Company looks to expand on portfolio of mostly acquired data centers.
US private real estate investment and development firm Menlo Equities is doubling down on data centers with a new dedicated platform.
The company launched Menlo Digital, focused on the acquisition, development, and operation of data centers.
Rick Holmstrom, Menlo Equities' founder and executive chairman, said: "We are in the midst of a secular change with the digitization of the economy and the ongoing adoption of cloud and AI technology. Menlo Equities has been an active investor in the data center space since the late 1990s, and we believe the opportunity in front of us warrants the creation of a dedicated platform with focused resources to service this fast-growing and rapidly evolving asset class."
Menlo Equities developed its first data center in Santa Clara back in 1998. Today, the company owns 14 operational facilities across the US.
The company also revealed a development pipeline totaling close to 800MW across five sites in the US. It has also partnered with energy firm NRG for further developments.
In Virginia, the company is developing three sites. One is a 48MW data center in Fairfax County’s Herndon. Construction on the two-story, 307,500 sq ft (28,568 sqm) facility started in Q1 2025.
In Loudoun County’s Sterling, the company is developing a 144MW, 600,740 sq ft (55,810 sqm) facility. The four-story facility is due live in Q2 2028.
Further south in Richmond, the company is planning a 300MW campus totaling 1.2 million sq ft (111,484 sqm) across 74 acres.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Menlo is planning a 257MW campus. The 38-acre site is set to host five buildings totaling 1 million sq ft (92,903 sqm), with the first shells delivered in Q2 2026.
In Sunnyvale, California, the company is planning a 49MW site. The 9-acre site can host a two-story building totaling 244,215 sq ft (22,688 sqm).
"With the launch of Menlo Digital, we are deepening our commitment to this asset class and positioning ourselves to deliver best-in-class facilities for a new era of digital growth. With our presence in the primary US data center markets and unique ability to procure power at scale, Menlo Digital is ideally placed to partner with global hyperscalers and large enterprises to meet low-latency requirements for continued growth of the public cloud and the inference rollout of AI technologies," said Kevin Kujawski, president of Menlo Digital.
Founded in 1994, real estate firm Menlo owns data centers across California, Virginia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Texas. It previously acquired nine facilities from Digital Realty in 2021, including sites in Silicon Valley, Virginia, Texas, and New Jersey. It recently acquired another facility from Digital in Georgia.
In February, energy firm NRG entered into separate Letters of Intent (LOIs) with two developers, Menlo Equities and PowLan, to potentially develop data centers at existing NRG sites. The LOIs could offer 400MW of retail supply in the initial phase and eventually scale to 6.5GW, with work expected to start in 2026.
The Menlo Equities LOI includes an initial phase of 300MW, and could total 1GW+ at existing NRG sites. Further details haven’t been shared.
