BYTEGRID Buys Massive Data Center in Downtown Cleveland, Secures $100M Credit Facility

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

BYTEGRID, a privately held data center company headquartered in Northern Virginia, has acquired the Cleveland Technology Center (CTC), Cleveland’s market leader in secured telecommunications and data center facilities. The price of the transaction was not disclosed.

The Cleveland Technology Center is located at 1425 Rockwell Ave., in the city’s “Health-Tech Corridor.” It encompasses 333,215 square feet of highly secure data center space and sits on top of one of the largest fiber point of presence (POP) sites in the state. The property is supported by redundant 20 MVA power feeders from two separate utility substations, with access to additional capacity.

According to BYTEGRID, the CTC is now 53 percent occupied by a variety of Internet and communications service providers and government agencies. The property’s previous owners made significant investments to upgrade the facility and turn it into one of Cleveland’s top data center locations, and so will BYTEGRID. The company plans to turn 30,000 square feet of vacant space into enterprise-class, mission-critical data center space with more than 4 megawatts of power capacity.

“Cleveland is a perfect match for BYTEGRID’s national expansion strategy focused on unleashing data center capacity in underserved areas of major markets,” said Kenneth Parent, CEO of BYTEGRID, in a statement for the press. “Vibrant business expansion and investment, along with market-changing development projects, is taking place all around Cleveland’s CBD and Midtown Health-Tech Corridor. BYTEGRID plans to further improve and expand the CTC, making it the primary provider of capacity and connectivity in Cleveland, as well as an ideal disaster recovery location for Midwest and East Coast markets such as Chicago and New York.”

The new acquisition doubled the company’s footprint. BYTEGRID now operates three data centers with more than 625,000 square feet of wholesale data center space. The other two are located in Alpharetta, Ga., and Silver Spring, Md. And the company is looking to expand.

On June 3rd, it announced an initial $25 million revolving credit facility that includes an accordion feature allowing BYTEGRID to increase the size of the revolving credit facility to as much as $100 million. KeyBank Real Estate Capital arranged the funding. It will support the company’s plan to buy more properties this year.

BYTEGRID’s national expansion strategy focuses on increasing data center capacity in underserved markets. It chose Cleveland due to key attributes such as low-cost power, no personal property taxes, increasing local demand for compliant-grade data center space and its strategic location, serving the Ohio corridor and bisecting major business centers Chicago and New York.

Photo credits: ByteGrid

Akron Children’s Hospital Breaks Ground on Critical Care Tower

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Akron Children’s Hospital broke ground on May 30 on a seven-story, 300,000-square-foot critical care tower. Hospital leaders, elected officials, parents and children were present at the ceremony, held in Perkins Square Park.

Akron Children’s announced the $200 million expansion of its campus last August. Its purpose is to help the hospital keep up with the increase in patients and services. The project, called “Building on the Promise,” is Akron Children’s first major project in more than two  decades.

The critical care tower is the project’s centerpiece. Located on the west side of the campus, at the intersection of Locus and Exchange streets, it will feature a new 100-bed neonatal intensive care unit with individual rooms for each of the hospital’s patients and their parents, a new emergency department with enough room to meet current and future patient volumes, outpatient surgical suites and an enclosed concourse that takes patients and staff from the new six-level, 1,250-space parking garage to the new building and beyond into the existing hospital.

Work is already underway on the adjacent parking garage, which is scheduled to open this fall. The project also calls for the renovation and expansion of the Ronald McDonald House on the hospital’s campus.

A number of companies are helping with project management, including the Boldt Co. of Appleton, Wis.; KLMK Group of Richmond, Va.; HKS Inc. of Dallas; and the Welty Building Co. and Hasenstab Architects Inc., both of Akron.

Akron Children’s is looking to raise $50 million for the critical care tower and $10 million for the Ronald McDonald House expansion. The rest will be funded through a combination of public financing and the hospital’s internal reserves. The project is expected to be completed in 2015.

Photo courtesy of Akron Children’s Hospital.

New Hilton Garden Inn Coming to Akron’s East End Development

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Akron will soon say hello to a new hotel. IRG Rubber City L.L.C. and Summit Development Inc. have signed an agreement with Hilton Worldwide to bring a new Hilton Garden Inn to the city’s East End development.

The project will break ground this summer. A five-story, 136-room hotel will be built on three acres of land at the corner of East Market Street and Kelly Avenue on part of the former Goodyear world headquarters campus.

The new Hilton Garden Inn will include a full restaurant and bar, an indoor swimming pool, a fitness center, meeting rooms offering about 3,000 square feet of flexible space and more. The project’s total cost will be $18 million. It is expected to be completed in June of next year.

IRG Rubber City senior vice president Peter Goffstein told the Akron Beacon Journal that the hotel project is part of what he called “Phase II” of the East End mixed-use project, which is being developed by IRG Rubber City and Pittsburgh-based Summit Development Inc. The project calls for the renovation of the former Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. corporate headquarters and Goodyear Hall across the street. The developers will turn the 1.7 million square feet of space into a mix of offices, retail and residencies.

“The location is right in the heart of the redevelopment, conveniently located close to several major highways, and will serve as a great amenity for the downtown Akron business district, local hospitals, the University of Akron, the new Goodyear headquarters and a number of major sporting events,” Goffstein said in a statement for the press. “We’re excited to partner with Summit Development and Hilton to bring such a tremendous and needed addition to the greater Akron area.”

There are more than 500 Hilton Garden Inns worldwide. According to Hilton’s Web site, there are six Hilton Garden Inns in Northeast Ohio.

Photo of the Hilton Garden Inn Akron-Canton Airport courtesy of Hilton Garden Inn.

Cleveland Institute of Art to Start Work on Phase II of $63.5M Expansion

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

An eight-year expansion and renovation project in Cleveland is heading into the final stretch. Next month, the Cleveland Institute of Art will break ground on the second phase of its $63.5 million project in University Circle, according to The Plain Dealer. Construction is scheduled for completion by September 2015.

The Cleveland newspaper reported that college trustees voted to go ahead with the $33.5 million second phase of the project last Tuesday. A few days later, on Thursday, the Euclid Corridor Design Review Committee  approved the Phase II design. The project went before the city planning commission on Friday.

Work on Phase II is scheduled to start on June 26. The college signed a a construction loan agreement with KeyBank and will solicit bids from general contractors in the near future.

Project construction started in 2009. At a cost of $30 million, Phase I included the renovation of the Joseph McCullough Center for the Visual Arts, a former Ford assembly plant designed by the legendary industrial architect Albert Kahn in 1916 and located at 11610 Euclid Ave.

Phase II calls for a 79,000-square-foot addition to the McCullough Center. The addition will be named the George Gund Building. George Gund II (1888-1966) was a famous Cleveland banker and philanthropist and one of the art institute’s longtime supporters, serving for 24 years as chairman of its board. The project will also deliver a new, yet-to-be-named art gallery and a 300-seat auditorium, the new home of the Cinematheque. Nationally noted firm Stantec is the project’s architect.

The art institute has operated a two-part campus split between its Gund Building at 11141 East Blvd. and the McCullough Center since 1981. The expansion project will help consolidate all classes in a single location.

Phot credits: Cleveland Institute of Art

NRP Group Starts Construction on 624-Bed Student Housing Community in Akron

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

The NRP Group, a Cleveland-based full-service developer, general contractor and property manager, announced on May 8 that it will construct a 624-bed, four-story luxury student housing community in Akron.

To be called The Depot, it will be located at 80 E. Exchange St. The NRP Group will invest $30 million at the site of the old Akron Beacon Journal newspaper sorting and storage facility, tearing down the existing building, which has been deteriorating for years,  to make room for the new complex.

“Some of the beautiful exterior eaves and other functional elements will actually be incorporated in the interior clubhouse and concierge area as decorative elements to preserve a piece of the history of the building,” said Aaron Pechota, the company’s vice president of development. “We are also salvaging the four monument ‘E’s, denoting the Erie Railroad, and incorporating them into the design of our new courtyard. NRP has been developing multifamily projects across the nation for 18 years, and we’re thrilled to build a student housing community right here in our own backyard.”

The Depot will be located less than a quarter mile from the University of Akron’s campus. It will offer students one-, two-, three- or four-bedroom floor plans, ranging from 592 to 1,386 square feet. Each apartment will feature granite countertops, in-unit washer and dryer, walk-in closets, ceiling fans and contemporary furnishings including a 42” flat-screen television. Students will also have their own individually keyed bedroom and bathroom.

Building amenities include on-site parking, a heated pool, an outdoor lounge and outdoor bar and kitchen, an indoor gas fireplace, indoor-outdoor living space, a game room, a large group fitness classroom and fitness facility, private study rooms, a media lab room and conference room, and much more. The developers think The Depot’s ”location, unparalleled design and countless amenities will make it the first-class living experience for Akron students.”

The project is expected to be completed in August 2014. However, leasing will start this August. Asset Campus Housing will handle the leasing and on-site property management.

NRP is the eighth-largest multifamily developer in the nation. Last year, The National Association of Home Builders named it the “Multifamily Development Firm of the Year.”

Rendering courtesy of The NRP Group.