QTS Realty Trust is expanding in Northern Virginia

QTS Realty Trust, an international provider of data center, managed hosting and cloud services, is building another data center in Ashburn. The company announced Wednesday that it has started development on a mega data center campus, following the purchase of 52 acres for $53 million.

The site, consisting of two parcels, is located adjacent to QTS' existing Vault campus in Dulles. The company, based in Overland Park, Kansas, said that the combined land parcels will enhance its strategic options in Northern Virginia — the nation's largest data center market — where  land for development has become increasingly scarce.

QTS believes the new site can ultimately support more than 700,000 square feet of raised floor capacity and 140 megawatts of gross power.

QTS has begun construction on the first 24-acre parcel of land and expects to deliver Phase 1 of its multi-tenant development, representing about four megawatts of critical sellable capacity, by mid-2018.

To date, QTS said it has pre-leased 2.2 megawatts to a global health insurance provider.

Through the first half of 2017, the Northern Virginia data center market has accounted for about 25 percent of total wholesale capacity absorption among the top 10 data center markets in the U.S., largely driven by demand from hyperscale companies, according to a report from JLL.

“We are excited to have additional sellable capacity in a strategic QTS market to expand our ecosystem of more than 130 customers currently supported within our Northern Virginia footprint,” Chad Williams, chairman and CEO of QTS, said in a statement.