Data Center Investment News — 10/06/2022
Real estate investment platform buys Ohio data centre
StratCap’s institutional data centre real estate investment platform, Strategic Datasphere, LLC, has completed the acquisition of a 187,000 square foot facility with a data centre, banking operations centre and flex/R&D space in Cleveland, OH. Because Cleveland is an NFL city, it has seen an increase of cloud and edge customer activity from AWS, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook who are looking to establish nodes and local zones in these markets. The acquired asset was originally built in 1988 as National City Bank’s operations and data centre facility, and was expanded in 2008 when a major financial institution acquired the property to create a modern technology campus.
This financial institution (an investment grade tenant) leases about 26% of the facility and has approximately 14 years of lease term remaining on their current lease. The property has approximately 138,500 square feet of space available to lease. There is an 8,000 square foot turn-key data hall that can supply 3 MW of critical power. The building also has about 59,000 square feet of flex/R&D space can likely be repositioned to accommodate additional data centre space as well. The Seller, Legacy Investing, LLC, a Virginia-based company focused on mission-critical real estate, was represented by Jones, Lang, LaSalle, Inc. Datasphere and purchased the property on an all-cash basis.
Prime Data Centers to open in the heart of downtown Los Angeles
Prime Data Centers has expanded in California with the launch of a new three-story, 261,000-square-foot data centre in Vernon. In addition, the operator will construct a 49.5MVA substation to serve the new site. The completed facility will deliver up to 33MW of critical power. Power delivery is provided by Vernon’s municipally owned and operated electric utility (VPU) which will serve Prime’s new substation at 66kV. The new Prime Vernon facility will include dedicated office and storage and staging options and secure onsite parking. Prime plans to complete the facility as early as Q4 2023. The company has earlier this year also announced the development of a new four-story, 119,000 square-foot data centre in the heart of Silicon Valley. The anticipated 150MW campus, located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, is expected to house three tri-level facilities. Upon completion, it will be one of the largest data centre campuses in the critical Chicago-O’Hare market.
ESR lands partnership for Hong Kong data centre roll out
CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP Power) and CLPe Group (CLPe) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ESR HK Limited (ESR), a 100% owned subsidiary of ESR Group (ESR), to develop sustainable data centres and logistics centres in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area (GBA). As an international financial, trading and logistics hub, Hong Kong’s demand for data centre facilities and services has risen sharply in recent years.
Under the MoU, CLP Power and CLPe will leverage their energy and infrastructure solutions to assist ESR in creating data and logistics centres projects, covering design, construction, and operational aspects. CLP Power will provide solutions and support measures on energy management for ESR, such as energy audits, Eco Building Fund and Electrical Equipment Upgrade Scheme, to improve the energy and carbon efficiency of its data centre and logistics projects in Hong Kong. CLPe will also work with ESR to explore energy management solutions for its development projects in Hong Kong and the GBA, contributing to achieve carbon neutrality.
Adani’s 52-acre West Bengal data centre campus greenlighted
The West Bengal Government has given the final go-ahead to Adani Enterprises for the construction of a hyperscale data centre at Bengal Silicon Valley in the New Town area on No financial or any other details have been shared at this stage, including if the project falls under the joint venture established between Adani Enterprises and US operator EdgeConneX to build several hyperscale campus across India. The West Bengal data centre follows on from Gautam Adani’s announcement last month that his group would be investing more than Rs 10,000 crore (~US$1.4 billion) in the state.
e&, G42 conclude merger of data centre portfolio with 16 facilities in the pipeline
Following the binding agreement between e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group) and G42 to merge their data centre offering late last year, Khazna Data Centers is now operating the twelve new joint data centres network, making it the UAE and Middle East’s largest data centre provider Khazna Data Centers now operates a total of 12 data centres, has 13 data centres under construction with a further three in the pipeline, amounting to a total of over 300-megawatt planned capacity by end of 2023 across its sites in the UAE.
CIM Group injects $355m into Novva Data Centers
Real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender, and developer CIM Group has invested US$355 million into operator Novva Data Centers. The round brings the lender’s total equity commitment to Novva to US$450 million in the last two years. The funding will support Novva’s plans to expand across the United States in order to offer 1,000 MW of designed data centre capacity by 2027 at several yet-to-be-named locations. It also supports CIM Group and Novva’s ongoing partnership to create a bespoke “wholocation” experience to customers. Wholocation refers to a combination of wholesale scale and retail colocation, which provides the ability to serve clients of any size and scalability needs — from those requiring 1 cabinet to 1,000+ cabinets. The concept is a hallmark of Novva’s existing campuses in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and West Jordan, Utah. Novva was founded in 2020 and backed by US$100 million in funding from CIM Group and Novva’s founders. The company announced the acquisition of its 40-acre Colorado Springs location in August 2021 and opened its flagship 100-acre West Jordan campus shortly after in September 2021.
STT GDC announces plans for new data center in South Korea
ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) has announced its plans for a new data center site in the Gasan-dong area of Seoul, South Korea. The Temasek Holdings-backed company’s second data center in South Korea will cover 31,205 sqm (335,900 sq ft) of floor area, and deliver 30MW of IT power. STT GDC will lease the shell and core building, and complete the DC fit-outs. It expects to be operating the data center from H1 2025. The new build is being financially backed by a ‘global institutional investor’, and Samsung SRA Asset Management, the real estate investment arm of Samsung Group. The company noted the new facility, located in Gasan-dong, Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, will be close to Mokdong with access to nearby substations, telecommunications, and subway stations including Gasan Digital Complex and Doksan. South Korea’s public cloud market is set for continued growth, with the Boston Consulting Group predicting it will double in size from $1.5billion in 2018 to $3.1billion in 2023. STT GDC is not the only company to show interest in the country. Last month it was announced that Colt Technology Services had established a point of presence in four-carrier neutral data centers in the Seoul Metropolitan area.
Redcentric buys remaining Sungard UK data centers from bankrupt business
Managed services company Redcentric Solutions (RSL) is buying up three data centers after the UK branch of Sungard Availability Services went bankrupt in March. Redcentric is buying data centers, colocation and network services, from Teneo Restructuring, who were appointed as administrator in March, when Sungard UK folded, blaming energy prices and landlords who refused to lower rents. The deal is expected to close at the end of June, with the final price to be determined by the level of business at Sungard. Redcentric said the cost of the deal will be between £11 million and £22 million ($14m to $28m) according to The Business Desk and Computer Weekly. The final price will depend on whether annualized revenue targets are met at Sungard over the next twelve months. Redcentric has already completed a £4.2 million ($5.3m) deal for Sungard’s consulting and cloud services.
The Reg reports the facilities involved are Sungard’s London Hounslow LTC Data Centre and Recovery Centre, along with the Woking TC3 facility, and the Elland TC4 Data Centre and Recovery Centre.
Teneo has already negotiated a sale of Sungard’s UK customers to Daisy UK – the deal included customers served at 14 Sungard Workplace facilities.
The already-completed £4.2 million deal for consulting and cloud, includes Sungard UK’s AWS and Consulting Divisions.
Africa Data Centres plans 30MW facility in Accra, Ghana
Africa Data Centres plans to build a 30MW data center in Accra, Ghana. DCD has contacted the company for information on when the facility is expected to go live, a date which was not disclosed. Africa Data Centres, part of the Cassava Technologies Group, has or is developing data centers in Nairobi, Kenya; Lagos, Nigeria; Lomé, Togo; and Samrand and Midrand, South Africa. Last year, the company announced a $500 million goal to build 10 data centers across 10 African countries over the next two years. The company plans to double its footprint and build facilities in places like Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt.
StratCap acquires 3MW data center in Cleveland
Investment management platform StratCap has acquired a data center in Cleveland, Ohio. The acquisition came through the company’s institutional data center real estate investment platform, Strategic Datasphere, LLC.
The facility, previously owned by Legacy Investing, spans 187,000 square feet (17,400 sq m) – including a data center, banking operations center, and flex/R&D space in Cleveland. The site was originally built in 1988 as National City Bank’s data center and operations facility. It was then expanded in 2008 when it was acquired by an undisclosed ‘major financial institution.’ DCD understands the company is PNC Bank, which continues to lease about 26 percent of the facility and has approximately 14 years of lease term remaining on their current lease. The site has around 138,500 square feet (12,900 sq m) of space still available to lease, including an 8,000 sq ft (740 sq m) turnkey data hall that can supply 3MW of critical power at N+1. The 59,000 sq ft (5,500 sq m) of flex/R&D space can “likely be repositioned” as additional data center space, StratCap said. The facility has a 48 in raised floor with liquid-cooled racks capable of supporting over 300 watts per square foot. StratCap set up Strategic Datasphere in September last year with a plan to spend $1.5 billion on data centers.