Beyond the Skyline: Q&A with Drew Johnson

When Excelsior-based Oppidan Investment Co. began working in the data center sector about nine years ago, the company’s initial project met with some skepticism.
“To get our construction loan, we had to convince the bank that there was a path to convert it back to warehouse should this data center thing go away,” recalls Drew Johnson, Oppidan’s senior vice president of development in the Midwest Region.
That initial project, in northern Virginia, was delivered in 2018. Seven years later, it’s safe to say that data center development didn’t just go away. To date, Oppidan alone has delivered more than 10 million square feet of data center space with a combined value of about $5 billion.
In this following interview, Johnson talks about data center development in the Twin Cities and beyond, among other things.