CBRE Group signs five-year deal to operate Fermi data centre
The term starts when Building One is ready for service; Fermi gave no date or contract value in its Sept. 24 announcement.
Ines Halvorsen
A five-year operating contract announced Sept. 24 puts CBRE Group Inc. NYSECBRE in charge of Building One at Project Matador, a Texas Panhandle data centre campus. The announcement gave no fee or ready-for-service date, though CBRE may place site leaders there up to 120 days before service. The counterparty is Fermi Services LLC, a subsidiary of Fermi Inc. NASDAQFRMI LONFRMI, and the initial term begins when Building One is ready.
CBRE shares NYSECBRE closed Friday at US$134.55 on the NYSE, down 1.45 per cent at 4:04 p.m. EDT.
The signed scope covers exclusive operation and maintenance of Building One, including cooling, fire protection and the systems behind the computing equipment. CBRE will prepare maintenance programs, check equipment and write operating procedures before the data centre opens. Fermi said it can add later buildings to the framework as they come online, but did not announce an order for another building.
The operating agreement sits alongside Fermi's separate Aug. 10 customer lease with TensorWave TEX1, LLC, a subsidiary of TensorWave Inc. That lease specifies 222 megawatts of total facility power following its final delivery phase. Fermi's Aug. 10 notice targeted phased delivery beginning in the second half of 2027. Fermi estimated about US$6.5 billion in revenue over the initial 15-year term, subject to project guaranties and financing. The revenue figure belongs to Fermi's tenant lease; the CBRE management fee was not disclosed.
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Fermi said on Sept. 24 that it had invested more than US$1.5 billion in the campus buildout. Its planned ramp to approximately 17 gigawatts depends on further binding customer agreements. The separate Aug. 10 tenant lease specifies 222 megawatts for its first phase.
CBRE Crews Await Fermi's Notice
CBRE's transition work starts when Fermi issues a notice to proceed. The site leaders can arrive up to 120 days ahead of Building One's service start to establish maintenance programs and check equipment. Fermi's announcement gave no calendar date for the notice or for service, leaving the start of the five-year operating term open.
"Bringing them in now means that when building one is ready for service, the people, the programs, and the procedures to run it are already in place," Fermi chief executive Lee McIntire said in the Sept. 24 release.
Fermi said its first SGT6-5000F turbines reached the campus in September. The release gave no commissioning date for the equipment or first-power date for Building One. Its Aug. 10 lease notice targeted first power for the campus in 2026, a target that did not set Building One's service date.
TensorWave has expansion rights for two further data centres that could take its relationship with Fermi above 650 megawatts if exercised, according to the August lease notice. CBRE's contract likewise allows later buildings to be added, while its signed operating scope begins with Building One. Fermi's Aug. 10 notice gave a second-half 2027 delivery target for the tenant's first phase; CBRE's mobilisation awaits a notice to proceed.
