Equinix announced plans to build a new 152,000 square foot International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in the Washington D.C. area and a new 170,000 square foot IBX data center in the Silicon Valley.

The two greenfield projects increase the company's data center footprint in the two regions by 33 percent.

The expansions are planned to open when Equinix anticipates reaching capacity in the Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley markets.

The Washington, D.C.-6 (DC6) center will have capacity for 1,750 cabinets when it opens in the summer of 2010. It will be located within Equinix's Ashburn, VAdata center campus where Equinix currently operates five other data centers. Capital expenditures for the project are expected to be approximately $100 million, with approximately $30 million being spent in 2009.

The new Silicon Valley-5 (SV5) IBX center will be built on land owned by Equinix that is immediately adjacent to the company's flagship Silicon Valley-1 (SV1) IBX center in San Jose, CA. It will have a total capacity for 2,600 net sellable cabinets at full build out. Equinix intends to build out the center in two phases, with total capital expenditures expected to be approximately $145 million, with approximately $100 million for the initial phase and an estimated $30 million to be spent in 2009.

The first phase will have a capacity of approximately 1,000 cabinets when it opens at the end of the third quarter 2010, and the second phase, which will be built out over time as demand warrants, will include the addition of approximately 1,600 cabinets.

Steve Smith, president and CEO of Equinix, said: "The investments we made years ago in purchasing land adjacent to our existing centers in these markets has given us significant flexibility in our expansion strategy. As we expect to reach capacity within our existing Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley area centers sometime in 2010, these newly announced projects will enable us to accommodate increasing customer growth."

As a result of these expansions in the Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley areas, capital expenditures for 2009 are now expected to be approximately $435.0 million, comprised of approximately $60.0 million of ongoing capital expenditures and$375.0 million of expansion capital expenditures.