StackedAI provides six data center advisory services: asset sourcing, transaction advisory, colocation placement, conversion and retrofit planning, capital advisory and market intelligence. The firm focuses on enterprise-owned and brownfield assets of 7 to 25 MW in secondary US markets, below the $50 million deal size where advisory coverage thins out (StackedAI analysis, Tier-2 brownfield conversion thesis, Aug 2026). Fixed-fee diligence takes three to six weeks; LOI to close typically takes 8 to 16 weeks.
What services does StackedAI provide?
Asset Sourcing
Retained identification and approach of enterprise owners with data centers to sell or lease, before the asset reaches a listing service. Targets are facilities inside Fortune 1000 non-data-center businesses, carried as property and equipment and absent from public inventories.
For: private equity firms, family offices and infrastructure funds building a 7 to 25 MW pipeline; operators seeking a next site with power in place. Deliverables: agreed buy box; screened target list by market with power status, utility position and ownership; owner outreach and first meetings; monthly pipeline report; qualified assets introduced under NDA. Engagement model: sponsor-paid sourcing mandate, paid on close (StackedAI analysis, engagement models and fee logic, Aug 2026). Framework: Tier-2 brownfield conversion.
Transaction Advisory
Deal support from valuation and letter of intent through diligence, structuring and close, on the buy side or the sell side, across outright sale, lease, sale-leaseback, powered shell and joint venture structures.
For: enterprises divesting a facility; sponsors that have a target and need an advisor fluent in power, cooling and fiber as well as the purchase agreement. Deliverables: valuation memo against replacement cost and comparable structures; process design; LOI and term sheet negotiation; diligence workplan coordinating engineers, counsel and lenders; closing checklist through funding. Timeline and model: LOI to close 8 to 16 weeks; monthly retainer with hours included plus a success fee at close (StackedAI analysis, engagement models and fee logic, Aug 2026). Framework: data center transaction structures and sale-leaseback vs outright sale.
Colocation Placement
Matching companies that need capacity with colocation and carrier-hotel space that fits their power density, connectivity and timeline: exchange-adjacent buildings and cross-connects for trading firms, liquid-cooling-ready halls for AI workloads.
For: enterprises migrating or consolidating; neoclouds and managed service providers; proprietary trading, market-making and quant firms. Deliverables: requirements specification (kW per cabinet, redundancy, carriers, cross-connects); shortlist with pricing and availability; negotiated order form and SLA; install coordination. Engagement model: placement success fee on total contract value, disclosed to the client. Framework: colocation for trading firms and carrier hotels.
Conversion and Retrofit Planning
Technical and financial roadmaps for taking a legacy enterprise facility to AI-capable density. Legacy halls typically run 5 to 15 kW per rack, a hybrid design of roughly 70 percent liquid and 30 percent air is the common 2025 to 2026 pattern, and a retrofit runs 12 to 18 months against 36 or more months for greenfield (StackedAI analysis, Tier-2 brownfield conversion thesis, Aug 2026).
For: sponsors evaluating a target before an LOI; owners deciding whether to convert, lease or sell; operators planning a density upgrade. Deliverables: power and water constraint assessment (utility headroom, interconnection, chilled-water plant); cooling options with cost per MW; phased construction plan; conversion model with sensitivities to build cost, lease-up and debt terms. Timeline and model: fixed-fee diligence, three to six weeks. Framework: liquid cooling retrofit cost.
Capital Advisory
Connecting acquisitions with the right capital partners and structuring the equity, debt and joint venture terms that let the deal close.
For: private equity, family offices and infrastructure funds seeking contracted data center exposure; operators and developers with a site that need a sponsor; sponsors that need a co-investor or lender. Deliverables: investment memorandum; sponsor and lender introductions; term sheet structuring for OpCo/PropCo, co-invest and promote; support through capital close. Engagement model: PE advisor seat (retainer plus success-linked fee) or transaction retainer plus success fee; equity participation on deals StackedAI originates. Framework: advisory fees, retainers and equity kickers.
Market Intelligence
Ongoing coverage of the focus markets: utility power availability and queue position, enterprise disposition activity, colocation pricing and demand signals. Tier-2 colocation typically prices 15 to 30 percent below primary-market averages (StackedAI analysis, Tier-2 brownfield conversion thesis, Aug 2026).
For: sponsors with a standing mandate; operators planning expansion; restructuring advisors monitoring exposure. Deliverables: market briefs by metro; pricing benchmarks; alerts on closures, spinoffs and non-core reviews that signal a stranded asset; frameworks published in Insights. Engagement model: included in retained mandates [confirm: whether standalone market intelligence is offered and on what terms].
Services comparison
| Service | Primary client | Core deliverable | Typical timeline | Engagement model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset Sourcing | PE, family offices, infra funds, operators | Off-market pipeline and owner introductions | Ongoing, monthly reports | Retained, paid on close |
| Transaction Advisory | Asset owners, sponsors | Valuation, LOI, diligence, close | LOI to close 8 to 16 weeks | Retainer plus success fee |
| Colocation Placement | Enterprises, neoclouds, trading firms | Shortlist, negotiated order form, install | Varies by availability | Success fee on contract value |
| Conversion and Retrofit Planning | Sponsors, owners, operators | Constraint assessment, cooling options, model | Three to six weeks | Fixed fee |
| Capital Advisory | Sponsors, developers, operators | Memorandum, capital introductions, terms | Runs with the transaction | Retainer plus success fee; equity on sponsored deals |
| Market Intelligence | Standing mandates, restructuring advisors | Briefs, benchmarks, distress alerts | Continuous | Included in mandates |
Timelines and models per StackedAI analysis, engagement models and fee logic, Aug 2026. Rates are agreed per engagement and not published.
Who StackedAI works with
Enterprises and asset owners holding a data center that no longer fits the core business: a legacy facility from an IT consolidation, a campus being rationalized, or a site freed by cloud migration. StackedAI advises on value, structure and buyers.
Companies needing capacity: enterprises, managed service providers, neoclouds and trading firms with a fixed timeline. For trading firms, GPU work stays in research and backtesting and out of the execution path (StackedAI analysis, trading-firm colocation market analysis, Apr 2026).
Investors and capital partners: private equity firms, family offices and infrastructure funds that want real-asset exposure with contracted revenue at check sizes below where national advisors operate. See NNN data center lease scarcity for the credit-lease side of the market.
Restructuring advisors and fiduciaries: turnaround firms, receivers, assignment-for-benefit-of-creditors practitioners and Chapter 11 estates that need a data center or GPU asset valued and sold. Framework: stranded GPU assets and distressed neoclouds.
Focus markets
StackedAI concentrates on secondary US markets where enterprise ownership is concentrated, power is still accessible and AI demand is rising: Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Columbus, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Denver and Salt Lake City. Utility cost is one reason these markets compete: DFW at roughly 7.15 cents per kWh and Salt Lake City at roughly 7.77 cents against Northern Virginia at roughly 9.25 cents (StackedAI analysis, Tier-2 brownfield conversion thesis, Aug 2026). Sites outside these metros are covered under energy-first campus development. Trading-firm placement extends to the carrier hotels in New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Toronto.
Key terms
- Buy box: the asset criteria a sponsor has agreed to pursue; StackedAI’s standard box is 7 to 25 MW, enterprise-owned or commercial, secondary US markets, immediate to 18-month horizon.
- Sponsor-paid sourcing: a retained mandate in which the buyer pays the advisor to originate off-market assets, with the fee earned on close.
- Success fee: a fee payable only when a transaction closes, usually a percentage of price or total contract value.
- Equity participation: an advisor reinvesting part of its fee as equity in a deal it originated.
How StackedAI applies this
StackedAI runs each mandate from one side of the table and stays in the transaction through close rather than handing off after introduction. Andre van Zijl leads every engagement personally, drawing on operating and acquisition experience from Cologix, Teraco and Bluewave Technology Group. The frameworks published on this site are the ones used inside engagements, so a prospective client can read the method before the first call.
Frequently asked questions
What size of transaction does StackedAI advise on?
StackedAI’s buy box is 7 to 25 MW: enterprise-owned or commercial data centers in secondary US markets that are energized, partially active or decommissioned, transacted as a sale, lease or sale-leaseback. In dollar terms this is mostly below the $50 million level where middle-market boutiques stop and well below the $250 million floor of bulge-bracket mandates.
How does StackedAI charge for its services?
Engagements are structured as a monthly advisory retainer with hours included plus a success fee at close, a sponsor-paid sourcing mandate paid on close, a fixed-fee diligence assignment, or a placement success fee on total contract value. On sponsored deals StackedAI may take equity participation in place of part of the fee. Rates are set per engagement and are not published.
How long does a data center transaction take with StackedAI?
Fixed-fee diligence runs three to six weeks. From a signed letter of intent to close typically takes 8 to 16 weeks, depending on title, utility and lease assignment work. Sourcing mandates run longer because off-market enterprise owners move on their own timetable; StackedAI reports pipeline monthly during a sourcing mandate.
Does StackedAI represent buyers and sellers in the same deal?
No. Each mandate is retained by one side. StackedAI may source an asset for a sponsor and then advise that sponsor through close, or run a sell-side process for an enterprise owner, but it does not take fees from both sides of the same transaction. Placement fees paid by a colocation provider are disclosed to the tenant client.
Does StackedAI work on distressed or stranded data center assets?
Yes. StackedAI advises on enterprise facilities orphaned by closures, spinoffs and non-core reviews, and on neocloud and GPU assets in distress, including receivership, assignment-for-benefit-of-creditors and Chapter 11 sale processes. Restructuring advisors and fiduciaries engage StackedAI for valuation, buyer identification and running the sale of a data center asset.
Can StackedAI place a trading firm in NY4 or 350 East Cermak?
Colocation placement covers carrier hotels including the Secaucus, Chicago, Atlanta and Toronto exchange-adjacent buildings. StackedAI helps trading firms specify power, cross-connects and cabinet count, negotiate the order form and, where required, source GPU research capacity outside the execution path. Availability in the primary exchange buildings is tight and is confirmed per engagement.
Sources
- StackedAI analysis, engagement models and fee logic (retainer, sourcing, fixed-fee diligence, placement, equity participation; LOI to close 8 to 16 weeks), Aug 2026
- StackedAI analysis, Tier-2 brownfield conversion thesis (buy box, advisory gap by deal size, retrofit timeline, utility cost by market, tier-2 pricing discount), Aug 2026
- StackedAI analysis, trading-firm colocation market analysis (target set, GPU work outside the execution path), Apr 2026