NEW YORK CITY—The increasingly high-tech realm in which we live, work and play has made an impact on commercial real estate in numerous ways. Tech has given rise to office leasing in neighborhoods that might have seemed unlikely when GlobeSt.com launched, it has given a leg up to industrial in the form of e-commerce driving demand for logistics space and it has transformed the way real estate transactions are conducted. It has also given rise to a new asset class, data centers.

Thanks in large measure to the advent of cloud computing, demand for data center capacity—generally measured in megawatts, rather than square footage—has mushroomed. A recent CBRE report on the sector found that the construction pipeline for data centers increased by more than 70% year over year to 184.4 MW, on top of 99.9 MW of capacity that was delivered in the first half of the year. “On a macro level, the development out there is as good as it's ever been,” Chad Freese, a Chicago-based EVP AT CBRE, told GlobeSt.com's Brian J. Rogal last month. “Companies have embraced the cloud as a solution for their IT platform.” 

Corporations' adoption of cloud-based solutions means that data centers likewise are here to stay, says Michael Silla, SVP of Skanska USA's Mission Critical Center of Excellence and a GlobeSt.com advisory board member. “Right now there is a tremendous need for upgraded, resilient data center infrastructure across the US and each project provides a set of unique challenges,” he says.

Industry professionals, he adds, must seek to deliver solutions “by working hand-in-hand with clients. The data center market is evolving as the need for secure and efficient data centers grows, with industry and technological changes sometimes occurring at a faster rate than construction itself.”

Silla offers some points to keep in mind when undertaking data center projects. For one thing, he says, “A partnering approach is vital to a project's success. Contractors should take unique challenges clients are facing into consideration and work as a team to find a project-based solution.”

Secondly, says Silla, “Solutions should be delivered to meet future needs. By staggering construction of data centers we can build a highly relevant, cutting edge facility and avoid trendy, outdated technology.”

In order to develop best-in-class data center facilities, he says, it's important to look at best value over time versus first cost. “This is achieved by master planning scalable and flexible facilities with a true lifecycle,” Silla says. For example, if plans call for a 10-MW total facility which will grow in 2-MW increments, “then plan your initial build-out of 2MW in a compartmentalized fashion."

This approach, he continues, "will allow you to adapt your design and infrastructure down the road to accommodate technology changes. This looks more like building five data centers within one data center, a more efficient method than building a large data center that becomes legacy long before it is grown into. Ultimately this means you are better positioned to match your load to infrastructure.”

Data center projects require collaboration among parties, he adds. “Ultimately, contractors should help lead the charge to deliver researched ideas and operational solutions that are one step ahead, delivering a functional and forward-thinking design for each individual project.”