A Plano-based firm just announced its first venture in a budding partnership with a global private equity manager to build a new facility.
Aligned Data Centers and Blackstone Credit & Insurance (BXCI) — the credit and insurance arm of New York City-based Blackstone — reached a $600 million deal this week for the construction of a data center in Utah.
“Blackstone’s support contributes to Aligned’s continued growth in meeting the capacity demands of customers across the globe,” Aligned CFO Anubhav Raj said in a news release. “The capital demands of this industry make strong financial backing crucial. Strategic financing partnerships focused on ingenuity and collaboration are a key advantage. We are excited to embark on this initial transaction and build on future opportunities with Blackstone.”
The $600 million loan will be used to develop a two-story, 80-megawatt facility at Aligned Data Centers’ West Jordan campus, bringing its total of facilities in the Salt Lake metro area to four.
The Dallas Express reported in February that Aligned Data Centers plans to build a 450,000-square-foot facility in North Texas to add to its Dallas-area inventory after the Plano Planning and Zoning Commission approved a request from the company for a specific use permit for an electrical substation near the 44-acre North Star Road property and its preliminary site plan.
The East Plano site will be the Plano company’s third data center in the area. The other two are on Summit Avenue.
It is this kind of expansion that drew BXCI to the venture in the first place.
“Aligned is one of the fastest growing data center platforms in the Americas and has a focus on sustainability,” BXCI’s principal of infrastructure and asset-based credit, Alan Carcich, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the Aligned team.”
Blackstone has been expanding its footprint in North Texas through its subsidiary, QTS Realty Trust, as covered previously in The Dallas Express. It acquired the $1 trillion data center giant in 2021 amid the rapid development of AI platforms — for $10 billion. Since the transaction, QTS has added 2 million square feet of data center space to its portfolio, including in Fort Worth.
