabilized financing once a hyperscale tenant takes occupancy.
Joint Ventures: Negotiating joint ventures for data center campuses with co-sponsors or institutional limited partners is a significant part of our practice. As these campuses grow in cost, size, and density, these partnerships have become essential to making the deals work.
Leasing: We have experience representing developers and technology companies in negotiating specialized hyperscale data center leases, including multibuilding campus buildouts.
Pre-Development and Development: We frequently negotiate development and construction management agreements covering both the pre-development and construction phases of data center projects.
Real Estate Funds: Members of our practice group collaborate with clients to establish data-center investment funds, including drafting partnership agreements and ensuring compliance with federal and state securities laws.
Experience Highlights
-
Institutional fund manager and leading data center developer in the acquisition of over 520 acres in Central Pennsylvania for the planned development of hyperscale data center campuses with an eventual load in excess of 1,350 megawatts, anticipated to represent a $15 billion investment.
-
Fortune 100 company in a number of major office and data center leases in Texas.
-
Aligned Energy, an infrastructure technology company that offers data center solutions, in a strategic investment from Macquarie Infrastructure Partners.
-
Leading European data center provider in transactions with “hyperscale” customers for cloud-related infrastructure, facilities, and services.
-
Institutional fund manager and operating partner in the acquisition of 154 acres of undeveloped land in Louisville, Kentucky for the constructions of 1.8 million square feet of data center facilities.
-
International data center developer in raising investor capital, joint venture arrangements, REIT investment and other tax structuring, and holding vehicle restructurings, acquisitions, and dispositions.
-
Leading owner of colocation facilities in a jury trial defeating trademark, trade dress, and breach of contract claims over a leased carrier hotel and Meet-Me Room facility – avoiding over $100 million in exposure – and in its subsequent acquisition of that same historically important facility in the Mountain West.
-
Institutional fund manager and operating partner in a joint venture-related to the acquisition of over 100 acres of land near Richmond, Virginia for the planned development of up to $5 billion in data centers.
-
Institutional fund manager and operating partner in the acquisition of over 120 acres of land near Charlotte, North Carolina through a joint venture for a proposed data center campus with 2.5 million square feet of building space and 500 million megawatts of power capacity.
-
Institutional fund manager and leading data center developer in negotiating a construction loan for a 900 MW data center campus in Virginia.
Key Contacts
Related Services
