Virginia Data Center Lease Agreement Signed Between Facebook and DuPont Fabros

Data center operator DuPont Fabros announced in late May that it had signed a deal to lease a large portion of its new Ashburn data center to Facebook.

The new facility, known as ACC7, is currently under a second phase of construction. The expansion will add 9 MW of critical load and 50,000 square feet of space to the site, making it DuPont Fabros' largest facility. Despite not opening until the end of 2015, ACC7 is already 84 percent leased on a critical load basis.

One of the Virginia data center's biggest customers is Facebook. The new lease provides the tech giant with an additional 7.5 MW and nearly 45,000 square feet in ACC7. Facebook now leases a total of more than 40 MW across DuPont's Ashburn campus. The lease provides Facebook with 4.5 MW in phase I which will be immediately available and an additional 3 MW when phase II comes online.

"We are gratified by Facebook's confidence in DFT and our ability to provide continuous and highly efficient power and cooling to their computer servers and network equipment," said Christopher Eldredge, president and chief executive officer of DuPont Fabros. "The expanded relationship with Facebook gives us the opportunity to customize leases with terms that suit the long-term goals of both companies."

Facebook leasing on its own terms
As part of the new lease deal, DuPont Fabros agreed to amend each of Facebook's current leases. The terms of the new leases stipulate that Facebook has the ability to individually decrease the term of the lease of each of nine computer rooms, all of which offer 2.3 MW of available load. These changes will be allowed providing the aggregate reduction in lease terms does not exceed 67 months. The changes also allow for the extension of the lease of one 2.3 MW computer room by six months and two 4.3 MW computer rooms by 12 months each.

DuPont Fabros recently reported positive leasing trends for the first quarter of 2015. However, Facebook's new lease is more than all of the previous first quarter leasing activity. WIth the new lease agreement, occupancy in DuPont's entire portfolio is now at 96 percent, up from 94 percent prior to Facebook's lease.  

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