H5 Data Centers, a privately-owned retail colocation and wholesale data center provider, today announced the acquisition of 7 retail colocation facilities from vXchnge. Specifically, these facilities are located in the U.S. markets of Nashville, Tennessee; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; Secaucus, New Jersey; St. Louis, Missouri; and St. Paul, Minnesota.
Notably, H5 Data Centers is not acquiring vXchnge’s 14k sqft NC-01 data center in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina.
vXchnge Portfolio – H5 Data Centers Gains Scale
vXchnge’s 7 retail colocation data centers comprise 280k sqft and, as a reference point, offer 20.6 megawatts of generator backup power. Below is further detail on the 7 colocation facilities that vXchnge is selling to H5 Data Centers:
| Data Center | Address | City | State | MW* | sqft |
| TN-01 | 211 Commerce St | Nashville | Tennessee | 3.0 | 22k |
| PA-01 | 1500 Spring Garden St | Philadelphia | Pennsylvania | 7.5 | 72k |
| PA-02 | 2202 Liberty Ave | Pittsburgh | Pennsylvania | 1.3 | 20k |
| OR-01 | 1233 NW 12th Ave | Portland | Oregon | 2.0 | 42k |
| NJ-01 | 200B Meadowlands Pkwy | Secaucus | New Jersey | 2.5 | 46k |
| MO-01 | 710 N. Tucker Blvd | St. Louis | Missouri | 1.5 | 36k |
| MN-02 | 1125 Energy Park Dr | St. Paul | Minnesota | 2.8 | 42k |
| Total | — | — | — | 20.6 | 280k |
H5 Data Centers’ 7-site acquisition includes 150+ unique customers, including carriers, large enterprises, content delivery networks (CDNs), and cloud service providers.
Prior Divestitures
Over the past 12 months, vXchnge has been systematically divesting its data center portfolio to different buyers:
- Cologix (Stonepeak Infrastructure): acquired vXchnge’s CA-01 data center campus in Santa Clara, California. This purchase comprised an existing 84k sqft data center, with 9 megawatts of power capacity. Additionally, Cologix is able to add a further 10 megawatts, to reach 19 megawatts of power capacity at full build-out
- Element Critical (Safanad and Industry Capital): acquired vXchnge’s TX-01 data center in Austin, Texas. This purchase included an existing 62.3k sqft data center, with 7 megawatts of critical IT load. Also, Element Critical can add a further 6 megawatts, to reach 13 megawatts of power capacity in the near-term
Ownership
vXchnge has the backing of Stephens Group, a family-owned private equity firm, which has been an investor in the company since 2010.
H5 Data Centers – Overview
H5 Data Centers was founded in 2010 and, pro forma for today’s acquisition, has 2.3+ million sqft of data center space under management in 20 U.S. markets.
Beyond H5 Data Centers’ entry into 7 new markets, the company also operates in Albuquerque, Ashburn, Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Phoenix, Quincy, San Antonio, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, and Seattle.
Ownership
H5 Data Centers is privately-owned by its founder and Chief Executive Officer Josh Simms, who also manages other real estate investments through H5 Capital, L.P.
Additionally, H5 Data Centers has been sponsored by Ronald A. Simms, who is Josh’s father. Ronald Simms is a commercial real estate investor, through Simms Commercial Development, in the sectors of office, retail, industrial, and data centers. As disclosed in commercial real estate securitization filings, Ronald Simms’ stated net worth, as of December 31, 2013, was in excess of $67.4m.
