Yondr Group, a hyperscale data center developer, owner, and operator today announced the acquisition of 270 acres of real estate in both Loudoun County and Prince William County, Virginia, from JK Land Holdings (JKLH), an investment vehicle for Chuck Kuhn, who has significant land holdings in Northern Virginia. In addition to the purchase, Yondr is partnering with JK Land Holdings, in a joint venture, to develop the site.
Assuming a valuation of $1m per acre for the Northern Virginia land purchases, Yondr Group would be paying JK Land Holdings $270m for the data center sites alone. Overall, the company expects the sites to support the delivery of data centers with 500 megawatts of critical IT capacity.
Yondr Group targets having its first capacity ready for service by late 2022. This new data center will be in close proximity to Northern Virginia’s major fiber path and power transmission lines.
Yondr Group – Data Center Strategy
In May 2021, Yondr Group announced its plan to deliver $2bn of data center infrastructure across the United States, Canada, Central, and South America. Indeed, this forms part of the company’s push to deliver data centers across five continents by 2024.
Yondr Group has named four of its five targeted continents including Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. Currently, the company has projects under development in London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Jakarta (Indonesia), and multiple cities in India.
Owners – Yondr Group
Yondr Group’s owners include Cathexis Holdings, a Houston, Texas-based investment firm which serves as the family office for William Harrison. Notably, Yondr was spun-off from ISG Ltd, a ~£2bn revenue General Contractor headquartered in the UK, which Cathexis Holdings also owns.
JK Land Holdings – Northern Virginia Land
Beyond today’s announcement with Yondr Group, JK Land Holdings is a significant owner of land in Northern Virginia. Indeed, the group often has the goal of securing approvals on the land it acquires for data center construction. Specifically, in May 2021, JK Land Holdings announced sizable land purchases in Manassas, Virginia:
Manassas, Virginia (Prince William County)
In mid-May 2021, JK Land Holdings purchased two properties totaling 94 acres in Manassas, Virginia from St. Johns Properties. Located off of Devlin Road, the land is zoned for commercial and light industrial use, with a portion being for heavy industrial use. Indeed, part of Chuck Kuhn’s rationale for the land purchase was to capitalize on Prince William County’s data center growth.
Additionally, in 2020, JKLH bought 135 acres of land in Prince William County off of Wellington Road for commercial, industrial, and data center development. JKLH notes that a portion “of the land will be developed for logistics firms and data centers”.
Northern Virginia – Data Center Market
Northern Virginia is the largest data center market worldwide with total leasing of over 1.2 gigawatts of data center power capacity to-date. Additionally, the market has ~240 megawatts of data center capacity currently under construction.
