Located in the Westchase submarket at 5959 Corporate Dr., the 567,000-sf property is the former Chevron Data Center. This is more than a telecom hotel, Jud Pankey, WiredZone president tells GlobeSt.com, it is a mixed-use technology facility. The building's tenants include three CLEC carriers, a Chevron marketing office, Verizon and ATT Wireless. The property recently has reached 90% occupancy, with a 6,000-sf lease to Madison River Communications.

Pankey says the company sat on the sidelines in terms of development activity for most of last year because of the downturn in the telecom market, but feels now is the right time to resume activity. While he has no set quota, he hopes to develop three million sf to five million sf in Tier 1 cities in the coming year, all of which will be modeled after 5959 Corporate Dr. Pankey says Portland, OR and Phoenix are under consideration for developments. Jersey City's 140,000-sf Mecca Telecom Center is under contract and holds an option for WiredZone to develop an extra one million sf. Seattle's 335,000-sf Harbour Pointe Tech Center is currently under development and will deliver in the next few months.

WiredZone touts its properties as being made for people and machines, unlike machine-oriented telecom hotels. Other features of Corporate Drive include high bandwidth connectivity, redundant power, HVAC systems and heavy floor loads. Pankey believes the connectivity and the needs of bandwidth-intensive tenants are not going away despite the lull in confidence for this type of product. He feels this type of office/telecom environment is where the future of office space may ultimately lie.