American real estate firm Amerimar Enterprises and its long-time partner, businessman Hunter Newby have launched a data center venture under the name Netrality Properties.

The two parties have owned and operated strategic carrier hotels in North America since 2012 but didn’t have a brand, until now. Netrality owns four data centers, and plans to acquire further Tier I and Tier II properties in the US.

“Netrality Properties is the result of a fifteen year relationship which has culminated in the creation of a business model that effectively integrates operation of Meet Me Room and colocation facilities with the ownership of real property,” said Jerry Marshall, CEO of Amerimar and Netrality.

“We believe we have created the most cost-effective and stable operating model for our network and enterprise customers available in core interconnection facilities.”

Carrier-neutral

Netrality operates 1,900,000 square feet of data center estate across four properties in New York, Kansas City, Philadelphia – acquired in March 2014 – and Chicago – acquired in October 2014.

The company specializes in colocation and wholesale data center services aimed at major network operators. Among other things, Netrality offers carrier-neutral Meet Me Rooms (MMRs), with no monthly recurring costs for cross connections between networks with a presence in the MMR.

“For years, I have been asked by the industry to bring back my original MMR model of no monthly recurring charges for cross connects. Today, we bring that model back,” said Newby, who is chief executive of dark fiber provider Allied Fiber. “And we do so with unified building and MMR ownership to create a stable environment for all network operators.”

In addition, Netrality claims to offer the longest-term agreements on the market, something that’s bound to score the company some points with core network operators.

Amerimar CEO Marshall originally met Newby, an industry veteran who founded Allied Fiber and Telx, on a data center project in Philadelphia in 1999. The two kept in touch for more than a decade and met once again in spring of 2012, when Amerimar was building another facility, at 325 Hudson Street in New York City.

At this point, Marshall and Newby decided to combine their expertise, and established an unnamed venture that eventually became Netrality. The company is now looking at Houston as the location for its next data center.