Walbridge has launched L5 Mission Critical, a new company focused on data center operations and mission-critical services, expanding the Detroit-based construction company’s capabilities from project development and construction into long-term operations and facilities management.
L5 Mission Critical will provide services spanning commissioning, site readiness, steady-state critical operations, retrofits and project management.
The company will be headquartered in Chicago and led by Matt Landek, who has been named President and CEO.
Landek joins after serving as Global President of JLL’s Data Center and Critical Environments business, where he led approximately 2,500 employees supporting 340 data centers around the world.
His appointment gives L5 an executive with large-scale data center operations experience as Walbridge looks to extend its existing construction business deeper into the lifecycle of mission-critical facilities.
L5 will serve third-party data center owners and operators while also supporting Walbridge construction clients that want a more seamless transition from development and construction into ongoing operations.
The offering is designed to support hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, AI and neocloud customers, as well as investors and developers.
Walbridge sees the launch as a response to rapidly accelerating data center demand.
U.S. data center capacity is expected to approximately double within three years, with nearly 45 GW of additional capacity planned as AI and cloud computing increase electricity and infrastructure requirements, according to Data Center Frontier data cited by the company.
At the same time, data center developers face increasingly difficult challenges involving access to power, grid reliability, workforce availability and community opposition.
Those constraints are pushing operators to focus not only on constructing new facilities quickly, but also on reducing operational risk and maintaining uptime once facilities begin running.
L5 is intended to help Walbridge provide a more integrated model stretching from design and construction through commissioning and ongoing facility operations.
That could reduce the number of handoffs between separate contractors and service providers during a data center’s development and operating lifecycle.
Walbridge said the structure will allow customers to rely on one organization across design, construction and operations, potentially reducing coordination requirements and helping ensure operational readiness from the first day a facility comes online.
The company is also targeting one of the industry’s other major bottlenecks: trained personnel.
L5 is developing a data center workforce training curriculum designed to create accelerated career pathways for skilled tradespeople.
The program will cover positions ranging from entry-level critical facility technicians through infrastructure engineering and operations leadership.
That workforce initiative reflects the scale of expected data center development as AI infrastructure expands.
Even when projects secure land, power and equipment, a shortage of technicians and operational personnel can limit how quickly new capacity can be commissioned and maintained.
L5 will leverage Walbridge’s design and construction resources, supply-chain relationships and broader industry network to support projects ranging from individual enterprise facilities to gigawatt-scale data center campuses.
Walbridge already has substantial exposure to the sector.
The company is one of America’s largest privately held construction companies and employs more than 1,500 professionals across North America.
Engineering News-Record ranks Walbridge among the top 10 data center constructors.
Walbridge launched its mission-critical construction business in 2016 and has since delivered more than 50 data center projects representing over 6 GW of capacity constructed or under development across Indiana, North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, Texas and Mexico.
Its portfolio includes The Barn in Saline Township, Michigan, an AI and data center development that Walbridge describes as the largest economic investment in Michigan’s history.
The creation of L5 represents an effort to build on that project pipeline by adding recurring operational capabilities after construction is completed.
As AI and cloud providers invest in increasingly large computing campuses, Walbridge is positioning L5 to participate across a larger portion of the data center value chain, from initial construction through long-term critical operations.
KEY QUOTES:
“Together, we offer multi-disciplinary perspectives and a shared understanding of data center operational challenges and opportunities, whether those projects are enterprise facilities or gigawatt-scale campuses.”
Matt Landek, President and CEO of L5 Mission Critical
“As demand skyrockets, our clients not only need to get their projects up and out of the ground fast—they need critical operations and value-add services that reduce risk, ensure uptime and educate communities.”
“With the addition of L5 Mission Critical, our clients will be able to tap into a wider depth of service that goes across the entire lifecycle of a data center.”
John Rakolta III, President and Chief Administrative Officer of Walbridge
