An enterprise data center outside Charlotte, North Carolina, has been converted into a retail colocation facility after being bought at auction last year.

Texas-based Data Journey this week announced it has acquired the former Bed Bath & Beyond data center in Claremont, Catawba County, and converted the facility from a purpose-built enterprise data center into a colocation facility.

Data Journey is a new colocation firm founded this year. This is the company’s second facility, after acquiring the Westland Bunker data center in Houston, Texas, earlier this year.

Matt Wells, co-founder of Data Journey, said of the Claremont site: “We’ve created a first-class colocation center with significant space and power capacity for future deployments as well as expansion within the current structure and acreage for additional builds.”

Located at 2436 Penny Rd in the Claremont International Business Park, the facility was built in 2013 at a cost of $36.8 million. It was up for sale via auction last year after Bed Bath & Beyond filed for voluntary Chapter 11.

Data Journey reportedly invested $7 million in the facility, according to Business NC.

The 47,500 square-foot data center, now wholly-owned by Data Journey, offers 9,500 square feet of immediately-available raised floor space, and the ability to expand capacity to provide more than 3MW of critical load. The company said additional shell space in the center is already prepared for further expansion.

A longer-range plan for up to 100MW of power generation to the site is being explored, according to Todd Smith, commercial advisor to the project.

The facility will serve local and regional clients, with electronic components distributor Sourceability and Charlotte-based IT firms, 10X Consulting Group and XOR Group, as early customers.

“We have chosen Data Journey as our primary data center and will be consolidating in Catawba County over the next 18 months,” says Rick Sanford, director of professional services of 10X Consulting Group.

Founded in 1971, Bed Bath & Beyond had more than 1,500 stores across the US as recently as 2019. However, in the wake of Covid-19 and declining sales, the company steadily closed stores and sold off units in recent years. It had been warning of potential bankruptcy since the turn of last year and declared $5.2 billion of debt in its Chapter 11 filing. As well as the data center, some 475 stores were up for auction.

According to an old sales brochure, two build-to-suit data centers were previously being offered that would have been built adjacent to the existing facility, but neither has been developed yet.

Data Journey goes underground

The company said the Claremont facility was Data Journey’s second acquisition since the company was founded in 2024.

Data Journey also operates the Westland Bunker data center outside Houston in Montgomery. The company acquired the facility earlier this year – though details weren’t shared.

The 240,000 sq ft (22,300 sqm) property sits on 58 acres within Montgomery County at 550 Club Drive. It was originally built in 1981 by Westland Oil founder Louis Kung, doubling as his corporate headquarters and a fallout shelter for him as well as his family & employees in the event of any nuclear disaster or war.

The site was acquired by Curtis Development LLC in 2001 and then acquired by Montgomery LP; it was converted to a data center in 2004 and subsequently upgraded in 2008. The Bunker built a second 105,000 sq ft, five-hall, 12MW data center in April 2014.

After going on sale in 2021, cryptomining firm Arsenal Digital acquired the bunker the following year.

"The Bunker and its surrounding facilities have proven its strategic positioning for our present tenants and future tenants that need that data center reliability and redundancy," Dr. Ishnella Azad, co-founder and managing partner of Data Journey, said earlier this month following Hurricane Beryl.

Located in the MISO energy grid and is serviced by Entergy rather than Texas’ ERCOT grid, Data Journey said the site can accommodate an additional 45MW of capacity.

Data Journey co-founder Wells is also president and founder of real estate investment company Wells Holdings, while Azad is also founder and CEO of family-owned real estate investment and asset management firm 5Rivers CRE.

According to Azad’s LinkedIn, 5Rivers actually acquired the Claremont facility in November 2023.