CoreWeave has taken another step in its strategy to move from leasing to owning data center capacity by acquiring a Kenilworth, N.J., facility that it began leasing less than a year ago. The Livingston, N.J.-based AI infrastructure company paid $322 million for the 280,000-square-foot laboratory building and 27-acre parcel, which is located about a half-hour drive from its headquarters.

The building sits within the 107-acre Northeast Science and Technology Center (NEST), formerly Merck’s world headquarters, and offers features that few sites in the region can match, chief among them a 50-megawatt substation and on-site cooling and power generation systems. The three-story structure is set to undergo a $1.2 billion conversion with CoreWeave handling the data center fit-out. The selling venture, Onyx Equities and Machine Investment Group, will contribute $50 million. Planned upgrades include standby generators and a chiller field. Operations are expected to employ about 40 people.

Onyx and Machine acquired the campus from Merck in 2023 for $187.5 million and revamped it as a life sciences and technology hub. They will continue to own and operate the balance of the site, which has more than 2 million square feet available for lease.

The sale comes amid strong investment activity in New Jersey. In the industrial segment, sales have reached $1.69 billion year-to-date — the highest total of any U.S. market — with an average price of $251 per square foot, according to Yardi Matrix Data. Office sales totaled $519 million through June, averaging $160 per square foot.

The deal is CoreWeave’s second major move toward ownership this year. In July, it announced a $9 billion all-stock acquisition of GPU data center provider Core Scientific, which adds 1.3 gigawatts of owned capacity to its U.S. portfolio. CoreWeave operates 32 data centers with a combined 360 megawatts of active power that was historically leased from providers such as Digital Realty Trust, Chirisa, Lincoln Rackhouse and Flexential.

Last week, the company also unveiled a $6 billion data center project in Lancaster, Pa., in partnership with Machine Investment Group and Chirisa Technology Parks. That development will convert two industrial facilities for an initial 100 megawatts of capacity that’s expandable to 300 megawatts.

Newmark’s Andrew Warin, Josh King, Brent Mayo, Doug Harmon and Jordan Roeschlaub represented the sellers in the Kenilworth transaction.