QTS Richmond expanding Henrico data center by 1.5 million square feet

QTS Data Centers’ Richmond Mega Data Center in Sandston is expanding in a big way.

The company recently purchased 200 acres adjacent to its existing footprint to allow for an eventual expansion that could encompass as much as 240 megawatts across 1.5 million square feet of additional capacity. The expansion essentially would double the site and solidify it as one of the largest data centers anywhere in the world.

The center already is an internationally unique and significant one, because it houses the Richmond Network Access Point, or NAP, a connection to four high-speed transcontinental subsea cables and more than 20 other network providers. When it debuted three years ago, it was the only U.S. network access point that connected a variety of land-based data networks with high-speed underwater data cables to Spain and Brazil, making it one of just 11 international internet connection points in the U.S. at the time.

QTS and county officials hosted the QTS NAP Summit May 7, 2019 – an event that attracted some 500 technology and businesses executives from around the world, who came to learn about the benefits of locating near the facility.

“Henrico County has the opportunity to become the next location known globally,” County Manager John Vithoulkas told attendees at the summit. “We will draw new businesses and entrepreneurs to our region. I don’t believe the impact the NAP will have on the quality of life for our region can even be realized yet.”

In a statement following this week’s expansion announcement, QTS Richmond NAP co-founder Clint Heiden, who is also chief revenue officer of QTS Data Centers, said the move would solidify the facility’s significance.

“Henrico and the White Oak Technology Park have been great to QTS and we will continue to seek new opportunities for investment as evidenced by the recent addition of 200+ acres to the Richmond campus,” he said. “We recognize that the digital business world is thriving, the data center industry is growing at exponential pace to accommodate that change, and we have all the tools to usher in a new era of global communications. We look forward to leading the charge together as we have found a great home to build the foundation of Internet infrastructure at the Richmond NAP in Henrico, Virginia.”

The building that QTS occupies is what prompted the county to spend about $45 million to create the White Oak Technology Park in the 1990s, when Motorola wanted to build a semiconductor plant there. The state conveyed the entire site, then known as the Elko Tract, to Henrico, which expeditiously extended water and sewer and constructed a network of roads so that the plant could open in 1998. The plant operated as Infineon Technologies and then Qimonda until abruptly shutting down in 2009 and taking thousands of high-paying jobs with it.

QTS purchased the site the following year for use as a data center, though the space was significantly larger than it expected to need at the time.

“The rapid evolution of the Internet ecosystem in Henrico is the result of years of dedication to the data center industry and Internet infrastructure companies,” said Vinay Nagpal, co-founder of the QTS Richmond NAP and President of InterGlobix. “In order for businesses to succeed in our modern age, the digital world has to be accessible and operational 24/7. To facilitate this, we have developed rock-solid infrastructure with resiliency and diversity top of mind as reflected in the mission of the Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee. Henrico is posed to accentuate economic growth on this foundation.”

The facility also benefits from a unique integration with the new DE-CIX Richmond located within QTS. This revolutionary internet exchange, or IX, is part of the largest carrier and data center neutral interconnection ecosystem in North America.

“Businesses that tap into DE-CIX Richmond are not dependent on one carrier or one data center to transmit their data,” said Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson. “We’re talking increased reliability and flexibility at unsurpassed speeds. Data can travel to Europe and back in one-third of a second – a literal blink of an eye.”