Telecom Hotels Revitalize Urban Cores

Throughout the US, real estate investors are turning old office buildings, obsolete manufacturing plants, old wharehouses, and underused retail centers into telecom or carrier hotels. Instead of packing the buildings with manufacturing machines, companies are filling them with racks of switches, routers, computers and generators. These structures are being rehabbed to house the backbone of the Internet Economy. Planners are only now realizing the potential windfall, and they need to figure out how to take advantage of the assets -- especially if they are in economic depressed areas. This feature story from The Industry Standard cites examples from Los Angeles, New York, and Clevland.