DuPont Fabros Closes on Santa Clara Site

DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc. (DFT) has closed on the purchase of 17.2 acres of land in Santa Clara, California for $22.0 million, the company said today. DuPont Fabros plans to build two large data centers at the site. The cost and date of the closing was expected, and had been disclosed in the company’s SEC filings.

The two data centers will include 600,000 gross square feet and 342,000 square feet of finished data center space, with a power capacity of 72.8 megawatts. DuPont Fabros expects the first phase, SC1, to be completed in 2009, but has not announced a timetable for the second phase (SC2).

32 Generators at New DuPont Fabros Facility

DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT) said yesterday that it has completed the second phase of its ACC4 data center in Ashburn, Virginia. The 348,000 square foot facility, which will house servers for Facebook, MySpace and Yahoo, features some of the most extraordinary power infrastructure yet seen in the data center industry. As power usage at data centers continues to grow, the new DuPont Fabros facility may offer a glimpse into the future of infrastructure for premium data centers.

The ACC4 facility has a 36.4 megawatt power feed from Dominion Virginia Power, and is supported by 32 huge 2.25 megawatt diesel generators. That number is correct: 32 generators. The building has four 50,000 gallon tanks of diesel fuel tanks for a total of 200,000 gallons of storage, enough to run the facility on generator power for up to 55 hours during a grid outage. To protect against short-term power outages, ACC4 has 32 rotary power (flywheel) systems that can each produce 1.3 megawatts of output to maintain power until the generators can start.

DuPont Fabros Execs Buying Shares

Ten days after its IPO, shares of DuPont Fabros (DFT) are trading close to the initial offering price of $21 a share. The company’s executives apparently think that’s a bargain, and have been buying shares. Chief executive and president Hossein Fateh and executive chairman Lammot J. du Pont each bought 47,600 shares of stock at $21 a share, spending about $1 million each, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings last week. DuPont Fabros closed yesterday at $21.28 a share.

In other news, the underwriters of the company’s Oct. 19 IPO said they had exercised their option to buy an additional 4,575,000 shares of DuPont Fabros common stock at $21, raising the total proceeds from the offering to $678 million after expenses.

DuPont Fabros Raises $641M in IPO

DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT) has completed its initial public offering at $21 a share, the top end of the $19 to $21 range projected by the company. Shares moved as high as $23 in early trading, and have receded slightly to $22.05 a share in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. DuPont Fabros will trade as a real estate investment trust (REIT), joining Digital Realty Trust (DLR) as the only REITs targeting the market for data center facilities.

DuPont Fabros plans to use $405 million of the proceeds to pay down existing debt, and another $100 million to buy out the investment interests of partners in various real estate entities being rolled into the REIT. About $22 million is expected to be used to purchase the land for its two data center properties in Santa Clara, Calif.

DuPont Fabros IPO Set For Today

DuPont Fabros Technology Inc. is scheduled to make its initial public offering today on the New York Stock Exchange. Last week the company announced that shares would be priced at between $19 and $21 a share. DuPont Fabros plans to sell 30.575 million shares in the IPO, with underwriters Lehman Brother and UBS having an option to buy another 4.5 million shares. The offering is expected to raise $610 million, with an upside potential of $736 million if the overallotment sells as well. The Washington, D.C. company has also launched a brand new web site, which includes detailed descriptions of the company’s data centers and executive bios.

The DuPont Fabros offering is shaping up as a significant indicator of investor interest in the data center sector, as it represents the first IPO by a “pure-play” data center builder since the resurgence began in the data center market. The company plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DFT. Check back for updates once trading begins.

DuPont Fabros Plans IPO Price of $21

Data center developer DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT) will price shares for its initial public offering at $19 to $21 per share, the company said in an SEC filing on Oct. 5. DuPont Fabros plans to sell 30.575 million shares in the IPO, with underwriters Lehman Brother and UBS having an option to buy another 4.5 million shares. If the company sells all 35.075 million shares at $21, it would raise $736 million. The IPO is scheduled sometime during the week of Oct. 15.

DuPont Fabros announced in August that it filed for an IPO as a real estate investment trust. The Washington-based company is an experienced player in the data center space, with five fully-occupied data centers in northern Virginia leased to tenants including Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO) and Google (GOOG). It also owns 13 properties for future development as data centers.

The DuPont Fabros offering is shaping up as a significant indicator of investor interest in the data center sector, as it represents the first IPO by a “pure-play” data center builder since the resurgence began in the data center market. The company plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DFT.

DuPont Fabros Files for $700M IPO

Data center developer DuPont Fabros Technology has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) as a real estate investment trust, in which it hopes to raise $700 million. The Washington-based company is an experienced player in the data center space, which currently owns and operates five fully-leased data centers in northern Virginia to tenants including Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. It also holds 13 properties for development as data centers. DuPont Fabros has also developed and then sold properties to Equinix (EQIX) and Digital Realty Trust (DLR). The company plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DFT.

DuPont Fabros just completed the 150,000 square foot first phase of a major new data center in its Ashburn Corporate Center, which was fully-leased upon its opening. The company will complete the second phase in November (which is already 43 percent leased), and also expects to bring a data center in Elk Grove, Ill. on the market early next year.

The IPO will provide DuPont Fabros with additional capital to develop its portfolio of expansion properties in an environment where rising power and cooling requirements mandate significant infrastructure investment. That’s especially true for companies like DuPont Fabros that focus on developing the most highly-engineered facilites for premium tenants in the Internet and financial sectors.

Google Video a Bonanza for Data Center Operators

Data center owners should be giddy about the launch of Google Video and imminent arrival of similar services providing online video. It’s clear that in coming years, television and movie content will become widely available for download across IP networks. An enormous volume of digital files will need to be stored in data centers for delivery via the Internet.

Think about it. Most major network TV shows, and eventually movies as well, will be digitized and reside on a server. Even in the age of blade servers, the companies that succeed in selling and delivering online video will require large amounts of data center space. This content will need to be stored in facilities offering high reliability and redundancy, ensuring that consumers will have uninterrupted, around-the-clock access to downloads. This is a dream scenario for companies that own or operate quality data centers, particularly those that already have tenant relationships with the providers positioning themselves for leadership roles in this business. Keep in mind that any demand generated by online video comes on top of an already rosy outlook for data center space.

So who are these data center operators poised to benefit from the online video boom? They’re the companies we track here at Data Center Knowledge. Here are some of the industry players positioned to benefit from Google Video and similar services: