US NNN data center leases are held by a short list of owners: two Singapore-listed REITs (Mapletree Industrial Trust with roughly 56 US data centers, Digital Core REIT with 9), COPT Defense Properties with 31 single-tenant shells, Brookfield’s Centersquare platform, and six specialist investors (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026). Diversified net-lease REITs, the natural buyers of single-tenant paper, hold little or none.
Key terms
- NNN (triple net) lease: the tenant pays taxes, insurance and maintenance in addition to rent, leaving the landlord a passive income stream.
- Anchor leaseback: a carrier or enterprise sells a facility to an operator or investor and remains as principal tenant under a long net lease.
- Specialist net-lease investor: a private investor focused on single-tenant data center assets, typically buying below the size at which REITs compete.
- Sell propensity: StackedAI’s qualitative ranking of how likely an owner is to dispose of a lease within a defined horizon.
- Carrier switch site: a legacy telephone switching or network facility, often leased back to the carrier.
Who holds NNN data center leases at scale?
StackedAI’s NNN DC Lease Universe identifies 442 US NNN and net data center leases, of which roughly 100 carry enterprise, carrier or government credit (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026). The owners fall into five groups.
| Owner group | Representative holders | What they hold |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore-listed REITs | Mapletree Industrial Trust; Digital Core REIT | Mapletree: ~56 US data centers on NNN terms, acquired at 6 to 9 year WALE with 1.5 to 3% escalators. Digital Core: 9 US assets, 85% NNN |
| Defense-adjacent REIT | COPT Defense Properties | 31 single-tenant NNN shells in Northern Virginia, 5.9M square feet, one Fortune 100 cloud tenant, 24 shells in joint ventures |
| Infrastructure fund platforms | Brookfield via Centersquare (former Evoque and Cyxtera) | Carrier anchor tenancies (AT&T, Lumen) across ~330 MW in North America |
| Specialists | Five 9s Digital, StratCap, Lincoln Rackhouse, Aphorio Carter, Tenet Equity, Menlo Equities | Single assets and small portfolios; carrier switch sites at $10 to 15M tickets on 15 to 16 year NNN terms |
| Carrier legacy platforms | CenturyLink and Lumen lineage (~40 leases), Verizon former Terremark (22), AT&T former Evoque (18) | Anchor leasebacks that dominate the credit-filtered slice |
Source: StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026.
The two largest holders are listed in Singapore, and the carrier lineages account for roughly 80 of the roughly 100 credit-filtered leases (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026), so the “enterprise credit” in the class is mostly telecom credit inside colocation platforms.
Why don’t diversified net-lease REITs own data centers?
This negative finding explains the market structure. Gladstone Commercial explicitly excludes data centers from its investment criteria, and W. P. Carey’s data center exposure is de minimis (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026). The REITs that provide liquidity and transparency for single-tenant industrial, retail and office paper have not entered, most likely because data centers carry specialized plant with obsolescence risk, re-leasing requires an operator rather than a leasing broker, and the tenant pool for a vacated single-tenant data center is thin. NNN data center leases therefore trade through specialists, Singapore REITs and infrastructure funds, each with its own reason to hold and trigger to sell. The pricing consequence is on data center sale-leaseback cap rates.
Which enterprises have created NNN data center paper?
Enterprise-originated leases are rare enough to list. The public exemplars in StackedAI’s universe are Bank of America’s roughly 1 million square foot sale-leaseback to Lincoln Rackhouse in 2018; carrier switch-site NNN singles by T-Mobile and Lumen on 15 to 16 year terms; Salesforce’s 26 MW lease with QTS in 2018; Supermicro’s 21 MW, 10-year lease in Vernon, California; Twitter’s 48 MW in Hillsboro, Oregon; wholesale leases by Uber, Nvidia, Intel and Workday; and Eaton’s Louisville facility with Aphorio Carter (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026).
The Bank of America transaction is the template for StackedAI’s origination thesis: an enterprise with owned data centers converts them into a long lease and releases capital. Most Fortune 1000 owners have not done this, which is why the pure-enterprise count under the full filter is 35 (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026). A CFO’s decision framework is on sale-leaseback vs outright sale.
Which owners are most likely to sell?
StackedAI ranks sell propensity by mandate fit, hold period and the owner’s need for capital elsewhere.
- Singapore REITs. Mapletree’s US portfolio was assembled at 6 to 9 year WALE (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026), so rollover arrives on a predictable schedule, and any rebalancing away from US data centers would release NNN assets in Tier-2 US metros.
- Brookfield and Centersquare. The Cyxtera lineage came through a Chapter 11 process, and the combined platform holds distressed-lineage Tier-2 sites with carrier anchor tenants (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026). Non-core disposals from this platform are the largest potential source of carrier-credit NNN paper.
- Specialists. Private specialists recycle capital at the end of a hold; at $10 to 15M per asset (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026), their portfolios turn over in single-asset trades that rarely list.
- COPT Defense. The 31 Northern Virginia shells are leased to one tenant and 24 sit in joint ventures (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026); they are the least likely to trade individually.
- Enterprise owners. The highest-propensity sellers are not lease owners at all but owner-occupiers whose facilities turn non-core after an announced closure, a spinoff or a pending private equity acquisition (StackedAI analysis, Tier-2 brownfield conversion thesis, 2026). These sellers create new paper.
The market backdrop reinforces the point. Investment in operational data center assets fell to about $3B in 2025, down roughly 50% year on year (CBRE, North America Data Center Trends H2 2025, Feb 2026), and only 7% of surveyed investors prefer stabilized acquisitions against 62% for opportunistic development (CBRE investor survey via Bisnow, Aug 2025), even as total data center M&A hit a record of more than $69B across 113 deals (S&P Global Market Intelligence via DCD, Feb 2026). Capital is abundant for platforms and development and thin for stabilized single-tenant assets, which is where a patient NNN buyer faces the least competition.
How do NNN data center deals reach buyers?
| Channel | Type | What it carries |
|---|---|---|
| Five 9s Digital | Dedicated NNN data center listing shop | The only specialist listing channel; advised on carrier switch-site singles |
| Northmarq net lease | National net-lease brokerage | Single-tenant mission-critical listings alongside industrial and retail |
| Marcus & Millichap net lease | National net-lease brokerage | Smaller single-tenant assets for private and 1031 buyers |
| The Boulder Group | Net-lease research and brokerage | Quarterly single-tenant cap-rate research |
| Crexi and LoopNet | Online listing long tail | Lightly marketed single assets |
| Avison Young and Colliers | Data center practices of full-service brokerages | Portfolio and single-asset sales with operator involvement |
| Off-market origination | Direct sourcing from owners and enterprises | The majority of sub-$50M NNN data center deals, which never list |
Source: StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026.
The last row matters most: because the majority of sub-$50M NNN data center deals never list (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026), listed channels show a buyer only a minority of the market. The primary-source channels that surface the rest (GSA inventory, EDGAR sale-leaseback disclosures, ABS presale tenant tables, county recorded memoranda of lease) are described on NNN data center lease scarcity.
How StackedAI applies this
StackedAI maintains the owner map within its NNN DC Lease Universe and updates sell-propensity rankings as REIT disclosures, platform disposals and corporate announcements arrive. For sponsors, the firm identifies which owner groups match the sponsor’s ticket size and credit requirement and which channels produce deal flow at that size. For corporate owners, it identifies which specialists and REITs would compete for a leaseback of the owner’s facility. The same owner map feeds StackedAI’s Tier-2 brownfield conversion sourcing, and the advisory services page describes how sourcing engagements are scoped.
Frequently asked questions
Which REITs own NNN data center leases in the US?
The largest identifiable holders are two Singapore-listed REITs, Mapletree Industrial Trust with roughly 56 US data centers and Digital Core REIT with 9 US assets, 85% of them NNN, plus COPT Defense Properties with 31 single-tenant NNN shells in Northern Virginia (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026). US diversified net-lease REITs hold little or none.
Do W. P. Carey or Gladstone Commercial own data centers?
StackedAI’s universe records Gladstone Commercial as explicitly excluding data centers and W. P. Carey’s exposure as de minimis (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026). The traditional net-lease REIT buyer base has opted out of the asset class, which is why NNN data center leases trade through specialists rather than through the usual net-lease channels.
Who are the specialist buyers of single-asset NNN data centers?
StackedAI’s universe identifies six: Five 9s Digital, StratCap, Lincoln Rackhouse, Aphorio Carter, Tenet Equity and Menlo Equities (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026). StratCap’s model is representative: carrier switch sites in the $10 to 15M ticket range on 15 to 16 year NNN leases.
Which enterprises have sold data centers on a leaseback?
Public exemplars in StackedAI’s universe include Bank of America’s roughly 1 million square foot sale-leaseback to Lincoln Rackhouse in 2018, carrier switch-site leasebacks by T-Mobile and Lumen, Eaton’s Louisville facility with Aphorio Carter, and wholesale leases by Salesforce, Supermicro, Twitter, Nvidia, Intel and Workday (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026).
Which owners are most likely to sell NNN data center leases?
Sell propensity is highest where an owner’s mandate has shifted: Singapore REITs if they rebalance away from US data centers, Brookfield’s Centersquare platform as it disposes of non-core distressed-lineage carrier sites, and specialists recycling capital at the end of a hold. COPT Defense’s shells sit in joint ventures with a single tenant and are the least likely to trade individually.
How do NNN data center deals reach the market?
Through one dedicated listing shop (Five 9s Digital), the net-lease desks of Northmarq and Marcus & Millichap, Boulder Group research, the Crexi and LoopNet long tail, and the data center practices of Avison Young and Colliers. The majority of sub-$50M NNN data center deals never list (StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe, Jul 2026).
Sources
- StackedAI analysis, NNN DC Lease Universe workbook, Jul 2026 (internal, aggregated findings only)
- StackedAI analysis, Tier-2 brownfield conversion thesis, 2026 (internal)
- CBRE, North America Data Center Trends H2 2025, Feb 2026, https://www.cbre.com/insights/books/north-america-data-center-trends-h2-2025
- CBRE investor survey via Bisnow, Aug 2025, https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/data-center/untapped-opportunity-data-center-asset-sales-slump-even-as-new-development-booms-130597
- S&P Global Market Intelligence via Data Center Dynamics, Feb 2026, https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/sp-global-data-center-ma-topped-69bn-in-2025-neoclouds-in-unenviable-position/