Data as a Growth Opportunity
We helped Nabiax lay the groundwork for a new data processing center in Alcalá de Henares.
Spotlight
New data processing center
Location
Alcalá de Henares (Madrid)
Square Feet
12.000 m²
“Our team helped unify the client’s land parcels such that their final configuration made the construction of the data center viable.”
Goals
Nabiax is a company that manages DPCs (Data Processing Centers) to offer colocation and hosting services, acting as a neutral carrier.
Currently, to accommodate new hyperscaler clients, Nabiax is expanding the capacity of its campus in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).
How we’ve worked together
We first entered into professional contact with the client through a previous Project Management experience that resulted in them enlisting our services in April of 2020.
Our client’s goal was to build a new data center located in Alcalá de Henares (inside the TecnoAlcalá Park), with a surface of about 12,000 square meters. The new building would be erected next to the existing data center on campus (phase 1) and would become, alongside another asset on the street Julián Camarillo, the company’s third within the Madrid Community.
To build it, Nabiax needed a real estate partner with technical and market know-how to manage the project with due diligence. At JLL, we started our work at a very early phase, our first objective being to articulate the urbanistic viability of the new DPC.
To begin with, Nabiax, had several land parcels at its disposal, which, from an urbanistic point of view, were not organized. Our team helped unite them such that their configuration rendered the construction of a new data center viable. It also made sure that this reorganization complied with the criteria necessary for the municipality to authorize the project.
It was precisely in the urbanistic aspect that we found one of the project’s greatest challenges. Urbanistic advising was not included in its original scope, and it wasn’t until the time came to take up the tasks of Project Management that we realized the parcels’ initial configuration would impede the building’s construction.
Working with the municipal government required us to compose a detailed technical-urbanistic report that would enable the regularization of the parcels’ cadastral and registries situation as well as result in a license that allowed construction to begin.
We worked on the other phases of the project in parallel, including Project Management tasks. Alongside the client, we supervised the building’s design project, cost estimations, deadline establishment, risk assessment, construction company selection (as well as that of other relevant agents), etc.
This required us both to participate very actively in the project’s technical evaluation and perform an important exercise in value engineering to find the best way to bring the center to life.
The flexibility and agility that resulted from constant communication between us and the client were key to the decision-making process.
Resolution
The data processing center’s constructions began in September of 2020. It is estimated that phase 2.0 (the building’s core & shell construction as well as different rooms’ configuration) and phase 2.1 (installing equipment in certain rooms for one of the final tenants) will be finished almost simultaneously in December of 2021.
The new facilities were designed to minimize electrical consumption. Once finished, they’ll be in a category equivalent to Tier 3. In terms of future tenants, the asset strategy involves renting it to several hyperscalers.
It should also be noted that, despite the complexity of the urbanistic work completed and the irruption of COVID-19, up to this point, the project has progressed without any deviations from the initial plans in terms of cost and execution deadlines.
