Michael Rechtin

Mike’s experience includes advising:

Land Acquisition, Sales, Development, and Financing

• Edged Energy as borrower/developer on a bespoke hybrid project finance/real estate borrowing base construction loan for US$800 million across seven US sites*
• Harrison Street on:
  • The sale of two hyperscaler-occupied facilities in Ashburn, Virginia to a private equity firm for US$145 million*
  • The sale of four hyperscaler-occupied facilities in Maryland to a private equity firm*
• Harrison Street and fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (1547) on the acquisition of DRFortress in Hawaii from GI Partners* 
• Harrison Street and American Real Estate Partners/PowerHouse Data Centers on a US$550 million project financing for a multi-building data center campus*
• StratCap Data Centers and HMC Capital on:
  • The US$712 million purchase of a turnkey data center under construction and fully leased to a hyperscaler in Elk Grove Village, IL*
  • The US$250 million acquisition of two fully leased data centers in Kansas and Texas*
• Several private equity infrastructure and tech funds on acquiring and financing operating data centers in the US*
• A mortgage loan provider on the sale and leaseback of a data center facility in Detroit, MI*
• An IT infrastructure company on the sale-leaseback of a 12 MW Tier III+ data center in Elk Grove Village, IL*
• An Australia-based investment bank on due diligence for potential equity investment in a US data center portfolio*

Data Center Leases and Master Service Agreements

• Akamai Technologies in a 40 MW turnkey lease and related sublease to a non-US based hyperscaler*
• Chirisa and American Real Estate Partners on a hyperscale lease form for six full-building leases (300 MW total)*
• Chirisa and Machine Investments on two build-to-suit turnkey leases with CoreWeave (up to 375 MW each)*
• Comcast on a 12 MW Tier III+ lease and numerous regional colocation leases (250 KW to 4 MW)*
• Edged Energy on:
  • 10 build-to-suit edge leases with a hyperscaler social media company*
  • A 15 MW lease in Atlanta, GA with a non-US based hyperscaler*
• Fleet on potential lease deals for an AI campus in Reno, NV (up to 1 GW)*
• Galaxy Digital on a series of leases for a converted crypto facility to CoreWeave for 350 MW in Texas*
• Intersect Power on build-to-suit powered shell leases (1 GW and 360 MW) in Texas* 
• Novva Data Centers on:
  • A 37.5 MW turnkey lease in Las Vegas, NV to a hyperscaler*
  • Turnkey leases with eBay in Reno, NV and Las Vegas, NV*
  • An MSA with a hyperscaler for build-to-suit centers in Salt Lake City, UT, Reno, NV, and Las Vegas, NV*
• Northwestern Mutual and NorthPoint on Keystone Trade Center leases (720 MW, US$8 billion project)* 
• Oppidan,1547, and Harrison Street on a build-to-suit turnkey lease in Cheyenne, WY with a hyperscaler*
• Quantum Corridor on a potential 200 MW lease for quantum computing with a hyperscaler in Hammond, IN*
• Related and Blue Owl on a 150 MW quantum computing lease with a quantum computing platform company in Chicago, IL*
• StratCap and Quantum Connect on turnkey leases with Cloudflare*
• Walgreens on a turnkey lease with Element Critical for data center/lab space in Wood Dale, IL*
• A financial institution on an 8 MW Tier III+ lease in Minneapolis, MN and a healthcare company on a 2 MW lease*

AI and Cloud Deployment

• A leading AI platform company on the equipment lease and financing of US$30 billion of AI chipsets in several tranches, as well as related turnkey colocation agreements in New York and Texas*
• Service-level agreements, IRU agreements, and other telco contracts for AI and cloud environments*
• Galaxy Digital on converting a crypto facility for AI workloads leased to CoreWeave*
• Providing strategic advice on master planning of AI campuses and power allocation for flexible leasing, financing and ultimate sale*

Joint Ventures

• Blackstone on a joint venture investment in Digital Realty developments for hyperscale users in Europe and Virginia*
• Edged Energy in joint ventures for multiple data center developments*
• Harrison Street and American Real Estate Partners in Ashburn, VA project*
• NorthPoint and Blue Owl Capital JV on a hyperscaler campus in Pennsylvania (up to 10 buildings)* 

Power Procurement

• Intersect Power on renewable-adjacent data center campuses:
  • Powered shell lease (1 GW)*
  • Powered land lease (360 MW)*
• Procurement of power for digital infrastructure projects from numerous utility providers in the US*

Diligence Projects

• An Australia-based investment bank on due diligence for an equity investment in a US data center portfolio*
• Several private equity infrastructure, technology, and real estate funds on acquisition and financing diligence*
• Leading large portfolio due diligence projects*

*Matter handled prior to joining Latham

Thought Leadership

• Co-author, “Powering AI Data Centers: Government And Industry Leaders Scramble To Develop Energy Infrastructure To Meet Growing Demand,” Pratt’s Energy Law Report, January 2025