Data center service provider Quality Technology Services has acquired a large property in Richmond, Va., it plans to convert into one of the biggest data center sites in the US. The company won a bankruptcy court auction bid to buy the 210-acre campus that formerly belonged to a semiconductor manufacturer for as low as $12 million.

"It's a ridiculous number," QualityTech's Chief Marketing and Business Officer Tesh Durvasula said about the purchase price of the site that already has most power and cooling infrastructure for a first-phase data center launch built out. "Not fathomable. This was a 2002 deal that got stuck in a time warp."

Richmond Times-Dispatch reported in March that the property's value as of Jan. 1, 2010, was assessed at $34.4 million - down from $155.5 million in early 2008.

Durvasula attributed the company's fortune in winning the unusually low bid for assets to other companies' being unaware of the bankruptcy hearing or its details but added that he did not know whether others had placed bids on the property. "We consider ourselves blessed."

Qimonda Richmond, the bankrupt former owner of the campus, has built out more than 200,000 square feet of raised floor at the site since 2005, Durvasula said. The site currently has 110 MW of power available, which can be "easily" expanded to 200 MW. In its entirety, the campus, with a total of 1.3 million square feet of facility space, has the potential for accommodating 800,000 square feet of data center floor.

QualityTech plans to bring the first 220,000-square-foot phase, utilizing the existing raised floor, online in the fourth quarter of this year, after adjusting the existing power infrastructure to the company's requirements. The major project that needs to be done is setting up UPS systems and generators at the facility appropriately and to bring in a set of PDU's, since the power infrastructure will serve multiple customers instead of one, as the original design intended.

The site does not currently have robust network connectivity. Two major carriers and one regional carrier deliver connectivity there today. "It's not a network-rich facility by any stretch of the imagination," Durvasula said, adding that the new owner does plan to bring more carriers there.

The company does not yet have any tenants for the future facility. Because of the nature of bankruptcy court proceedings, it could not market the space before finalizing the acquisition. "Until the judge ruled it was closed and the money changed hands, we really couldn't announce it," Durvasula said.

In selling space at the future data center, QualityTech intends on going after medium and large enterprises, as well as public-sector customers.