Emptying Space

This week there were more headlines promising headaches for telecom landlords. Even before its bankruptcy filing Wednesday, Teleglobe was shutting down its Washington data center (Washington Business Journal, free registration required).

Like many downtown telecom projects, the 140,000 square foot, $120 million data center was once hailed as a potential magnet for new economy businesses. Instead, it will become just another vacant facility as Teleglobe bails out of the web hosting business completely.

Coming on the heel of Infocrossing's termination of its lease at CyberFortress I, this adds more inventory to the already abundant vacant space in the Washington market.

All is not gloom, however. As noted in a recent story from WashTech, the federal government's dominant presence in the DC market has actually insulated the region from the worst of the tech meltdown, as Washington's unemployment rate is half that of Silicon Valley.

And yes, there's still plenty of market activity, according to Jason Britton of Fortress Development, the developer of CyberFortress I. "There are many tenants - particularly the Federal Government - who have expressed interest in this facility," said Britton.