Iron Mountain Buys Denver Colocation Firm Fortrust for $128M

Iron Mountain, the real estate investment trust that in addition to storing and managing digital data and physical documents for its clients also provides data center colocation services, has acquired Mag Datacenters, the operator of Fortrust, a Denver colocation provider.

This is nearly-70-year-old Iron Mountain’s first acquisition in the data center market, as it continues to invest in expanding this part of its business. Known for its high-security underground data center and storage facility inside a repurposed limestone mine outside of Pittsburgh – which among other things stores historical documents and original tapes of classic films and music albums for Hollywood studios and record companies — the company also has data centers in Northern Virginia and in Boston, where it’s based.

For its $128 million in stock and cash, Iron Mountain is getting Fortrust’s 210,000-square foot Denver-area data center, which includes about 70,000 square feet of rentable space and 9MW of power capacity, three-quarters of which is leased to about 250 customers. There’s also expansion potential for another 40,000 square feet and 7MW of power.

Together with its other facilities, the Denver site will bring Iron Mountain’s total data center capacity to 30MW and 70MW of expansion potential, the company said in a statement.

The acquisition gives the company its first West Coast presence, providing its existing customers with the option to lease a remote data center location with the same provider.