Digital Realty Acquires Six-Building Portfolio for $31.9M

By Anca Gagiuc, Associate Editor

The six-building portfolio of operating data centers and flex office space at the MetCenter Business Park in Austin has changed owners, moving under the Digital Realty Trust Inc. umbrella. The acquisition price was $31.9 million. 

“The acquisition of this portfolio achieves several key objectives for us,” said Scott Peterson, chief acquisitions officer at Digital Realty. “It expands our existing data center footprint in the Austin market while providing stable cash flow immediately at an attractive going-in cap rate.

“Second, it provides near-term opportunity to add value by lease existing vacant space. And third, it offers the option to convert a portion of the property to data center space over the longer term as leases expire.”

The six buildings encompass 337,000 square feet that are currently 90 percent leased to data centers and biotechnology, technology and telecommunication enterprises. Two of them, totaling around 100,000 net rentable square feet, are data centers 100 percent leased to three tenants. The other four consist of flex office space.

“This acquisition adds inventory to a market where we have already seen substantial absorption at our existing facilities, as well as strong demand from enterprise customers,” stated Michael Foust, CEO at Digital Realty. “It is a continuation of our strategy of growing a world class data center portfolio in markets where our customers want to be located.”

Digital Realty Trust Inc. has taken on the mission of delivering data center solutions to its clients through secure, reliable and cost effective facilities, customized to serve the client needs. It has expanded its forces in 32 markets throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Its portfolio numbers 122 properties amounting to 22.7 million square feet as of April 26, 2013, plus an extra 2.6 million square feet of space allocated for further development.

Photo credits www.metcenter.com