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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Real Property - Finance

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, April 22, 2025

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$347.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE webinar will provide guidance for real estate counsel on navigating the complexities of data center financing. The panel will discuss financing strategies, structures, and loan terms and will highlight the unique financing issues and risks associated with data center development projects.

Faculty

Tara K. Gorman
Partner
Womble Bond Dickinson (US), LLP

Ms. Gorman focuses her practice on hospitality law, advising clients domestically and internationally on a broad spectrum of matters, including hotel acquisitions, licensing, branding, financings, operation, and development. She has extensive experience in management, licensing, and branding agreements for hotels, restaurants, water parks, and casinos. Ms. Gorman has represented a range of institutional investors in connection with their real estate investments, as well as governmental and quasi-governmental agencies with respect to their real estate holdings. In addition to her practice, Ms. Gorman is the Chair of the Timesharing and Interval Use Committee of the Hospitality Group of the Real Property and Probate Section of the ABA; Professor in Residence (Adjunct) at the Washington College of Law of American University in Washington, D.C., as part of the Hospitality and Tourism Law Program; and on the Board of Advisors of the Georgetown University Law Center’s Hotel & Lodging Legal Summit. She regularly speaks at conferences and seminars on real estate and hospitality topics and is the author of The Law Goddess Blueprint and a contributing writer to the textbook Hotel Law – Transactions, Management and Franchising.

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David Beckstead
Of Counsel
Womble Bond Dickinson

Mr. Beckstead has extensive international experience advising clients of all sizes – including Fortune 500 – on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, project finance, and project development, particularly in the energy and infrastructure sectors. He counsels lenders, sponsors, and contractors on projects and transactions across Asia, including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Bangladesh, and Mongolia. His work has been recognized in Chambers Global, Legal 500, IFLR1000, and Asian Legal Business. Mr. Beckstead joined Womble from one of the largest full-service international law firms in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was a partner in the Energy & Infrastructure Practice Group.

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Benjamin E. Busboom
Partner
Womble Bond Dickinson (US), LLP

Description

Data centers have been developed (or existing buildings converted) so rapidly in recent years that they have emerged as a new real estate asset class. Due to demand and the Trump administration's support for data center investment, it is expected that there will be continued exponential growth in this sector for the foreseeable future.

Data center construction activity has created a strong demand from developers and infrastructure investors for project financing. Data center financings are specialized hybrid structures that borrow principles across debt markets and typically blend both real estate finance and leveraged finance loan terms. It is critical for real estate counsel to understand the financing complexities, loan terms, and risk assessment strategies unique to data center projects.

While the different financing strategies for data centers--real estate loan versus a corporate loan or leveraged loan--present unique issues, other financing challenges include whether the physical facility and the IT equipment will be bundled together or broken down into different loans and deals, the long project timelines and varying project costs, the ever-changing needs and priorities associated with the project, and whether the high per-square-footage valuations will hold over time.

Listen as our expert panel addresses the unique challenges and opportunities with data center financing and provides guidance for structuring these transactions.

Outline

  1. Overview: data center growth and development
  2. Unique challenges and considerations with data center financing
  3. Common data center financing structures
  4. Debt issuance strategies
  5. Green loans
  6. Sustainability-linked loans
  7. Limited recourse financing
  8. Equity financing
  9. Securitization
  10. Assessing and allocating the risks associated with a data center project
  11. Specialized loan document terms
  12. Leasing considerations
  13. Practitioner pointers and key takeaways

Benefits

The panel will discuss these and other key considerations:

  • What are the unique issues and considerations for lenders and borrowers when financing the development of a data center?
  • What are common financing structures used with data centers?
  • How do lenders assess and allocate the risks associated with data centers?
  • How does data center financing blend loan document terms found in both real estate finance and leveraged finance?