Equinix Expands With Paris Lease

Equinix has leased a 116,800 square foot property near Paris from Digital Realty Trust, the company said today. The new property will be the third Equinix data center in the Paris market, and will be completed in two phases, with the first phase coming online in the second quarter of next year.

The large lease is the latest sign of confidence in data center demand from one of the industry's leading players. Equinix (EQIX) is expected to invest $30 million to $35 million to convert the building, which is currently a warehouse, into a data center.

"We continue to see strong demand for our high quality data center services in the Paris market, which is a strategic interconnection point for Internet traffic in Europe,” said Eric Schwartz, president of Equinix Europe. "This new center is important for the continued growth of our customers in this market as we expect our recently expanded Paris 2 center to be almost fully occupied by the time our Paris 3 center is available for customer installations in the second quarter.”

The lease was signed Sept. 30, and contributed to an extremely strong leasing performance for Digital Realty Trust (DLR) in the third quarter, when it signed new leases for 478,000 square feet of space. The lease for the building in Saint Denis has a fixed term of 12 years, with an option to renew, and a total rent obligation of approximately $62.8 million.