Landmark Dividend, a portfolio company of Digital Colony Partners II, the second flagship private equity fund of DigitalBridge Group, today announced that it has acquired a portfolio of assets comprising 1.2 million sqft of data center space, within the Quantum Park campus in Ashburn, Virginia. While Landmark Dividend did not disclose the seller of the Quantum Park campus, a joint venture between Davidson Kempner and American Real Estate Partners (AREP) previously acquired Quantum Park (see History below).
To this end, AREP lists Quantum Park as having 1.5 million sqft, of which 330k sqft is office space (available) and 32.0k sqft is cafeteria. Indeed, this implies that Davidson Kempner and AREP’s Quantum Park asset has ~1.2 million sqft of data center space – aligning with Landmark Dividend’s disclosure.
Quantum Park – Landmark Dividend Scales in Ashburn
Quantum Park is located at 22001 Loudoun County Parkway in the Ashburn area of Northern Virginia. The 135.7-acre site comprises a main campus building and 10 mid-rise data center and office buildings. Specifically, the 10 mid-rise buildings are 3 to 4 stories and interconnect via a main corridor known as Main Street which links into the main campus building.
History
Quantum Park was constructed between 1998 and 2001 as the original headquarters for MCI Communications. Subsequently, MCI was acquired by Verizon Communications in January 2006.
In December 2015, Verizon Business Network Services completed a sale-and-leaseback transaction with a joint venture between Davidson Kempner and American Real Estate Partners (AREP) for $212.5m. As part of the transaction, Verizon Business Network Services signed an 11-year lease with its occupancy commencing in September 2016 and its lease due to expire at the end of November 2027. Additionally, Verizon has two, seven-year renewal options.
At Quantum Park, Verizon housed its critical infrastructure and fiber optic connectivity including its Network Operations Center (NOC).
Power and Connectivity
Presently, Quantum Park has 32.5 megawatts of power capacity on-site and has an additional 32.5 megawatts coming to the site. In terms of connectivity, the campus has access to 24 carriers.
Development Potential
Quantum Park has several plots of land around its perimeter, totaling nearly 50 acres, available for hyperscale data center development. Through incremental developments, Landmark Dividend will be able to utilize the site’s total potential power capacity of 65 megawatts.
Overall, Quantum Park provides DigitalBridge’s Landmark Dividend the opportunity to capitalize on the growing data center demand in Northern Virginia.
As part of the original Verizon Business Network Services lease, the company fully-occupied buildings D-1, F-1, F-2, G-1, and G-2. Additionally, Verizon partially-leased buildings E-1 and E-2. Finally, buildings C-1 and C-2 had short-term leases in-place with Verizon.
At the time of the original transaction, Davidson Kempner and AREP retained buildings B-1 and B-2, which required improvements.
Transaction Advisors – Landmark Dividend
Landmark Dividend’s legal advisors were Bell Nunnally & Martin and McGuireWoods.
