Zayo Group, provider of network connectivity and data center services, announced that its colocation arm zColo is building a data center in downtown Miami. The company is also building out a metro fiber network into its previously existing location in the city.

The new data center, zColo's first Miami location, will be housed within a building owned by the wholesale data center giant Digital Realty Trust. The company has also recently announced expansions in Seattle, Austin, Phoenix and Chicago markets.

Zayo's investment in Miami includes building a high-count fiber ring to connect the Digital Realty data center to Verizon Terremark's NAP of the Americas at 50 NE 9 St., opening up network access for other facilities in the Miami central business district. zColo will occupy 24,000 sq ft of colocation space on the seventh floor of the Digital Realty building, which provides 4MWof power with a fully redundant power and cooling infrastructure.

zColo plans to provide in-building access to 15 major carriers, as well as a virtual presence in the NAP of the Americas through its metro-interconnect dark fiber solution.

Zayo recently announced expansion of long-haul connectivity in the southeast region, bringing Richmond, Raleigh, Tampa and Orlando onto the Zayo network and providing connectivity into Miami. The addition of colocation and dark fiber services in Miami will expand options in the market strong for voice, video and data traffic servicing South and Central America.

Greg Friedman, zColo VP, said, “Miami's significance to Latin American regions and growth as a critical data center market made it an expansion target for zColo. Besides enabling data traffic between Latin American and domestic customers, this new investment allows regional customers to access our US and European fiber network.”

The company is making connectivity deals with multiple Latin American fiber providers in Miami and hopes to serve some of the data demand expected to be created by the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 summer Olympics, both planned to take place in Brazil.

zColo has already pre-leased 40% of the future data center's first phase. It expects to bring the site onine in the first quarter of 2014.