Netrality has secured a new loan for the development of a new data center in Shawnee, Kansas.
The company this week announced its securement of a $45 million construction loan to ‘support sustainability enhancements’ at Netrality’s facility located at 7801 Nieman Road in Johnson County.
Oakwood Bank as Administrative Agent, Sole Lead Arranger, and Sole Bookrunner along with Blue Sky Bank and Bank Midwest.
The company said the loan’s proceeds will be focused on ‘energy efficiency and water conservation’ enhancements. In November 2021, the Shawnee City Council issued $56.2 million in federally taxable private activity revenue bonds for the development of the property.
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to create a construction loan with Oakwood Bank that supports Netrality’s commitment to creating sustainable environments, including state-of-the-art, energy-efficient electrical distribution and cooling technology,” said Gerald M. Marshall, CEO of Netrality Data Centers. “The loan structure incentivizes Netrality to maintain power utilization efficiency levels below certain agreed-upon benchmarks and implement waterless cooling for the data halls.”
Jacob Wall, SVP of Commercial Real Estate at Oakwood Bank, added: “Oakwood is thrilled to agent and finance the redevelopment of 7801 Nieman Road into an institutional quality, best-in-class data center. This marks the first loan linked to sustainability in the Bank’s history, which was one of the key components in Netrality’s financing request. Oakwood could not have asked for a better owner-operator to work with, and we are excited to partner with Netrality’s talented team. We look forward to the evolution of this asset and its positive impact on Shawnee.”
In December 2021, Netrality acquired 7801 Nieman Road and shared plans to develop and renovate the Energy Star facility that spans 172,000 square feet (16,000 sqm), including 40,000 sq ft (3,700 sqm) of office space. According to previous brochures, the two-story building was built in 1998 and sits on nearly 11 acres of land in the Nieman Business Park.
The first phase of development will include a new data hall with 2MW of critical capacity and is targeted to open in May 2023. An additional data hall featuring 2MW of critical capacity will be delivered in the second phase of development. At full build-out, the facility could offer up to 10MW of capacity.
This will be Netrality’s second data center in Kansas; it currently has one data center in Kansas City at 1102 Grand Blvd. The company acquired the 156,100 sq ft (14,500 sqm) facility in 2012.
Cullen Aderhold, managing director, and Luke Rogers, senior analyst of JLL Capital Markets, represented Netrality Data Centers in the transaction. Stuart Kurtz and Stacy Bedwick of Kurtz & Revness, P.C. provided legal counsel to the company.
Emmett W. Berryman, Clayton E. Greenberg, and Nathan Straley of Liechty, McGinnis, Berryman, & Bowen, LLP provided legal representation to the lending syndicate.