Digital Realty: Strong Demand in London Market

Last month we noted that Digital Realty Trust had bought a property in the London market to expand its data center footprint. Today the company offered additional information about the purchase and the demand picture in the London market.

Digital Realty reported in an SEC filing that it paid 12.9 million pounds ($21 million US) for a 130,000 square foot facility has 8 megawatts of power capacity and is capable of supporting the development of five 1.44 megawatt Turn-Key Datacenter PODs. Today the company identified the project's location:  Chessington, England, approximately 17 miles southwest of central London and eight miles inside the M25.

Large Requirements in London

Digital Realty Trust (DLR), the world's largest owner of data center facilities, said it sought the additional redevelopment property because of strong demand from enterprise users.  "We are currently tracking approximately 30 megawatts of demand in the greater London market, including a number of requirements of 6 megawatts or more of contiguous space," said Adam Levine, Vice President, Sales, for Digital Realty Trust. "At this time, few facilities are capable of meeting these specifications. The acquisition of this site enables us to provide our customers, with both large and smaller requirements, a flexible data centre solution that can meet their needs."

"With our existing facilities nearly fully leased, this acquisition provides us with additional inventory to meet customer demand in London, a key market for financial services, corporate enterprise, telecommunication network providers, large system integrators and managed services companies," added CEO Michael Foust.

Digital Realty Trust’s portfolio comprises 97 properties consisting of 135 buildings and 17.2 million net rentable square feet, including 2.2 million square feet of space held for redevelopment. The portfolio is strategically located in 29 key technology markets throughout North America, Europe, Singapore and Australia.