Recent Data Center Leasing Rates

In its latest SEC filing, Digital Realty Trust (DLR) has shared information about its leasing rates for 2007. The data aggregates rates for leases that were signed and commenced in the fourth quarter and for the year as a whole. A lease commences when the tenant occupies the facility, which often lags the lease signing by a few months.

New Signed Leases: For the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2007, Digital Realty signed leases for more than 429,000 square feet of space. All lease rates listed are GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). Here's how that breaks down by lease type and rate:

Turn-Key Datacenter is fully developed for data center use, while Powered Base Building is undeveloped space with the power and fiber connectivity already in place, allowing for easy expansion.

Now let's take a look at the data on Digital's lease commencements in calendar year 2007, which totaled 761,000 square feet. As we noted, these trail lease signings by a few months.

Digital Realty's Turn-Key space has been snapped up by customers including Savvis (SVVS), EDS, Computer Sciences Corp., British Telecom (BT), Cogent (CCOI), Net2EZ, Edmunds.com and CyberVerse.

Keep in mind that data center leasing rates vary widely from one geographic market to the next, and many of the buildings owned by Digital Realty Trust are located in high-demand markets. Last year Digital shared its data center leasing rates for specific facilities in its annual report.