Relera Unveils Plans for San Diego Facility

By Rich Miller
CarrierHotels News Staff

Oct. 3, 2000 -- Relera said today it had leased 150,000 square feet of space in San Diego, California to house its corporate offices and an Internet Data Center.
The company said it expects to have its office operations up and running in temporary space in San Diego this month and will move into the new facility in early 2001. Relera will continue to operate its corporate offices in Denver, Colorado.
The start-up plans to target "underserved markets" for its data centers, according to president and chief operating officer Ron Cooper.
"Relera will have a major presence in this market," said Cooper. "This is one of the key reasons we have chosen to open corporate offices in San Diego."
The company has begun build-out of the data center portion of the facility, which should open by mid-2001. Relera has announced plans to open 25 centers before the end of next year.
Relera previously announced an agreement with equity-investor and industry leader Level 3 Communications, Inc. to lease space and build state-of-the-art Internet Data Centers in 11 of Level 3's facilities across the country. When complete, the entire Relera project will cover nearly 1 million square feet of space. "For some time now, the market for Internet Data Centers has been concentrated in the largest U.S. markets and dominated by a handful of companies,'' said Relera CEO Eric Hood. "We intend to bring the highest possible level of service to 25 cities that previously have had limited local access to such services.''
Hood said Relera expects to hire more than 500 people nationwide, including 50 in San Diego.
Relera was founded in January 2000 and says it has more than $300 million in equity financing.