Colocation in Secaucus and Newark, New Jersey
Built above the flood line.
Then we raised it.
Cordgrass Data runs two data centers in the New Jersey Meadowlands, a few miles from Manhattan and a few feet above sea level. We design every building around one number, the elevation of the water it has to stay above. In 2022, when the projections for that water went up, we went up with them.
6.8 ft SEC1 halls above the base flood elevation9.5 ft the barrier around them24.2 ft the Dry Floor
Section through SEC1, looking north. Vertical scale true; horizontal schematic. Water shown at the base flood elevation, 10.0 ft.
- Drawing
- CGD-SEC1-A-301
- Title
- Building section A–A
- Rev.
- F
- Date
- 2024-06-03
- Drawn
- EMC
- Checked
- TW
- Scale
- 1 in = 20 ft vert.
- Sheet
- 1 of 1
01 Data centers
Two buildings, 8.8 miles of fiber apart
| Measure | SEC1 Secaucus | NWK1 Newark |
|---|---|---|
| Opened | 2015 | 2020 |
| Address | 615 Sedgebank Road Secaucus, NJ 07094 | 241 Capstan Street Newark, NJ 07114 |
| Critical IT capacity | 8.4 MW | 14.4 MW |
| Data halls | 71,300 sq ft | 95,400 sq ft |
| Standard halls above BFE | 6.8 ft | 8.4 ft |
| Dry Floor above BFE | 24.2 ft | 25.1 ft |
| Cabinet density, up to | 45 kW | 60 kW |
| Networks on-net | 31 | 19 |
| PUE, 2025 | 1.43 | 1.31 |
BFE: base flood elevation, the level of the flood with a 1% chance of happening in any year on the effective flood map. SEC1 10.0 ft, NWK1 11.0 ft. PUE is annualized and measured at the UPS output.
SEC1 is an old refrigerated warehouse we rebuilt from the slab up in 2014. NWK1 is the building we designed from nothing in 2018, once we knew what we were doing. They are joined by two dark fiber routes that never share a trench, so a single backhoe cannot cut both, and a customer in one can run its second site in the other.
Both are carrier-neutral: we do not sell transport, and we do not mind which networks you buy it from.
02 Today
Today at both sites
Status
All systems operational
No scheduled work announced.
Last incident: Cordgrass IP: degraded routing through one upstream network, .
Next generator tests
| SEC1 | 10:00 to 11:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| NWK1 | 10:00 to 11:00 |
Tests run for an hour at most, on half the sets at a time. If you live or work nearby and something seems wrong, call the neighbors’ line, +1 201 016 2788, at any hour.
On the record
Every incident since 2019 is on our status page, including the ones that were our fault. The worst was on June 24, 2025, when a generator caught fire at SEC1 during a utility outage in a heat wave and equipment in Hall 2 shut down on temperature.
03 The Dry Floor
The top floor, and nothing underneath it that needs to stay dry
Hall 4 at SEC1 and Level 2 at NWK1 are our Dry Floor: the top floor of each building, 24.2 and 25.1 feet above the base flood elevation. Each has its own UPS and generators in a 2N arrangement, its own switchgear above the design flood elevation, its own fuel, and its own fiber risers from sealed entrances.
If water ever reached the floor of our standard halls, the Dry Floor would keep running. That is the whole specification. Customers who choose it tend to be the ones who have been flooded before, or who have to explain to someone else why they will not be.
- Dry Floor at SEC1
- 34.2 ft NAVD 88
- Dry Floor at NWK1
- 36.1 ft NAVD 88
- Highest water recorded at either site
- 10.2 ft NWK1, October 30, 2012
04 Services
What we sell
- Cabinets
- From one 45U cabinet. Metered or fixed power, 5 to 45 kW, A and B feeds as standard.
- Cages and suites
- Cages from four cabinets; private suites at NWK1 from 1,240 square feet with their own mantrap.
- The Dry Floor
- Hall 4 at SEC1 and Level 2 at NWK1: 24 feet and more above the base flood elevation, 2N power.
- Remote hands
- Technicians on site around the clock. $165 an hour in 15-minute increments; urgent requests answered in 15 minutes.
- Cross-connects
- Fiber and copper in the meet-me rooms to any of 31 networks at SEC1 and 19 at NWK1, installed in two business days.
- Cordgrass IP
- Blended transit from four upstream networks, 1 to 100 Gb/s, with BGP communities documented in full.
05 News and notices
Recently
-
Our energy and diesel figures for 2025
Annual PUE fell to 1.43 at SEC1 and 1.31 at NWK1. Generator run time at SEC1 was dominated by one afternoon in June.
-
Level 2 at NWK1 opens with eight Dry Floor suites
The second floor of our Newark building is commissioned: 33,600 square feet of private suites, 25.1 feet above the base flood elevation, with liquid cooling to every suite.
-
Both sites switch their generators to renewable diesel
From this month every generator at SEC1 and NWK1 runs on hydrotreated renewable diesel. What it changes for emissions, and what it does not.
-
Changes to generator testing at SEC1, and why
After complaints from neighbors about diesel fumes, monthly tests move to Tuesday mornings, run on half the sets at a time, and every set now has emissions controls.
-
Our report on the June 24 generator fire at SEC1
PIR-2025-03 sets out what caused the fire, why Hall 2 overheated after it, what we have changed and how affected customers will be credited.
-
Statement on yesterday’s generator fire at SEC1
A fire in the exhaust of one generator during a utility outage was put out by our engineers within minutes. No one was hurt. Some customer equipment in Hall 2 shut down on temperature.