COPT Buys 34 Acres in Loudoun’s ‘Data Center Alley’

The number of planned data centers has grown again in Ashburn, sometimes called “data center alley,” with the announcement that Maryland-based Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) has purchased 34 acres near Gloucester and Loudoun County parkways to serve as a new campus for a Fortune 500 company.

COPT purchased the property from St. John Properties Inc. for $14 million. St. John recently broke ground on another property in Ashburn.

According to its website, COPT “is an office real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses primarily on strategic customer relationships and specialized tenant requirements in the U.S. Government and Defense Information Technology sectors and Data Centers serving such sectors.”

The company intends to start construction later this year on a 200,000-square-foot building, with plans to begin work on a 115,000-square-foot building by mid-2014.

“We are pleased to be able to meet this customer’s need in Northern Virginia, one of COPT’s strategic markets,” COPT president and CEO Roger A. Waesche, Jr. said in a press release.

COPT has planned a $42 million project at the site called Ashburn Crossing.

“This area of Loudoun County is close to the backbone of the Internet, as well as to Dominion Virginia Power’s Beaumeade substation,” said Loudoun County Department of Economic Development Assistant Director Buddy Rizer, in the release. “In addition, there’s infrastructure for connection to Loudoun Water’s reclaimed water system, which offers data centers operational savings.”

In 2012, Loudoun added nearly 3 million square feet of data center space was added to the existing 4.5 million square feet. Up to 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic now passes through data centers in Loudoun, primarily Ashburn.

“We were very impressed with the professionals in Loudoun County and the way they have embraced this project,” said COPT Senior VP of Government Services Chuck Fiala. “They’ve been responsive and thorough, and we look forward to a smooth construction process.”