Metro Bytes: Crane, Bluebird, Empire, Harbor Peak

Four interesting moves in four different metro and regional US markets to note this week:

Crane Data Centers and Principal Asset Management are developing a new 100+MW data center campus near Portland OR. The 35-acre site is in Forest Grove, not far from Hillsboro, and the first phase will be a 300K square foot, 50MW facility. The plans call for recycled water for cooling and an onsite substation connected to the grid for low cost renewable energy.

Bluebird Network is expanding its services into five new markets in Illinois. Following a recent 126-fiber-route-mile buildout to Chicago, the Missouri-based operator has launched in Aurora, Dixon, DeKalb, Sterling and Rock Falls along the way. Bluebird has been adding network assets in multiple adjacent territories lately, with an acquisition in southern Missouri, and builds west into Kansas and north into Iowa.

Antin Infrastructure Partners has completed a deal over in Pennsylvania and New York for a bit of FTTP action. They have acquired Empire Access and North Penn Telephone, which make up the independent operator Empire. Empire operates 1,280 route miles of fiber passing just under 100K addresses in New York’s southern Tier and northern Pennsylvania.  The deal will likely give Empire the resources to significantly expand its reach over the next few years.

And Harbor Link is investing in a new infrastructure venture called Harbor Peak, which will start by connecting up key nodes in northern Virginia. Plans call for a six mile eight-conduit fiber route in Ashburn.  That doesn’t sound like much, but in Ashburn you can touch a big fraction of the global internet in just six miles and there is a need for next gen infrastructure there. Harbor Peak expects to break ground sometime in the first half of 2023, with an eye toward further Virginia buildouts.

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Categories: Datacenter · FTTH · Mergers and Acquisitions · Metro fiber