This, the 11^th article in the MacRo Report’s AI series introduces Catellus Development Corporation and its Senior Vice President Michael Kuykendall, explaining the company’s history of redeveloping complex industrial sites and how that experience led it to take over development of the Quantum Frederick data center campus.

As Frederick County continues to discuss the growth of data centers, many residents naturally ask an important question: who is actually developing the Quantum Frederick campus?

The lead developer today is Catellus Development Corporation, a national real estate development firm with more than four decades of experience redeveloping complex sites across the United States. Representing Catellus locally is Michael Kuykendall, a Senior Vice President and partner who now oversees the company’s work on the Frederick project.

Kuykendall recently presented to members of the Frederick County Association of Realtors, explaining both the company’s history and how Catellus became involved with the former Eastalco aluminum smelting site.

A Company Built on Complex Redevelopment

Catellus traces its roots to the railroad industry. In 1984, Santa Fe Industries and Southern Pacific Railroad proposed a merger that included consolidating their real estate holdings. Those land assets were spun into a new entity called Santa Fe Realty. When the rail merger ultimately did not occur, the real estate company continued independently and was renamed Catellus in 1990.

Because railroad companies historically owned land across major transportation corridors, Catellus found itself responsible for millions of acres of property nationwide. Many of those parcels were former rail yards or industrial sites that required environmental cleanup and redevelopment.

Over time, the company developed expertise in industrial and brownfield redevelopment –transforming previously contaminated or underutilized land into productive economic assets. This capability eventually attracted the attention of the industrial real estate investment trust Prologis, which acquired Catellus in 2005.

Following the Great Recession, Catellus was spun out again in 2011 with investment from TPG Real Estate, allowing the firm to operate as an independent development platform while continuing to pursue large-scale mixed-use and industrial projects across the country.

Today, Catellus has completed projects in roughly 30 cities nationwide, developing more than 15,000 acres of land, approximately 50 million square feet of commercial and industrial space, and more than 35,000 residential lots.

Among its most notable projects is Mission Bay in San Francisco, a massive redevelopment that includes the Chase Center arena where the Golden State Warriors play, major life science facilities, and university medical campuses.

Enter Quantum Frederick

Catellus became involved in the Frederick project in mid-2024 after its parent company, TPG, had already invested in the former Eastalco aluminum plant site with an earlier developer. According to Kuykendall, challenges encountered by the previous developer led TPG to bring Catellus in to assume day-to-day management of the project.

For Catellus, the site’s history actually made it an ideal fit.

The former Eastalco aluminum smelting campus is a classic brownfield redevelopment opportunity—exactly the type of project Catellus has specialized in for decades. Because of environmental covenants tied to its previous industrial use, the land is limited in the types of development it can support, making residential development unlikely. However, it already possessed critical infrastructure advantages.

Those advantages include:

• Existing 230-kilovolt transmission power lines terminating on the property
• Nearby water and sewer infrastructure
• Extensive industrial zoning and land area
• A location just 20 miles from Loudoun County, Virginia, widely considered the world’s largest internet hub

These characteristics helped position the site for large-scale data center development.

To manage the project locally, Kuykendall relocated from California to open a Frederick office for Catellus and build a team responsible for the project’s daily operations.

As discussions about the future of data centers continue in Frederick County, understanding the developer behind the project helps provide context. Catellus’ track record shows a company experienced in redeveloping complex industrial sites—an expertise that now shapes the next chapter for the former Eastalco property.

With more than 50 years advising regional landowners, investors, and institutions, Rocky Mackintosh, Broker of MacRo, LTD has firsthand experience supporting nationally recognized hyperscalers with site search and selection services throughout the Mid-Atlantic. Our team has worked at the interface of land planning, infrastructure analysis, and high-value redevelopment—experience that uniquely informs our understanding of projects like Quantum Frederick.