Digital Realty, the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions has partnered with GI Partners to establish a joint venture focused on the sale of a 65% interest in two stabilised hyperscale data centre buildings in the Chicago metro area.
The joint venture will provide Digital Realty with approximately $743 million in gross proceeds, including financing arrangements. Digital Realty will retain a 35% interest in the joint venture and will continue to manage the operations of the assets to ensure a seamless customer experience. Additionally, GI Partners has been granted an option to acquire an interest in a third facility located within the same hyperscale data centre campus.
“With Digital Realty’s unmatched global footprint and the attractive fundamental outlook for the data centre sector, we are pleased with the strong institutional demand for our high-quality facilities,” said Digital Realty Chief Investment Officer Greg Wright. “This transaction further diversifies Digital Realty’s sources of capital and enhances our capital efficiency, in support of our strategic priorities. We are pleased to partner with a data centre investor of GI Partners’ calibre on this initial joint venture and we look forward to the continued execution on our capital plan for 2023.”
The two data centres contributed to the joint venture contain approximately 67 megawatts of IT capacity and are 90% occupied in aggregate, primarily by investment grade customers.
Digital Realty is committed to make their data centres more energy efficient, lower their Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), and reduce costs for their customers.
The company employs internationally recognised frameworks like ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 to ensure compliance with environmental regulations and reduce its carbon footprint. Additionally, Digital Realty benchmarks and certifies its portfolio properties to industry standards, utilising third-party energy efficiency programmes.
