Neocloud provider CoreWeave has purchased a data center it was leasing at the Northeast Science & Technology Center (NEST) in Kenilworth, Union County, New Jersey.

In a transaction valued at $322 million, CoreWeave has purchased part of the 107-acre campus. Newmark arranged the sale and represented the sellers, Machine Investment Group and Onyx Equities.

CoreWeave signed a lease for building 11 at the campus, located at 2000 Galloping Hill Road, in October 2024. At the time, the company was planning to invest $1.2 billion in converting the 280,000 sq ft (26,010 sqm) former lab and manufacturing building into a data center. The previous owners were also expected to spend more than $50 million on the project.

Now the neocloud has acquired the facility, as well as a neighboring 27-acre parcel.

The campus was acquired by Onyx Equities and Machine Investment Group in 2023 for $187.5 million, which plans to create a mixed-use life sciences and innovation hub.

"We are pleased to announce that CoreWeave has purchased the 280,000 building it had already secured by lease and the land immediately around it at Northeast Science and Technology Center in Kenilworth, NJ," Onyx Equities spokesperson Ron Simoncini said.

"Onyx Equities and its partner Machine Investment Group continue to own and operate the balance of the site and has more than two million square feet of space to lease on the campus."

Newmark's co-head of strategic advisory, Andrew Warin, and executive vice chairman Josh King, led the sale.

Speaking on the acquisition, King said: "This milestone sale builds on our longstanding track record of delivering strategic outcomes for data center investors and developers. As AI infrastructure evolves, we’re seeing capital flood into locations where power, entitlement, and connectivity converge—and this site checks every box.”

CoreWeave seems to be shifting towards a business model wherein it owns more of its data center sites. While the company self-builds data centers and leases capacity from several other operators, including Lincoln, Chirisa, Flexential, TierPoint, Digital Realty, DataBank, Switch, Galaxy, and Applied Digital, in early July it announced it was acquiring data center developer Core Scientific - from which it leases around 840MW of data center capacity - for $9 billion.

CoreWeave CEO, Michael Intrator, said at the time of the Core Scientific acquisition that "verticalizing the ownership of Core Scientific’s high-performance data center infrastructure enables CoreWeave to significantly enhance operating efficiency and de-risk our future expansion, solidifying our growth trajectory."

The transaction was brokered by Cushman & Wakefield on behalf of the buyer and Newmark on behalf of the seller. The rest of the 107-acre site, still owned by Onyx Equites and Machine Investment Group, includes 1.7 million square feet of additional leasable area and is being marketed through JLL.

This article has been updated to clarify what parts of the campus CoreWeave acquired