Wholesale Colocation
Wholesale Data Center Leasing From 500 kW to 20 MW: Pricing, Providers, the RFP and the Lease
With more than 80 percent of new capacity preleased, the first question in wholesale colocation is who can deliver on your date. We find the halls that can, then negotiate the terms before the rate.
Find My Wholesale CapacityWholesale colocation is the lease of dedicated data center capacity, typically 500 kW and above, in a private hall or suite with committed power, a ramp schedule and a multi-year term. It is priced per kilowatt rather than per cabinet, negotiated rather than quoted from a rate card, and the contract carries terms retail colocation never touches: power floors, expansion rights, delivery remedies and escalation. A wholesale data center is the building designed for it, with halls sized in megawatts and delivered to one tenant at a time. In 2026 the market favors the operator: primary-market vacancy is 1.4 percent, more than 80 percent of the capacity under construction is preleased, and wholesale rates rose 6.7 to 8.3 percent in a year. A 2 MW lease at market rate against list rate is a difference of several hundred thousand dollars a year, and the power floor, ramp, expansion right and delivery remedy are worth more than the rate over the life of the contract. Having someone on your side of the table who has seen what operators actually sign, and who negotiates the terms before the rate, is what turns a good rate into a market rate.
Prices checked September 2026. Source: CBRE North America Data Center Trends H1 2026. Free to cite with a link to this page.
Capacity at go-live and at full ramp, density, air or liquid cooling, the markets you would consider, and your commissioning date and outside date.
A reply with a first read on which markets can serve the requirement on your date, and what to settle before any operator sees it.
If nothing can deliver on your date, we will say so, along with the earliest date that works.
The operator you choose pays us. If you have already spoken to one operator, tell us which; we can still run the rest of the market.
Retail vs Wholesale Colocation
The dividing line is usually around 500 kW, though it moves. Below that, retail by the cabinet. Above about 1 MW, almost always wholesale. In between, either structure can work, and the choice depends on how much control you want and how long you are committing.
| Retail colocation | Wholesale colocation | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical size | 1 to 50 cabinets, up to a few hundred kW | 500 kW to 20 MW and beyond |
| How it is priced | Per cabinet, power bundled or metered | Per committed kW, plus metered power at cost |
| What you get | Cabinets in a shared hall | A private hall, suite or cage with dedicated infrastructure |
| Term | One to three years | Five to fifteen years |
| How it is negotiated | Quoted from a rate card | Negotiated, every term, every time |
| Who is on the other side | A sales representative | A deal team and legal |
| What matters most | Rate, connectivity, location | Power floor, ramp, expansion rights, delivery, escalation, then rate |
| Fit | Standard enterprise workloads | Enterprise at scale, AI clusters, service providers, cloud repatriation |
What a Wholesale Data Center Lease Has to Say
Five terms carry most of the money over a multi-year lease. The rate is not one of them.
Power floor
The minimum kW you pay for regardless of use. Operators want it at contracted capacity from day one; tenants want it to track the ramp. On a 5 MW lease, a floor at full capacity from month one when the ramp takes a year is millions in unused power.
Ramp schedule
How capacity steps up, on what dates, and what happens if the tenant is early or late. Tied to the floor, and the term where phased AI deployments most often go wrong.
Expansion rights
Right of first refusal or first offer on adjacent capacity, for how long, at what price. Operators now bound these tightly, two to three years and often conditioned on utility confirmation, because power is scarce. A tenant planning to grow needs the right to be real, dated and priced.
Delivery date and remedy
When the capacity is commissioned, and what the tenant gets if it is late: rent abatement, liquidated damages, a termination right at an outside date. Operators write "commercially reasonable efforts." Tenants need a date.
Escalation
Annual increases, typically 3 to 4 percent fixed or CPI-linked. Over ten years, 4 percent instead of 2 leaves the rent about 19 percent higher by the final year and the total paid about 10 percent higher. Negotiate it with the rate, never separately.
The data center lease guide covers each of these in detail, including what operators currently accept and what they hold.
Wholesale Data Center Pricing in 2026
Wholesale pricing is quoted per committed kilowatt per month, net of metered power, and depends on market, density, term and how much capacity the operator has left. The reference points:
| Tier | Range, $ per kW per month | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| 250 kW to 500 kWlarge retail, small wholesale | About $204 primary-market average; $190 to $235 in Northern Virginia, $200 to $230 in Chicago | CBRE: $196.25 average in H2 2025, up 4.3 percent in the year to mid-2026 (MCA calculation); Q1 2026 market bands |
| 1 to 10 MW, existing capacity | $150 to $220 | Colliers 2026: primary US markets transact $160 to $200 net of electrical. McKinsey, June 2026: $150 to $200. Rates up 7.9 to 8.3 percent in the year (CBRE) |
| 10 MW and up, long termhyperscale | $155 to $185 in Northern Virginia; negotiated individually elsewhere | CBRE H2 2025 Northern Virginia band; 10 MW-plus rates up 6.7 percent in the year to mid-2026 |
| Liquid-cooled, rack-scale AI | Premium over the wholesale band | Limited supply, often preleased with delivery past twelve months; operators with AI-ready halls capture rent premiums (CBRE) |
Prices checked September 2026. Sources: CBRE North America Data Center Trends H1 2026; CBRE Global Data Center Trends 2026; Colliers and McKinsey 2026 market reports. Rates by market are on the colocation pricing guide.
Market moves the number
Chicago and Northern Virginia carry the highest published rates for mid-size requirements; Atlanta and Dallas sit below the average; Canada often prices below the US on power cost. In every primary market, the quote reflects scarcity as much as cost.
Density moves it more
Liquid-cooled capacity carries a premium because there is little of it, and most of what exists is committed before it is commissioned. See AI and GPU colocation.
Term buys rate, and costs flexibility
A ten-year commitment gets a better rate than five, and take-or-pay gets better again, but both cost flexibility that has a value of its own.
The rate is not the bill
Metered power is passed through at the operator's cost and is typically 25 to 40 percent of the total at full utilization. Cross-connects, remote hands and facility-supplied equipment sit on top. A low per-kW rate with a high metered rate is a common structure, which is why operators have to be compared on total cost.
Send the requirement and we will price it at what operators are actually signing for your size, density, market and term, then negotiate from there. You'll hear back within 24 hours, and the operator you choose pays us, so it costs you nothing.
Why the Wholesale Market Favors the Operator
They do this constantly; you do not
An operator's deal team negotiates wholesale leases every week and knows current rates in every hall it runs, which terms buyers push on and which they accept, and where its own flexibility sits. A tenant negotiates one lease every five to ten years, usually with a team that has never done it.
Scarcity has flipped the leverage
With 80 percent of the pipeline preleased, operators negotiate from strength. Power floors, ramp schedules and take-or-pay that were negotiable in 2022 are now standard in the operator's first draft. A buyer who does not know which of those still move accepts all of them.
Published data describes closed deals
Averages tell you where the market was. Your quote reflects what the operator thinks you will accept. The only way to know what a specific hall is contracting at now is to have been in front of the operator with a live requirement recently, which is the whole argument for an independent adviser at this scale.
Wholesale Data Center Providers
Wholesale colocation providers fall into four kinds, and they behave differently in a negotiation.
| Type | Examples | How they behave |
|---|---|---|
| Large operators with retail and wholesale halls | Equinix, Digital Realty; CoreSite and DataBank at smaller scale | Retail and wholesale on the same campuses, mature channel programs, the deepest interconnection. Wholesale capacity in primary markets is largely committed |
| Pure wholesale developers | Vantage, Aligned, QTS, STACK, CyrusOne, Compass, Sabey | Built for multi-megawatt tenants and priced per kW from the start; more likely to have capacity in secondary markets; negotiate on volume and term. The natural home for a 2 to 20 MW requirement that does not need a carrier hotel |
| Regional and specialist operators | Flexential, TierPoint, Cologix, Evocative, Colovore, and market-specific operators in every city | Smaller campuses, often more flexible on structure, and sometimes the only ones with liquid-cooled capacity inside a year. Where the AI requirement usually lands |
| Developers with powered land | Sites with a utility commitment and a design, seeking an anchor tenant | Not a lease of existing capacity but a build to suit or powered shell conversation: the route to a purpose-built facility when nothing existing fits |
We hold channel partner relationships across the first three groups and work directly with the fourth. Which group fits a requirement depends on density, timeline and market, and that is the first thing a placement establishes. See the provider comparison.
That is the first thing we establish: which groups and which halls can deliver your density on your date, before anyone spends a month on the wrong shortlist.
Hyperscale Colocation and AI Density
Hyperscale colocation is the top of the wholesale market: single tenants taking 10 MW and up, often whole buildings, on ten to fifteen year terms, from the developers built for it. It sets the pace for everyone else, because hyperscale preleasing is what commits the pipeline before it is built. An enterprise or AI company with a 5 MW requirement is competing with that demand for the same halls, and wins by being specific and early.
Rack-scale AI is the fastest-growing wholesale requirement and the hardest to serve. A GB300 NVL72 rack draws about 120 to 140 kW and needs direct-to-chip liquid cooling; the Rubin generation behind it draws more. Most halls marketed as liquid-cooling-ready cannot take that on the timeline a buyer needs, because the constraint is the facility loop, the CDUs and the commissioning date, not the rack. The questions are specific: is the facility water loop live, what temperature does it deliver at the rack inlet, what flow rate per cabinet, who supplies the CDUs, what does the floor carry, and when is the liquid-cooled cage deliverable as opposed to when the building opens. Data Center Knowledge used Metro Colo Advisory as its source on exactly this in August 2026, drawing on our recent searches for rack-scale capacity. See direct to chip cooling and AI and GPU colocation.
Send the rack count, power per rack, cooling spec and date. We know which halls have the facility loop live and which only have it on a slide, and we take rack-scale requirements to the market regularly.
Where Wholesale Capacity Is
Northern Virginia remains the largest wholesale market in the world and the tightest, at 0.2 percent vacancy. Atlanta now has the most capacity under construction in North America; Dallas, Chicago and Phoenix have capacity coming online through 2027, most of it preleased. The New York metro is constrained by power and permitting. Outside the US, Canada has become a serious wholesale market on hydro power and sovereign-AI demand, with Quebec, British Columbia and the Greater Toronto Area building at scale. Where a requirement can be served depends on density, timeline and where the tenant can operate.
How to Run a Wholesale Data Center RFP
At wholesale scale the RFP carries more technical and commercial detail than a retail search. The general process and a section-by-section template are in how to run a data center RFP; the steps below cover what changes at 500 kW and up.
Write the specification
Committed capacity at go-live and at each ramp step. Density per rack and in total. Cooling: air, liquid or both, and for liquid, the facility water temperature, flow rate per cabinet and who supplies the CDUs. Redundancy on which systems. Carriers, cloud on-ramps and cross-connect volume. Term, with expansion rights and how long they must hold. A commissioning date and an outside date. Compliance frameworks.
Pick three to five operators who can serve it
Chosen because they can plausibly deliver the density on the date, not because they are well known. Sending an RFP to operators who cannot serve it wastes a month.
Send the same specification to all on the same day
With a written question-and-answer window so everyone gets the same clarifications, and a response format that forces comparability: rate per kW, metered rate, one-time charges, and each contract term answered yes or no.
Give two weeks for existing capacity, longer for construction
And state the outside date, so no operator wins on a commissioning date it will not hit.
Negotiate the terms before the rate
The operator's preferred sequence is rate first, because it costs them least to concede. Floor, ramp, expansion, delivery remedy and escalation first; then the rate against the benchmark.
Compare on total cost
Rate plus metered power, one-time charges and escalation over the term, in one format, side by side.
How We Place Wholesale Capacity
You give us the requirement. We take it to the operators who can plausibly serve it, across North America and internationally, run the RFP so the responses are comparable, and negotiate the terms before the rate. The operator you choose pays us as a standard part of its channel program; you pay nothing, and going direct does not save it. If nothing fits, we say so. When the requirement itself is not yet defined, whether to move off cloud, what the right footprint is, how the economics change under each structure, that is data center consulting, paid by you at a fixed fee, and it produces the specification the placement then runs. The two are separate. How a data center broker works.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is wholesale colocation?
The lease of dedicated data center capacity, typically 500 kW and above, in a private hall, suite or cage with committed power, a ramp schedule and a multi-year term, priced per kilowatt and negotiated rather than quoted. Retail colocation is shared space leased by the cabinet.
What is a wholesale data center?
A facility built to lease large blocks of capacity, measured in megawatts, to one tenant per hall or building rather than by the cabinet. The pure wholesale developers build them; the large operators run wholesale halls alongside retail on the same campuses.
What is the minimum size for wholesale colocation?
Around 500 kW, though it varies by operator. Below that, most operators sell retail by the cabinet. Between 500 kW and 1 MW, either structure is possible; above 1 MW, wholesale is standard. Some operators will structure a 250 kW private suite as wholesale on a long enough term.
How is wholesale colocation priced?
Per committed kilowatt per month, plus metered power at the operator's cost, plus one-time charges for installation and cross-connects. In 2026, existing capacity from 1 to 10 MW in primary markets transacts at roughly $150 to $220 per kW net of power, with 250 to 500 kW requirements averaging about $204 and liquid-cooled AI capacity at a premium. Metered power adds 25 to 40 percent to the bill at full utilization.
What is the difference between wholesale and hyperscale colocation?
Scale and tenant. Hyperscale colocation is single tenants at 10 MW and up, often whole buildings, on ten to fifteen year terms. Wholesale covers everything from about 500 kW to that threshold. Hyperscale preleasing is what commits most of the construction pipeline before it opens.
Who are the wholesale data center providers?
Four groups: the large operators with wholesale halls on retail campuses (Equinix, Digital Realty, and CoreSite and DataBank at smaller scale); the pure wholesale developers (Vantage, Aligned, QTS, STACK, CyrusOne, Compass, Sabey); regional and specialist operators (Flexential, TierPoint, Cologix, Evocative, Colovore and market-specific operators); and developers with powered land seeking an anchor tenant for a build to suit.
What is the difference between wholesale colocation and a data center lease?
Very little in practice. Wholesale colocation is the industry's term for leasing dedicated capacity by the kilowatt; the document you sign is a data center lease or a master services agreement with a capacity schedule. The terms that matter are the same either way.
How long does it take to lease wholesale capacity?
For existing capacity, eight to sixteen weeks from RFP to signature, with commissioning in weeks to a few months. For capacity under construction, the lease is often signed a year or more before delivery. For liquid-cooled AI capacity, timelines are set by when the facility loop is commissioned, not by the negotiation.
What is take-or-pay in a data center lease?
A structure where the tenant pays for committed capacity whether or not it is used, from the commencement date. It has become standard for AI anchor leases because operators finance construction against the commitment. The negotiable parts are the ramp, so payment tracks deployment rather than starting at full capacity, and the outside date, so a late delivery does not trigger payment for capacity that does not exist.
Can wholesale capacity be split across two sites?
For most workloads, yes. For a single AI training cluster, no, because the GPUs have to sit on one fabric. Steady inference, storage and general compute can split. Whether a requirement can be phased across sites is one of the first questions to settle, because it changes which operators are in play.
Does wholesale colocation work for cloud repatriation?
At scale, it is the destination. A company moving seven figures of steady workload off cloud usually lands in a wholesale lease of several hundred kilowatts to several megawatts, often after a first wave on bare metal. The cloud repatriation guide covers the decision; this page covers the lease that follows it.
Do I need a data center broker for a wholesale lease?
Not to sign one. You need one to know what the operator would actually accept: current contracted rates, which terms move, and which halls can serve the density. The operator pays the broker, so the cost to you is nothing and the alternative is negotiating blind.
Find Your Wholesale Capacity
Capacity at go-live and at full ramp. Density. Cooling. Market or markets. Commissioning date and outside date. That is enough for a first read on where it can be served, and you'll hear back within 24 hours. North American and international coverage, paid by the operator you choose. If nothing fits, we say so.
Once you have approached an operator directly, it usually will not work through an advisor on your deal. If you have already spoken to one, tell us which; we can still run the rest of the market.
The lease and the price: the data center lease guide, the colocation pricing guide, data center cost and data center tiers.
The decision before the lease: cloud repatriation, data center consulting and site selection.
High density and building: data center valuation, data center financing, AI and GPU colocation, direct to chip cooling, build to suit, powered shell and powered land.
Markets and operators: Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, the New York metro, the provider comparison and how a data center broker works.