Wavve is funding the estimated $250-million project through Capital Lease Funding's proprietary construction-permanent credit tenant lease financing. Wavve's new "ZeroCap" program will offer Internet service providers, telecom carriers and corporate clients access to high-end operating systems without the requirement for up-front capital investment.

Utilizing this program, the partnership recently completed a 92,000-sf, $48-million data center in Sacramento. The as yet unnamed anchor tenant in this case utilized the program to private-label the data center under its own brand name and will occupy 30,000 sf for 10 years.

Wavve president and COO Bob Ingraham says as long as these potential anchor customers are rated at least BBB or better and commit to 20,000 sf for at least 10 years, Wavve will work with them to either locate and build new data center sites, or buy and execute a sale-leaseback of their existing data centers.

"Either way, these anchor customers will be able to divert their data center capital expenditures back into other areas of their business," says Ingraham. The plan is that by financing each data center as a real estate deal secured by a blue-chip tenant, the company can achieve a critical mass and ultimate profitability.

The timing of the Capital Lease Lending deal was just what the doctor ordered for Wavve. In a filing with securities regulators at the end of its third quarter, was in serious financial trouble: "The ability of the company to continue as a going concern... is dependent on a number of factors, including the ability of the company to obtain the necessary financing to complete its business plan."

In the first nine months of 2000, Wavve says it lost $11.36 million on revenue of $658,000. The company trades on the Canadian Venture Exchange, and its stock has reflected Wavve's financial woes. Down from a high of $17.50 (Canadian) last March, shares closed out Wednesday at 52 cents a share, up 4 cents on the day.