Citing growing demand for data center services in the Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C., markets, data center provider Baltimore Technology Park announced an expansion of its data center in downtown Baltimore, which is nearing completion. The company said the demand was especially high for scalable power and cooling infrastructure.

The $5-million project will add 7,000 square feet of data center floor and six megawatts of power to the facility. The company is planning to finish the expansion in April, bringing the raised-floor size to 16,500 square feet. The facility's total size is 30,000 square feet. The expansion will be third the site will have undergone in Baltimore Technology's five years of existence.

"In the current economy, businesses are pulling back from large capital expenditures on new equipment for augmenting their existing company owned data infrastructure," Baltimore Technology President Jim Weller said in a statement. "There's enormous demand for outsourcing to an affordable, secure, local data center like BTP with the redundant power, cooling, and network needed to meet the demands of business continuity and disaster recovery objectives."

The provider has already pre-sold some of the new space, with tenants due to move in April. The company said it has seen strong interest from legal, education and healthcare sectors. Last year the company added a large university and a law firm to its client roster.

General contractor Plano-Coudon is managing construction of the expansion and Brown and Heim has been retained for electrical work. Baltimore Gas and Electric will provide additional utility power feeds and additional UPS systems and Caterpillar generators will be installed.