DULLES, VA-The DC area is poised to get some additional data center capacity with the purchase of a 38.8-acre land parcel by Digital Realty Trust. The REIT acquired the parcel from Akridge and Soave Enterprises for $17.3 million with an eye to building additional data center facilities. Digital owns the adjacent data center campus, called Loudoun Exchange.

The land that Digital acquired was carved out of a larger parcel that Akridge and Soave still own. The duo say the will pursue their own development opportunities on the remaining 137 acres, which is south of the Dulles Greenway. The sale of the parcel to Digital, they also say, exceeded the return that Akridge had projected for investors. The remaining acreage can conceivably accommodate more than 1.6 million square feet of new building. Over the next year Akridge plans to come up with a master plan for the south parcel, company VP Mike Gill tells GlobeSt.com. It is unlikely to consider data space, though, he says. More likely it will be an office and mixed-use complex, given that two metro stations will be constructed within a mile by 2016. That is what Akridge had, in fact, planned for the north parcel, which it just sold. “We think a lot of that work can be transferred to the south parcel now,” Gill says.

Akridge senior VP Joseph G. Svatos echoed Gill's take on the south parcel's future in a prepared statement. "This transaction will bring significant, first-class commercial development to Loudoun County," he said. "And the remaining south parcel presents a further opportunity to take advantage of the property's high visibility and access to the Dulles Metrorail extension."

Data center space in the the larger DC area specifically is very scarce, Bryan Loewen with Dallas-based GVA Cawley's Mission Critical Connect told GlobeSt.com in an earlier interview. The two major operators here--Digital and DuPont Fabros Technology--are moving to expand their capacities. Meanwhile, the only available inventory comes from retail providers or companies, such as Microsoft, which are building their own data center spaces.