Carter Validus Buys 10MW Atlanta Data Center

Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT is continuing its data center and hospital acquisition spree.

The latest two deals were for properties in Georgia: a $56.7-million purchase of a data center in Alpharetta (an Atlanta suburb), and a $20.2-million purchase of a hospital in Savannah.

The Atlanta data center is a 165,000-square-foot facility built in 1999 as a primary mission critical site for a financial services company whose name Carter Validus did not reveal. It has about 50,000 square feet of raised floor and access to 10 megawatts of power total.

The medical facility in Savannah is a 40,000-square-foot 50-bed long-term acute care hospital.

“The addition of both the Alpharetta Data Center II and the Landmark Hospital of Savannah properties is representative of our commitment to acquire high-quality, mission critical assets in the healthcare and data center industries,” John Carter, the REIT’s CEO, said in a statement.

The company’s business strategy is simple: buy high-value properties that generate rent revenue. Some properties it buys from a landlord who doesn’t occupy the building, and some of its deals are “sale-leaseback” transactions, where the previous owner continues occupying the property as a tenant after having transferred ownership to the buyer.

Recent examples of the latter include a purchase of two IO data centers in the Phoenix market last year and acquisition of an AT&T data center in the Nashville suburbs in 2013.

During its four years of buying properties, the real estate investment trust has amassed about 20 data centers and 40 healthcare facilities around the U.S., a portfolio valued at nearly $2 billion.