MATAWAN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (1547), a leading developer, operator, and owner of highly-interconnected, custom-designed data centers in North America, has partnered with Harrison Street, one of the leading investment management firms exclusively focused on alternative real assets, to purchase the iconic Chase Tower in McAllen, TX, one of the most important Internet exchange locations for telecommunication traffic between Texas and Mexico. This is 1547 and Harrison Street’s seventh data center endeavor since 2020.
With over 209,000 square feet in this 17-story building in McAllen, TX, the Chase Tower is the telecommunication hub and Internet gateway between Mexico and the United States and serves as the financial hub for the greater Rio Grande Valley. With 46 unique carrier networks established in this telecommunications ecosystem, Chase Tower is Southwest's premiere carrier hotel and data center destination. The property’s two-carrier neutral meet-me-rooms (“MMR”) provide customers access to short-haul, long-haul, and dark fiber providers.
“1547 continues to move forward on its mission to create an ecosystem of highly dense and interconnected data centers in key markets throughout the United States,” says CEO of 1547, J. Todd Raymond. “1547 is listening to our enterprise customers, digital content distributors, and hyperscale cloud providers who are seeking connectivity in these crucial edge markets. With the purchase of Chase Tower, we are creating the opportunity for our customers to have an access point to do business with Mexico and other Latin American countries via the expansive Texas-based fiber networks. Carrier-dense properties like Chase Tower create data gravity throughout the greater region, attracting a higher caliber of customers to add to our ecosystem.”
Michael Hochanadel, Managing Director and Head of Digital Assets at Harrison Street said, “Today’s acquisition of the Chase Tower is an important addition to our connectivity-focused data center platform that includes Pittock Block in Portland, OR, and the Wells Building in Milwaukee, WI. Located less than ten miles from the Mexican border, Chase Tower is designed to serve as a gateway for international data transmission and advance our strategy to create data center options in attractive carrier-dense markets. We look forward to continuing to identify strong data center investment opportunities growing our digital footprint to ensure connectivity partners have the capacity they need to serve their customers.”
With this strategic purchase, 1547 and Harrison Street also acquired CarrierCom, a single-location data center provider located in the Chase Tower. Through this acquisition, the joint venture will own and operate the international carrier-neutral colocation facility backed by 24x7x365 support services. 1547 will have immediate colocation and data center inventory in the building with additional availability of conditioned space and power coming online in 2024.
Harrison Street has a dedicated team committed to investing across digital verticals that are key parts of the digital ecosystem and create operational synergies with end users. To date, the firm has invested approximately $2.6 billion in digital assets including powered shells, carrier hotels, strategic colocations, and dark fiber.
About 1547
fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (“1547”) is a leading developer, operator, and owner of highly-interconnected, custom-designed data centers with over 1.25 million square feet of data center space under management throughout North America. 1547 selects sites, designs facilities, and manages developments to optimize returns for all stakeholders across new and interconnected properties. With interconnection in the company’s DNA, 1547’s connectivity-focused portfolio of data centers includes carrier hotels and core connectivity hubs designed to deliver customized mission-critical solutions from concept to connection.
About Harrison Street
Harrison Street is one of the leading investment management firms exclusively focused on alternative real assets. Since inception in 2005, the firm has created a series of differentiated investment solutions focused on demographic-driven, needs-based assets. The firm has invested across senior housing, student housing, healthcare delivery, life sciences, and storage real estate as well as social and utility infrastructure. Headquartered in Chicago with offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto, and Washington DC, the firm has more than 240 employees and approximately $53 billion in assets under management. Clients of the firm include a global institutional investor base domiciled in North America, Europe, and Asia. Harrison Street has been awarded Best Places to Work by Pensions & Investments for seven consecutive years (2014-2020) and was recognized by PERE as the 2021 Alternatives Investor of the Year, North America, and 2020 Global Alternatives Investor of the Year. For more information, please visit www.harrisonst.com.
