The Industrial Real Estate Podcast
- Podcast
- April 17, 2023
The Hidden Risk in Data Center Investing Nobody’s Pricing In
In this episode of the Industrial Real Estate Show, Chad Griffiths is joined by Matthew Smith, Vice President of RealNex. They look past the data center hype at what happens to these buildings, and the land under them, when the technology moves on. They cover what the midterm results could mean for new projects, why power is the real constraint, and who’s left holding the risk when a single-use building in the middle of nowhere goes dark.
- Why data centers cost roughly four times as much to build as standard industrial, around $800 a square foot versus $200, and why they’re so hard to convert back
- What happens to million-square-foot facilities in remote areas when they become obsolete, and why the land could fall from data-center premiums back to farmland value
- Why the tenant and the owner see the risk differently, and what investors should ask about decommissioning and remediation
Connect with Matthew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsmithca/
RealNex Website: https://www.realnex.com/
Connect with us: https://linktr.ee/industrialpodcast
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November 9, 2026
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