US wholesale data center provider DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT) has brought online the second phase of its fifth data center in Ashburn, Virginia, as it enters the initial phases of construction of its next facility in the city.

The entire 13MW second phase of its ACC6 data center in Ashburn has already been fully leased, the company said in its first-quarter earnings report. In May, DFT signed an agreement with a contractor who will build Phase I of ACC7.

Its next Ashburn data center will be the first facility to be built to DFT's new design, which the company's CEO Hossein Fateh said was highly efficient. The design is also “modular”, allowing the company to add capacity in smaller chunks than it has traditionally done.

“With our ability to build in modular units as small as 5.9 MW of critical load, DFT can deliver on a just-in-time basis, reducing the risk of speculative development,” Fateh said.

In Phase I of ACC7, however, the company will bring online about 12MW of critical load, expecting to complete construction in the second quarter of 2014. This data center will be built out in four phases, which at the end will total about 42MW of capacity.

DFT said its estimated out-of-pocket cost for Phase I will be from US$155m to $160m. The company estimates the total cost of the entire data center will be about $7.9m per 1MW.

DFT reported $87.8m in revenue for the first quarter, up 12% year over year. The company's funds from operations (similar to net income) for the quarter were US$0.40 per share, an 18% increase from the first quarter of last year.

During the quarter, DuPont Fabros signed one lease with a tenant, totaling 2.28MW and 11,000 sq ft of raised floor, at its Santa Clara, California, data center. The facility is now nearly 90% leased.

Since the end of the first quarter, the provider signed one more lease for 1.73MW and about 10,000 sq ft of raised floor at its Chicago data center. With this lease commenced, the facility is also now 100% leased.

The company said 90% of its operating data center portfolio had been leased as of the end of March.

DFT has more data centers in Ashburn than it has anywhere else. It has two more data centers in other Virginia towns: Reston and Bristow.

In addition to its Virginia, Chicago and Santa Clara presence, the company also has a facility in Piscataway, New Jersey.