The information heart at 1401 Meadowville Know-how Parkway as seen in 2013. Chirisa, which has owned the property since 2020, is trying to construct a further knowledge heart on the location. (Pictures courtesy Chesterfield)
An Irish knowledge heart firm is trying to juice up its presence in Chesterfield’s Meadowville Know-how Park.
Chirisa just lately filed plans to construct a further knowledge heart at 1401 Meadowville Know-how Parkway, the place it’s already underway on a venture to extend the megawattage of an current knowledge heart.
Elsewhere within the park, the corporate is trying to construct a further knowledge heart on the location of an unfinished industrial venture at 1600 Digital Drive that was presupposed to a packaging manufacturing facility for Mexican agency Cartograf however has been caught in authorized limbo for a number of years and just lately topic to a court-ordered sale.
For the Meadowville Know-how Parkway property, Chirisa plans to assemble a 139,000-square-foot knowledge heart with an preliminary 20-megawatt capability. Development is slated to be accomplished in late 2025. The upcoming facility is deliberate to ultimately double its megawatt capability, Chirisa Managing Director Lee Hayes mentioned.
The venture is on observe to be a nine-figure funding, as Hayes mentioned the corporate presently anticipates it prices about $12 million per megawatt to construct knowledge facilities within the Richmond market.
DPR Development is the overall contractor for the venture. Dallas-based Gensler is the venture’s architect and Timmons Group was tapped to deal with civil engineering for the new-construction constructing, per a website plan.
A website plan exhibiting the deliberate new knowledge heart that might be a part of an current facility on Chirisa’s campus in Meadowville Know-how Park. (Courtesy Chesterfield)
That new constructing would rise subsequent to the corporate’s current 244,000-square-foot knowledge heart, which it’s upgrading from its present 6 megawatts to 18 megawatts capability. The megawatt venture is anticipated to be accomplished in June after it broke floor final September, Hayes mentioned.
Chirisa’s current knowledge heart on Meadowville Know-how Parkway was bought from Capital One about three years in the past. In 2012, then-Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration touted the Capital One venture as a $150 million funding that might create 50 jobs.
Capital One formally opened the information heart in early 2014 however had solely constructed out a 3rd of the power’s potential functionality by the point it bought the property to Chirisa in late 2020. Hayes mentioned Chirisa has already exceeded that preliminary $150 million funding aim.
Information heart deliberate for Cartograf website
Cartograf’s unfinished packaging plant at Meadowville Know-how Park. (BizSense file)
Chirisa is trying to additional enhance its funding in Meadowville Tech Park with the pending sale of the Cartograf property at 1600 Digital Drive.
In 2019, Cartograf, in coordination with the then-Gov. Ralph Northam administration and Chesterfield County, introduced a $65 million venture to construct a folding and microcorrugated packaging plant that was anticipated to create 63 jobs.
The ability by no means opened and the partially accomplished venture prompted lawsuits by contractor Choate and financial institution Comerica, which had been each concerned within the venture. The courtroom ordered a sale of the property to fulfill liens held by these corporations.
Chirisa, in partnership with Northern Virginia-based American Actual Property Companions, made the successful $16.5 million bid within the court-ordered sale. Hayes mentioned the 2 companies intend to purchase the property in a three way partnership.
They might demolish the roughly 300,000-square-foot unfinished plant as a result of it’s been deemed too broken by the weather to be usable. The longer term knowledge heart on the property is anticipated to be of an analogous measurement, Hayes mentioned.
Chirisa and American Actual Property Companions have the property below contract however the deal is tied up because of Cartograf’s authorized proceedings.
Cartograf in February filed to dam the court-ordered sale, nevertheless it should submit a bond of $990,000 by mid-Could to finalize that enchantment, in keeping with current courtroom filings. Court docket data confirmed that as of Monday afternoon Cartograf had but to take action.
Whereas Chirisa owns its 13 knowledge facilities throughout the U.S., workers at its subsidiary Digital Fortress truly function the services. Hayes mentioned the 2 corporations plan to have 30 workers assigned to its native facility within the subsequent 18 months.
The plan is to extend that Meadowville headcount to round 80 to 100 within the subsequent a number of years.
Along with 1401 Meadowville Know-how Parkway, Chirisa additionally owns an undeveloped parcel at 1651 Meadowville Know-how Parkway, for a complete of 88 acres within the industrial park.
