Where's the Real Estate? Redundancies, Servers, Edge Sites, and the Search for Real Property's Role in the Modern Data Center

Summary

Data centers are complex businesses that use real estate as a platform. The real estate components of data center facilities provide valuable physical and locational attributes to the enterprise; however, due to the significant presence of both tangible and intangible personal property, it can be difficult to identify what exactly is to be considered the real property. The real estate must be untangled from the other elements creating value to satisfy the requirements of many appraisal assignments. This is the case with assignments such as condemnation or tax assessment, lending, and other situations. This article discusses the elements of data center real estate that add the most value to the enterprise, and explores methods, theories, and agency guidance to help appraisers conduct their own investigations into what constitutes real property.