Technology mega-landlord Digital Realty Trust, Inc. said today that it has acquired two properties in Western Europe - the IBM Technology Park in Mainz, Germany and the Geneva Data Center in Geneva, Switzerland - in separate deals with a combined value of about $105 million. Digital Realty said the deals mark a "significant expansion" of its ambitions in Europe.
The IBM Technology Park includes 11 buildings spanning 1.5 million rentable square feet on 80 acres. IBM leases 590,000 square feet for a mission critical data center, software development operations and support functions. The remaining 910,000 net rentable square feet of the campus is comprised of clean room manufacturing facilities, R&D, warehouse and office space containing approximately 500,000 square feet of available redevelopment space.
DRT said it paid approximately 77.1 million Euros ($93.3 million at current exchange rates) with an earnout provision. "As a result of this acquisition, we expect that IBM will be one of our three largest tenants, as measured by annualized rent," Digital Realty said.
The Geneva Data Center is 60,000 square foot three-story faciity, which was converted to a mission critical data center in 2003. The property is fully leased on a long term basis to a single tenant that provides web hosting and enterprise. The purchase price was 10.1 million Euros ($12.2 million).
"We believe that demand for technology and data center facilities will continue to grow in Europe as in the U.S.," said Michael Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Trust. "The acquisition of the IBM Technology Park and the Geneva Data Center demonstrates Digital Realty Trust's expanding investment program in Western Europe. Upon closing of these latest transactions, our European portfolio will contain four properties totaling over 1.7 million square feet in London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Geneva."
