Colocation Buildout Financing

Finance a colocation hall as one project — power, cooling, containment, and commissioning — drawn as white space is brought online. Projects we fund typically run $2,000,000–$10,000,000, drawn as white space is brought online.

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The Colocation Buildout Reality

The economics of a colocation hall are backwards from most equipment: the capital lands at commissioning, all at once, and the revenue arrives cabinet by cabinet over the following year or two. Everything in the hall has to work before a single tenant can be billed — the power path, the cooling, the containment, the monitoring — so there is no version of this that funds incrementally on the revenue side. What can be phased is the funding, drawn as each stage is built and proven, with the schedule shaped to how the space is expected to fill.

What a Buildout Package Covers

Switchgear, busway, and power distribution units
UPS plant, battery systems, and standby generators
CRAH, CRAC, chilled water, and containment systems
Racks, cabinets, cable management, and structured cabling
Monitoring, DCIM, and building management integration
Commissioning, load bank testing, and acceptance

How the Draws Work

One approval, funded in phases — the schedule follows the project rather than a delivery date.

1 · Power & Distribution

Switchgear, UPS plant, batteries, generators, and busway. The electrical path has to be complete and witnessed before anything downstream of it can be energized.

2 · Cooling & White Space

CRAH or CRAC units, chilled water, containment, racks, and structured cabling — the hall itself, built to the capacity the first contracts commit to rather than the building's eventual total.

3 · Commissioning

Level 4 and 5 commissioning, load bank testing, and monitoring integration. A hall is not sellable capacity until it has been proven at load.

4 · Fill

Payments track the hall as it takes tenants. The structure is built so the months between energization and contracted occupancy aren't carrying the payment of a full hall.

Payment Structures

The differentiation: four ways to own the same equipment, engineered to your cash flow. Compare them side by side on our structures page.

Operating Lease

Off-balance-sheet treatment with end-of-term flexibility — return, renew, or purchase. Often the right answer when technology cycles or accounting outcomes drive the decision.

$1 Buyout Lease

Own the equipment for one dollar at term end. Fixed payments, full Section 179 eligibility, and a clean path to ownership.

Seasonal & Step Payments

Payments that follow your revenue curve — lighter in slow months, heavier in peak season, or stepping up as new equipment ramps to full production.

Usage-Based & As-a-Service

Payments tied to hours, output, or consumption. The category Elevex is defining: pay for what equipment achieves, not what it costs.

Learn more about financing structures

How It Works

Three steps from scope to funded.

1 · Bring the Scope

A budget, a floor plan or build spec, and the timeline you're working to. Not a single quote — the whole project, however many vendors it runs across.

2 · Structure the Draws

A finance professional maps the funding to the project's milestones, so money lands when each phase needs it and payments start when the facility earns.

3 · Fund Each Phase

Vendors are paid as phases clear. One approval and one schedule carry the project instead of a separate application every time the scope moves forward.

Common Questions

How is this different from financing the equipment pages individually?

Those pages each fund one system for a facility already operating — a cooling refresh, a UPS replacement, a rack deployment. This one builds a hall that does not exist yet, where the power, cooling, containment, and commissioning are a single scope that only produces revenue once all of it is proven together.

Can payments follow contracted capacity rather than the calendar?

That is the structure worth discussing on a buildout. A hall energized ahead of its contracts carries a full payment against partial occupancy, and step schedules exist to shape that curve. What the structure can follow is a signed commitment — the honest version of this conversation starts with how much of the hall is already contracted.

Can one facility cover equipment from several vendors?

Yes — that is the point of financing colocation buildout as a project rather than as purchases. A single schedule can carry equipment from every vendor on the job, so the scope is approved once instead of being re-underwritten each time another supplier is added.

Which parts of a colocation buildout qualify for Section 179?

Most business-use equipment placed in service this tax year generally qualifies, financed or purchased outright. Leasehold improvements, real property, and construction costs follow different rules, so a project budget rarely qualifies as a single number. Run the equipment portion on our Section 179 calculator and confirm the split with your tax advisor.

How fast can colocation buildout financing close?

Application-only decisions to $1,000,000 come back in minutes for qualified credits. Apply online with your scope and budget rather than a single quote — the draw schedule is built from the project timeline, so the sooner that exists the sooner funding can follow it.

Ready to fund your colocation buildout?

Payments built on outcomes, from the team that knows your industry. Equipment sellers: offer financing at the point of sale with CapVex.

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