Data Centers

With our expertise in investment funds, finance, securitization, real estate, M&A, environmental and land use, IP, and data privacy, we provide a comprehensive approach to your data center transactions.

We know the data center industry’s needs and requirements, from wholesale/hyperscale and colocation to enterprise, including information storage, property needs, power and cooling supply, and redundancy requirements.

Alston & Bird’s Data Center Team understands the complex technical and unique operational issues you face daily. We represent data center developers, investors, operators, lenders, and other related companies throughout the entire life cycle of a data center project. 

Our services range from strategy, fund formation, financing, site selection, acquisition, development, leasing, and operations to exit. Our multidisciplinary team of attorneys works seamlessly with our subject-matter expert colleagues in data privacy, intellectual property, economic development, REITs, and tax.

Clients seek our advice on transactions that include:

• Counseling private investment funds and asset managers on fund formation, private transactions, regulatory enforcement, and more in the data center sector.
• Providing advice on structured finance and M&A transactions involving data center revenues.
• Representing lenders in financing data centers involving construction, term, mezzanine, and revolving credit lines.
• Providing credit agency rating guidance on data center securitizations.
• Representing borrowers in the data center construction financing space.
• Representing clients in the acquisition, due diligence, and disposition of data centers, including joint venture agreements.
• Counseling clients on complex environmental permitting and land use matters.
• Providing practical answers to tough global privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity issues.

Investment Funds

• Represented an evergreen global core+ data center fund that acquires hyperscale data centers.
• Represented a public company that develops data centers in North America in the formation of a bitcoin mining fund.

Corporate Finance

• Advised the administrative agent in a $100 million second-lien financing of a data center operator.
• Advised the administrative agent in a $50 million debt financing and preferred equity financing of a data center operator.
• Advised the administrative agent in a $30 million financing of a data center operator.
• Representing an international banking and financial products firm in the financing of the acquisition and development of a large data center in the London Docklands.

Structured Finance & Securitizations

• Represented the initial purchasers of securitization notes backed by data center revenue in six issuances totaling $2.5 billion.
• Represented a data center company in its inaugural $1.15 billion and C$883.4 million Canadian data center securitizations.
• Represented an initial purchaser of the first securitization notes backed by data center revenue to earn an A+ rating in an $800 million issuance.
• Designated investor’s counsel to investors in securitization notes backed by revenue of a build-to-suit, single-tenant data center.
• Represented an international rating agency in its review, analysis, and rating of multiple structured data center financings, including master trust secured revenue term notes and CMBS commercial real estate securitizations.

Real Estate & Development

• Advised the administrative agent and bank group in the construction financing of a build-to-suit, single-tenant data center in Quincy, WA.
• Advised the administrative agent and bank group in the construction financing of a $200 million build-to-suit, single-tenant data center in Santa Clara, CA.
• Advised the borrower in the construction financing of a build-to-suit, single-tenant data center in Northern Virginia.
• Advised the administrative agent in a $160 million construction financing of a single-tenant data center.
• Advised the administrative agent and bank group in the syndicated term financing of colocation data centers in Silicon Valley, Chicago, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Portland, OR.
• Represented the lender in the negotiation of leases and other documentation for the construction of build-to-suit, single-tenant data centers intended to be securitized.
• Represented a Fortune 500 company in the long-term leases of build-to-suit data centers.

Data Privacy, IP, M&A & Restructurings

• Advised a global shipping and logistics solutions company on the data and IT issues of a potential data center engagement.
• Defended a leader in optical communications solutions for data centers in patent infringement actions.
• Represented a private equity fund in its acquisition of a national provider of services for data center infrastructure and servers.
• Represented the purchaser in the $53 million acquisition of a provider of dark fiber metro networks and related owner of data center/colocation facilities.
• Representing an ad hoc creditor group in the liability management transaction and Chapter 11 restructuring of a prominent data center.