CyrusOne has bought a large piece of land in Northern Virginia where it plans to build what will be its first data center on the US East Coast.

The company has been eying East Coast expansion ever since its shares debuted on Nasdaq about one year ago. Its CEO Gary Wojtaszek told us at the time that the company had its sights set on US expansion on the East Coast and Pacific Northwest, as well as international expansion in Brazil.

By building a data center in Sterling, Virginia, CyrusOne is entering one of the most vibrant data center markets in the US where it will compete with nearly all major providers. These include the likes of DuPont Fabros, Digital Realty Trust, CoreSite, QTS and RagingWire.

Sterling is sandwiched between Reston and Ashburn. All three towns have high concentration of data centers.

In a statement, Wojtaszek said the region had abundant fiber and a steady absorption rate of new data center space. “Locating a data center in Loudoun County will allow us to meet existing customer demand for space in the region, and we expect to begin development of our new facility in the second quarter of 2014,” he said.

The Carrollton, Texas-based company bought 14 acres of land in Sterling which it said could accommodate 400,000 sq ft of building shells that could house up to 240,000 sq ft of raised floor and about 36,000 sq ft of office space. The site's power capacity can go up to 48MW of critical load.

In the first phase of construction, CyrusOne plans to build out a 124,000 sq ft shell with 60,000 sq ft of raised floor, 15,000 sq ft of office space and 12MW of critical load. The company expects to complete the first phase by the end of the year.

The announcement comes about six weeks after CyrusOne announced purchase of 22 acres of land at a business park in Austin, Texas.

The company has more data centers in its home State of Texas than anywhere else, but it also offers space in Illinois, Arizona, Ohio and Kentucky, as well as internationally, in the UK and Singapore.

The company reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2013 as well as the full year Wednesday. Its Q4 revenue was US$72.3m – up 25% year over year.

CyrusOne's full-year 2013 revenue was $263.5m – up 19% year over year.