Compare building new vs buying this turn-key data center for sale in Knoxville, Tennessee
Plus 12-18 months saved in construction time and 6-12 additional months to first revenue
Building a comparable 1,200 sq ft Tier II data center from scratch costs between $1,200,000 and $1,500,000 and takes 12-18 months to complete construction, plus an additional 6-12 months to reach first revenue. This operational facility eliminates all of that risk, time, and cost.
Twelve to eighteen months to reach operational status, and eighteen to thirty months before a new build produces anything at all. That single figure is why most buyers at this size stop pricing construction and start looking for an operational data center for sale instead.
Direct Construction: $1,200,000 - $1,350,000
Hidden/Soft Costs: $239,000 - $430,000
TOTAL INVESTMENT: $1,439,000 - $1,780,000+
The construction figures above are only part of the comparison. The other part is time, and in 2026 time is the harder constraint. A buyer who chooses to build is not simply waiting on contractors — they are waiting on the electrical grid.
U.S. interconnection queues currently hold roughly 2,600 GW of proposed capacity, with median waits approaching five years and historical completion rates near 13%. Transformers, switchgear and generators carry their own multi-year lead times. These delays apply to a small facility as readily as a large one.
This property's 800 AMP service is energized. The generator, automatic transfer switch, Fike Ecaro-25 clean-agent suppression and fiber entrance from five carriers are installed, inspected and operating. What remains for a buyer to add — UPS modules taking the Symmetra PX from 40 kW to its rated 80 kW, additional PDUs, cooling capacity and cabinets — is available on ordinary purchase-order timelines. Explore what this turn-key Tier II facility is capable of supporting →
Review the facility capabilities and detailed technical specifications
Request Lease-to-Own Terms Facility Capabilities Full SpecificationsMost operators never run the rent-versus-own comparison properly, because the rent arrives monthly and the alternative arrives as one intimidating number. Work out your true cost per cabinet and cost per kilowatt first, then compare. Operators who have outgrown colocation usually find the decision was made a year or two before they got round to checking.
Most buyers arrive here comparing build vs. buy. But if you already rent cabinets from a colocation provider, the real comparison is different — and usually more urgent. Here is the alternative to colocation rent, laid out honestly.
The financing problem is the reason most small data center transactions never close — and this listing solves it directly.
Commercial lenders underwrite against comparable sales and standardized property classes. A 1,209 sq ft purpose-built Tier II data center fits neither. Appraisers have few comparables. Loan committees have no template. The result is that qualified, well-capitalized buyers routinely spend months in underwriting only to be declined on a property type the bank simply does not understand.
Lease-to-own owner financing removes the lender from the transaction entirely. An owner financed purchase means the seller carries the note. A qualified buyer takes occupancy, begins operating the facility immediately, and applies a portion of each monthly payment toward ownership. There is no commercial loan committee, no specialty-asset appraisal obstacle, and no multi-month underwriting delay. For buyers who have the cash flow to service payments but not a seven-figure cash down payment, this is frequently the difference between acquiring the facility and walking away.
Pricing, down payment and payment schedules are provided by our commercial realtor following your inquiry.
Start a conversation, not an application
Everything above is arithmetic you can check. What it cannot tell you is whether the structure can be shaped around your particular situation, and that part is genuinely negotiable.
You do not have to be ready to buy anything to ask a question. Most people who end up acquiring a facility like this spend weeks working out whether the idea is sound before they speak to anyone, usually because there is nobody in their world who has done it and nobody they can ask without tipping their hand.
That is a normal place to be. Ask the question you would ask if there were no consequence to asking it. Nobody is going to demand proof of funds before answering, and a question is not a signal of intent.
This is a commercial real estate and infrastructure transaction. No client contracts, customer base, recurring revenue, employees or goodwill are included.
Name and email only. Everything else on that form is optional.
You have been here before.
At this stage most people have one specific thing still unresolved. Ask that one thing. No form, no phone number, no follow-up sequence.