Digital Realty Acquires Property in Toronto Market

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Employees of Digital Realty deliver a pre-fabricated electrical room on a skid to a data center site. The company says it will use its POD architecture to develop new space at a facility it has acquired in Ontario. (Photo: Digital Realty Trust).

Citing strong demand and limited supply in the Toronto data center market, Digital Realty Trust has acquired a mixed-use property in Markham, Ontario and will convert part of the site for data center use. Digital Realty, the world's largest data center developer,  said it paid C$8.65 million ($8.5 million US) to acquire 371 Gough Road in Markham, a 120,000 square foot property approximately 17 miles north of Toronto's central business district.

"We have been tracking a significant amount of demand for enterprise-quality data center space with very limited supply in the Toronto market," said Michael Foust, chief executive officer of Digital Realty. "The acquisition of this property expands our existing footprint and enables us to support our customers' data center requirements in the Toronto market."

The property currently consists of warehouse and some office space that is 48 percent leased to two tenants, according to Scott Peterson, chief acquisitions officer of Digital Realty. "As a data center, the facility is capable of supporting approximately 5.4 megawatts of IT load, or four 1,350 kW Turn-Key Flex suites, utilizing our new POD Architecture 3.0."

Digital Realty isn't the only data center provider that's building in Toronto. Equinix recently began work on a large new data center in downtown Toronto, while Cologix is also adding new space. Both projects are adjacent to 151 Front Street, the city's primary carrier hotel and connectivity hub.

Digital Realty operates a data center portfolio comprised of 22 million square feet of space across 119 properties in  32 markets throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. The company's holdings include an existing property in the Toronto market in Mississagua, Ontario.