July 23, 2003 -- MBNA Inc. has won a heated auction for MCI/WorldCom's Internet data center in Richardson, Texas, prevailing with a top bid of $33 million.
The purchase contract between MCI and Bracebridge Corporation, a subsidiary of MBNA, was approved Aug. 6 by the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Citigroup had been the lead bidder on the Richardson property coming into the auction with an offer of $20.6 million, but bidding quickly zoomed higher, with MBNA's winning bid representing a 60 percent increase from Citigroup's "stalking horse" bid.
The Richardson center is one of four surplus WorldCom data centers placed for sale through the company's bankruptcy proceeding.
An MCI data center in Bridgeton, Mo. sold for $15.7 million in April, while a fully-leased center in Somerset NJ was purchased by Wachovia Corp. for $38 million in July. An additional data center is available in suburban Atlanta.
Each site includes a 108,336 square foot stand-alone building, and features a state-of-the-art Internet data center with 73,932 square feet of raised-floor technical space. Features common to the buildings include multiple 2,000kw generators, 40-foot column spacing, 26.5 foot ceilings (16 foot clear height) and 200 pounds/SF floor loading in the data center space.
The Richardson site was marketed and sold by the partnership restructuring WorldCom's real estate assets, which includes Hilco Real Estate, Node Com Inc. and NAI. Node Com is a business affiliate of Carrier Hotels Inc., and the CarrierHotels.com web site assisted in the marketing of the Somerset property.
Investors interested in learning more about the Atlanta data center property can contact Node Com's Joe Suppers for additional information.