August 29, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Data center operator Digital Realty Trust (digitalrealtytrust.com) announced on Wednesday it has acquired 900 Walnut Street and 210 Tucker Boulevard, together previously known as the Bandwidth Exchange Buildings, in St. Louis, Missouri. The total purchase price was $53.0 million.
The seven-story 900 Walnut building is the premier Internet gateway facility for the St. Louis region and hosts over 25 local and long haul fiber carriers and ISPs. It has approximately 110,000 rentable square feet and is 100 percent leased.
The 18-story 210 Tucker Boulevard building is a multi-tenant data center facility with a significant amount of dark fiber connecting directly to the 25-plus fiber carriers at 900 Walnut Street. It has approximately 200,000 rentable square feet, including 62,000 square feet of redevelopment space. Excluding the redevelopment space, the building is approximately 98 percent leased.
"The addition of these buildings to our income producing portfolio represents a very attractive value-add investment opportunity for us," says Michael Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust. "Both buildings were renovated in 1999 to serve as Internet gateway and corporate data center facilities. Together these facilities have excess power and fiber available to meet the most demanding corporate IT applications in a market where utility power pricing is very attractive. We plan to make select improvements to each building in order to meet the current tenants' ongoing data center requirements and build out the redevelopment space at 210 Tucker Boulevard to attract new customers to the facility."
