Digital Realty Buys in Santa Clara, Manchester

Digital Realty Trust (DLR) continues to acquire additional data centers, buying an existing mission-critical facility in Manchester, England and acquiring a 50 percent interest in a property under development in Santa Clara, Calif. The purchases were disclosed in Digital's second quarter earnings release this morning.

On June 30, Digital Realty acquired a 50 percent interest in 1201 Comstock Street, a property next door to its 1100 Space Park Drive and 1500 Space Park Drive properties in Santa Clara. The company said it had signed a lease with "a leading technology company" for the entire 24,000 square foot building, which is currently under construction and will yield 14,000 square feet of raised floor data center space. The tenant is expected to take occupancy upon completion of construction in January 2009.

Santa Clara has been one of the hottest data center markets in recent months, with Facebook and Yahoo signing major leases. The city is attractive because of its location in the heart of Silicon Valley.

In other activity, Digital Realty said that it closed June 20 on Reynolds House Datacenter, a 38,000 square foot income producing facility in Manchester that was purpose built as a data center in 2001 and includes 23,000 square feet of raised floor, with the potential for an additional 7,000 square feet. The facility is fully leased to three tenants on long term basis.