The DuPont Fabros Technology ACC4 data center facility in Ashburn, Virginia.
DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT) hopes to complete leasing of its new data centers in Chicago and Virginia by the middle of 2010, but has no immediate plans to restart construction on its projects in New Jersey and Silicon Valley, the company said today.
In the meantime, solid revenue from the company's five fully-leased data centers in northern Virginia helped DuPont Fabros post first quarter earnings that were in line with expectations. The real estate investment trust reported funds from operations (FFO) of $0.25 per share for first quarter of 2009, which was at the top end of guidance.
“During the quarter, we continued to execute on our overall business plan," said Hossein Fateh, President and CEO of DuPont Fabros.
Most of the significant news in the earnings release had previously been disclosed by the company, including:
- The signing of three leases at ACC4 in Ashburn, Virginia, representing 4.55 megawatts of critical
load and 21,700 raised square feet. One of the new tenants is Rackspace (RAX). ACC4 is now 100 percent leased. - One lease was signed at CH1 in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, representing 1.3 megawatts of critical
load and 9,790 raised square feet. CH1 is currently 17 percent leased. - Two pre-leases were signed at the new ACC5 data center in Ashburn, comprising 9.1 megawatts of critical load and 44,000 square feet of raised-floor space. The two pre-leases (one to Net2EZ, and an unannounced lease with Facebook) represent 50 percent of the facility’s critical load, 57 percent of its available space.
In February the company closed on two loans totaling $30.0 million to finance the resumption of construction on ACC5. - Raised $150 million through an "accordion" feature in a loan secured by ACC4, and used the money to pay off the construction loan for CH1.
DuPont Fabros has about $27 million of unrestricted cash, $11 million available on its revolving credit facility, and $20 million of restricted cash available for the completion of construction on phase 1 of ACC5, the company said.
"We're very pleased with our leasing progress," said Fateh. "We continue to believe that we will benefit from the low supply of high-quality wholesale data center space.":
