“The property was being marketed to investors in general,” says Kevin Welsh, one of the brokers who accomplished that deal. “Digital centers were not necessarily being targeted. But Digital Realty really pushed, and came in and paid a premium so they can come in and upgrade on many levels and create a major data center with space for multiple users.”

The Totowa building already has access to heavy electrical power, an existing generator, wide column spacing and 22-foot clear-height ceilings, all of which are basic components for a large data center, Welsh notes. The new owners intend to ramp up to 15.75 megawatts of critical IT load capacity to meet rising corporate demand, he adds.

That deal was in the works, of course, before Sandy poured seawater into basements and fried transformers all over New York and New Jersey last Oct. 29.

“The storm exposed vulnerabilities in various systems for a number of companies that are re-evaluating their existing facilities,” says Hipschman. “Companies are taking another look at how their data centers are designed, and also re-evaluating geography: Should they relocate data operations elsewhere?”

Given its high vacancy rate, the brokers said New Jersey has an ample inventory of structures and property that can be converted to data center use.

In Secaucus, Internap Network Services Corp., a global hosting and data center services firm, just signed a long-term lease to expand into 100,000 square feet of new warehouse space at 1 Enterprise Avenue that is located outside the designated 500-year flood plain, and is being developed by Prologis. Cushman & Wakefield brokers who handled that deal said that the site’s close proximity to Manhattan just across the river was crucial to the data center provider.

“There has been a trend developing over the past three years with companies moving their data center space out of their expensive headquarters office space to a new facility within one hour of their corporate headquarters so they can retain most or all of their IT staff,” said Sean Brady of C&W’s data services group.

CBRE’s Welsh said that investors are also increasingly looking to buy buildings that have data centers as tenants that will provide a steady cash flow.

“The over-arching trend is that this use will continue to have very strong demand,” Hipschman said. “The big storms create reactionary upticks in demand, but the overall trend is also very positive for real estate that can accommodate this type of use.”