Patrick Soon-Shiang’s Nantworks, Serverfarm buy El Segundo data center

$71M deal closes; Complex will also be Serverfarm’s new HQ

Patrick Soon-Shiong and 444 N. Nash Street (Getty, Google Maps)
Patrick Soon-Shiong and 444 N. Nash Street (Getty, Google Maps)

Data center operator Serverfarm has teamed up with Patrick Soon-Shiong’s Nantworks to pay $71 million for a data center in El Segundo.

The 117,500-square-foot facility at 444 N. Nash Street will also be Severfarm’s headquarters, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. The seller was T5 Data Centers, according to the report.

Soon-Shiong — who owns the Los Angeles Times — founded Culver City-based Nantworks, a biotechnology company. Nantworks owns other properties in El Segundo, where Soon-Shiong moved the newspaper to in 2018.

Serverfarm owns around 100 data centers in roughly 40 countries worldwide. The firm typically acquires and upgrades properties with modern infrastructure. Virtual storage and server space at data centers are leased like space in an office building, and upgrading can significantly increase capacity and performance.

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The Nash street property was about 80 percent leased at the time of the sale to a number of tenants, including those in the transport and health care industries, as well as government agencies.

Demand for data center space has largely correlated with the growth of the internet economy. Demand fell last year as large companies froze their IT budgets, but 2020 was still the second-best year on record for leasing.

Some analysts predict 2021 will be one of the strongest ever in terms of demand and industry growth. The advent of 5G technology is also expected to boost demand, which should tick up particularly in secondary markets with limited supply.

[LABJ] — Dennis Lynch