Hawthorne data center steps up expansion

Hawthorne-based data center provider Xand Holdings L.L.C. named a new chief operating officer and said it would go ahead with three expansion projects while continuing to explore additional growth opportunities.

The new COO is Keith Markley, who had been CEO of LAI Holdings Inc., a portfolio company focused on technology and manufacturing. Xand CEO David Struwas called him “a proven veteran with vast industry experience.”

The announcements came three months after Xand, which is a subsidiary of the Boston private equity firm ABRY Partners L.L.C., completed its acquisition of data center provider Access Northeast, which had been based in Marlboro, Mass.

Between Xand”™s Hawthorne headquarters and the two facilities run by Access Northeast in Massachusetts and Waterbury, Conn., the company has a combined 140,000 square feet of data storage and workspaces.

In addition to data storage facilities, Xand provides business continuity workspace that companies may rent in the event of power outages or other disruptions.

Spokesman Rob Stephenson said Xand is now in the process of expanding its three facilities by more than 25,000 square feet, and that the company is also looking into leasing or acquiring a fourth facility somewhere in Connecticut.

Xand plans to expand its Marlboro facility by 15,000 square feet, its Hawthorne facility by 3,000 to 5,000 square feet and its Waterbury facility by 8,000 square feet, and is adding generators totaling six megawatts of new power among those facilities.

Markley will oversee the latter expansions, which are scheduled for completion in the third and fourth quarters of this year.

A fourth data center facility will depend largely on where demand is the greatest, Stephenson said. He said Xand is currently in negotiations with several large existing customers, as well as several potential customers.

When those contracts are drawn up ”“ likely during the third quarter of this year ”“ Xand will lease new space, likely either in Fairfield County, Conn., or somewhere nearby, Stephenson said.

Xand and ABRY Partners are also “very, very close” to acquiring a second data center company, with an announcement expected before the end of July, Stephenson said.

“The new company”™s size and scope will essentially double the existing company”™s size and scope,” he said.

The company”™s identity has not been disclosed, but Stephenson said it primarily serves the mid-Atlantic and New England regions.