Centra names CyrusOne veteran to lead 300MW buildout

Centra has named Robert Crespi chief executive, according to Data Center Dynamics. The move pairs a founder-operator with a private-equity-backed buildout. Crespi founded data center provider Cervalis, which CyrusOne acquired in 2015, and then spent years at CyrusOne, most recently as senior vice president of portfolio management. Under that tenure, CyrusOne became one of the largest platforms in the industry, according to Centra's executive chairman.

Bill Cook, who chairs Centra, said in the announcement that very few people know how to build a company from nothing and run one at real scale. Crespi, he said, has done both: he built Cervalis into a business CyrusOne wanted to buy, and he went on to manage the interconnection and asset side of CyrusOne itself.

Centra, formerly Deep Edge, has been expanding from small projects. The company topped out RNO2, a 4.4MW facility in Reno, in May, and broke ground on a 12MW data center redevelopment in Minneapolis in August. In the same month as the Reno milestone, Centra raised $230 million, with Columbia Capital among its backers.

That funding will help underwrite a much larger job. Centra was tapped as developer of 300MW of data center assets backed by private equity firm HighBrook Investors. The mandate is a step change for a company whose disclosed projects total just 16.4MW — roughly 18 times what it has publicized so far.

The coverage does not say whether Centra will keep the assets it builds or sell them to an owner-operator. It also does not give a start date for Crespi or terms of the HighBrook mandate. Until those details emerge, the appointment itself is the main signal — and it suggests operating the assets will be part of the job, not just building them. The first project to come out of the ground will show how serious that intent is.