National Data Center Practice

Greysteel’s Data Centers Practice brings specialized experience across data center investment sales, debt & structured finance, powered land and generation strategy, site selection, entitlement, and portfolio advisory. We provide power, regulatory and entitlement solutions that position each asset to transact with the widest buyer pool at the highest price its stage of development commands.

We specialize in advising across the capital stack for data center properties nationwide.

Greysteel’s Data Centers practice was built on the firm’s industrial platform and established in Northern Virginia, the largest data center market in the world, and the one that has set the terms for the sector nationally.

We advise sellers on how to position and enhance the value of their assets for energy intensive developments – including hyperscale, enterprise, and high-performance computing (HPC) projects, and stand-alone power-production facilities, leveraging our deep market experience and targeted developer relationships.

Load interconnection process support, behind-the-meter generation, power purchase agreement structuring, and emerging gas and nuclear partnerships increasingly decide whether entitled land becomes a financeable transaction. Those competencies sit outside of conventional brokerage. We address those questions for clients, and we close transactions around them.

From greenfield hyperscale projects, to brownfield, mid-market industrial-to-compute conversions, enterprise build-to-suit, and greenfield power generation projects from nuclear, battery storage, to gas generation, our specialist depth meets market demands across the digital infrastructure capital stack.

What We Deliver

Selll-side and buy-side representation for data center development sites.

From raw land to repositioned manufacturing sites, on-site power generation opportunities, and traditional utility-connected assets, we take clients through full transaction cycles across the country, bringing Greysteel’s national investor relationships across private, middle-market and institutional capital.

Capital solutions built to secure closings.

Greysteel sources financing for bridge products to support land closings, utility-deposits and surety obligations, and hyperscale-credit-wrapped construction and permanent capital solutions.

We assess what a site can be powered by, and when, bringing partners who participate in various stages of development.

That includes advising on interconnection position and queue standing, behind-the-meter and on-site generation with emerging solutions like battery storage, natural gas, and nuclear, and power purchase agreement structuring.

Site identification, technical diligence and entitlement assessment.

We look at by-right zoning status, fiber access, water and transmission, permitting exposure, tax treatment, community risk, and energy regulatory risk.

We underwrite these questions on live transactions, in the corridors where the answers change rapidly.

Portfolio strategy, valuation, market selection, land assembly and capital sourcing across energy-intensive projects in primary and emerging markets.

Investment Sales & Advisory Team

Greysteel’s Data Centers practice was built on the firm’s industrial platform and established in Northern Virginia, the largest data center market in the world, and the one that has set the terms for the sector nationally.

Zach Benlemlih — Senior Director
Bella Warwick — Director
Jeffrey Gingell — Associate

Data Center Insights & Case Studies

Analysis on powered land, interconnection, and the generation strategies shaping data center development.

Frequently Asked Questions

Powered land is a site with a secured or credible path to electrical capacity. Its value is set by the power position, which comes down to an interconnection agreement or queue standing, proximity to transmission and substation headroom, and the growing option to build generation on the property itself. Land with power commands multiples of what comparable unpowered land trades for in the same county.

In the primary markets, interconnection timelines commonly run beyond five years from request to energization, and in the most constrained utility territories longer. That timeline determines when a data center comes online, more than land price or construction cost does. It explains why more developers now build their own generation.

Behind-the-meter generation is power produced on site and consumed on site, without passing through the utility grid. It makes sense when the cost of waiting exceeds the cost premium of generating your own power, which is common in constrained markets. On-site generation typically costs meaningfully more per megawatt-hour than utility power, so the decision turns on how much a multi-year delay costs the project.

A nuclear-ready site needs far more than acreage. Federal siting rules require a controlled exclusion area and a low population zone, with a demonstrated population center distance, along with seismic and geotechnical suitability, cooling water, transmission access and local zoning that contemplates the use. Most local codes do not address nuclear facilities at all. Small modular reactors need less land than a traditional reactor, and recent changes to emergency planning zone rules have widened the set of sites that can qualify.

Greysteel’s Data Centers team advises on the sale, acquisition and financing of data center development sites and powered land nationally. The practice has been transacting since 2022 and has closed seven times in the Culpeper, Virginia corridor alone, including the $66.4 million sale of a 71-acre development site to Blue Owl Capital’s Stack Infrastructure. The team combines site-level technical and regulatory diligence with investment sales and debt and structured finance execution.

Conventional industrial land is valued per acre against comparable sales. Powered land is valued against the capacity it can deliver, so the meaningful metric is price per megawatt alongside price per acre. Two adjacent parcels can differ in value by an order of magnitude based on interconnection position alone. Underwriting requires assessing queue standing, entitlement status, generation options and the timeline to energization alongside the land itself.

More Than a Brokerage Firm, We’re Your Strategic Advisors.

At Greysteel, we move beyond the traditional brokerage model. We function as a true partner, offering comprehensive real estate investment services that align with your strategic objectives. Our focus is on building long-term relationships and delivering results that empower your success in a dynamic market. The firm has executed transactions across healthcare, affordable housing, and multifamily sectors nationwide.