Cequel Data Centers has bought TierPoint, a provider of colocaiton and managed services, gaining its data centers in the greater Spokane, Washington, serving the Pacific Northwest region of the US.

This is a second acquisition for the company that expands its presence in the second-tier US data center markets. Another second-tier market was added to the company’s portfolio in November 2011, when it bought Perimeter, an Oklahoma data center company that had two facilities.

Cequel president and CEO Paul Estes said TierPoint’s Spokane data center was located in one of the safest areas of the country that also had low energy costs and good fiber connectivity.

“The TierPoint acquisition provides us with geographic diversity and fits well with our overall strategy of acquiring data centers in key markets that position us to respond to the growing demand for colocation, managed IT and cloud computing services,” he said.

TierPoint’s three data centers provide about 30,000 sq ft of raised floor and about 4.4MW of power total. They bring Cequel Data Centers’ total inventory of raised floor to more than 100,000 sq ft.

In addition to Washington and Oklahoma, the company has a data center in Dallas.

Cequel Data Centers was established by a group of investors and private-equity firms in 2010 to buy Colo4, a Dallas data center provider. The group included private-equity firms Thompson Street Capital Partners and Charterhouse Group, as well as the management and investment firm Cequel III.

Cequel III has primarily been playing in the telco space. The company owns Suddelink Communications, a large US cable operator, and Excell Communications, a firm that provides a number of construction-project planning and management services.

In May 2002, Cequel III took on the management of AAT Communications, a tower operator, expanded its portfolio and sold it on behalf of investors to SBA Corp. for about US$1bn.

In partnership with Corvis Corp., Cequel III bought the optical-network operator Broadwing from Cincinnati Bell in 2003 and sold it to Level 3 in 2007.