Jackson Walker advised Austin-based Quantum Loophole, Inc. in forming a strategic joint venture with TPG Real Estate Partners (TREP) to purchase an approximately 2,100-acre property in Frederick County, Maryland and develop a first-of-its-kind gigawatt scale data center community.
Josh Snowhorn, founder and CEO of Quantum Loophole, said in a news release, “We are changing the way hyperscale data center developments are deployed, and this Maryland location has the entitlement, power, water, and proximity to Northern Virginia that the internet industry needs for success.”
The property in Frederick County was previously owned by Alcoa Eastalco Works, a large-scale aluminum smelting plant, and is 20 miles – and under 1 millisecond – from the heart of the Northern Virginia internet ecosystem known as Data Center Alley. The master planned cloud community will start with a gigawatt of transmission power capacity, with 30 to 120 megawatt data center modules expected to be fully deployed in nine months. Additionally, construction of a fiber ring with regional interconnection points is expected to enable large scale traffic flows for hyperscale, telecom and enterprise clients.
“Quantum Loophole is disrupting the data center sector with large-scale developments that are highly sustainable and environmentally-sound,” said Cale McDowell, who led the Jackson Walker team representing Quantum Loophole in the transaction. “We are proud to advise Quantum Loophole in this transaction as the company re-imagines the way data centers are developed through master planned communities.”
The Jackson Walker team, led by Cale McDowell and Andee L. Hartig, included Michael Flatter, Erik S. Romberg, Chuck Campbell, Alyca Riley Garrison, and Argyrios C. Saccopoulos, among others.
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Since Jackson Walker’s founding in 1887, our attorneys have represented some of the most influential companies and business leaders in the world. Today, we remain firmly rooted in Texas while serving clients around the globe. To explore the Firm’s experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and other strategic alliances, visit the Corporate & Securities practice page. Jackson Walker’s experience assisting investors, developers, and operators in management, infrastructure, regulatory, and compliance issues related to data center facilities can be found at the Data Center practice page.
