$70M Data Recovery Building Ready to Go

EL SEGUNDO, CA-Kilroy Realty Corp. has started marketing space in a 131,000-sf building that is outfitted with $70 million in special equipment and systems that make it one of the country’s most advanced disaster recovery data centers, according to company officials.

John Fucci, senior vice president of asset management for the Los Angeles-based REIT, tells GlobeSt.com that the building at 2260 East El Segundo Blvd. is outfitted with redundant power systems, high-speed telecommunications connections, a 50,000-gallon underground fuel tank to keep its generators going for up to five days in an emergency, advanced fire-suppression systems, its own well as a source of water for the air conditioning system, advanced security systems and a host of other features designed especially for disaster recovery operations.

Fucci says Kilroy sees a demand for disaster recovery space–where companies can maintain backup data centers that duplicate their existing data centers–in light of government pressure for companies to separate backup data centers from their primary data hubs. Government officials began recommending such backup data centers soon after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Kilroy developed the building at 2260 E. El Segundo Blvd. initially as an industrial facility for a fraction of the $70 million that was spent by a former tenant, AboveNet, which operated it for about 18 month before going bankrupt. Kilroy got the building in August from the bankruptcy.

AboveNet outfitted the structure with special data center equipment and safety systems.The building is what is termed a Tier 4 “mission critical” facility, Fucci explains, the highest level of sophistication and safety for such structures. It is built to the standards required of an “essential facility” by building codes that specify the construction and equipment standards for such facilities.

Kilroy sees the building as either a single-tenant or a multi-tenant facility, Fucci says, depending on market demand. He says the building design allows for flexibility in the size of spaces, so it could house either one or many disaster recovery operations.

“It’s a facility where corporations can mirror what’s going on at their data centers in other locations,” Fucci explains. In the event of a disaster or emergency at a corporation’s other data center, he explains, the data recovery center in El Segundo could substitute as long as would be necessary.