The Data Center Market: The Data Center Impact on Charlotte's Commercial Real Estate
Who you missed: Ben Rojahn with CBRE’s Data Center Solutions Group moderated a panel comprised of David Jones, Co-Founder and President & CEO of Peak 10; Todd Aaron, Co-Founder and Co-President of Sentinel Data Centers; and Martin Walsh, Vice President of National Mission Critical for Balfour Beatty.
What you missed: CREW Data Center Presentation: As electronic file storage has become critical to businesses of all types and sizes, the infrastructure needed to securely store data has become a niche industry and an area of significant growth. Businesses of varying sizes often look to offsite facilities for storing data, creating an industry focused on providing the structures needed, and therefore creating a demand for construction expertise in building the specialized facilities, as well as companies to manage them. Balfour Beatty’s Mission Critical division combines the company’s extensive construction experience with a specialized knowledge of the IT and security installations required to create a secure facility. Peak 10 works with smaller businesses or specific divisions of larger corporations that have decided to outsource their data storage. Sentinel Data Centers works with very large enterprises that may have the resources to invest in their own data storage facilities, but choose to have the flexibility to better react to changes in the market by allowing a third party to invest the capital needed to develop and manage the facilities.
Why: While those of us involved in commercial real estate may not think a great deal about data storage on a daily basis, we all rely on it in various ways. Financial institutions, health care systems and major retailers all store personal data about each of us that needs to be safe from cyber-crimes as well as natural disasters. As we rely more and more on the ability to have everything we need at our fingertips, stored in the “cloud,” data storage facilities will continue to be a growth sector. The construction of these facilities requires traditional real estate development activities such as site selection, design and construction, including electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems, as well as specialized construction of security and IT infrastructure.