Empyrion DC announces 40MW green data center in South Korea

Empyrion DC has announced it is developing a 40MW green data center in Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea (GDC).

The company recently signed a binding agreement with a local promoter to acquire 100% of the development rights, with plans to invest up to USD$400 million.

Gangnam is currently home to several of the largest Korean conglomerates, such as Hyundai, Kia, LG, and Samsung. This makes it a location that is generally in need of significant data storage and space to meet the high enterprise demands.

The company says the new development will alleviate the data center supply shortage in Gangnam and the broader metropolitan Seoul area. The project has been announced as shovel-ready, and the team expects to commence construction before year end 2022.

Empyrion DC says the project will utilise high-efficiency Building Integrated Photovoltaic Panels (BIPV) on the facade of the 10-storey project. The company will also leverage its in-house expertise in energy management in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint and develop GDC in line with world-class energy efficiency standards.

Empyrion DC is a portfolio company fully owned by funds managed by Seraya Partners, and chairman and managing partner James Chern says the project has significant interest and will help solve many issues and challenges faced in the data market today.

"Leveraging our deep local networks in Seoul, we sourced this exclusive transaction that wasn't available in the market," he says.

"As Seoul is running out of data center supply, and as we plan to achieve ready-for-service status in 2024, we already have customers requesting to lease entire floors."

Closing is expected to take place before the end of September 2022, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Upon closing, GDC will be Empyrion DCs second data center investment. Empyrion DC also owns and operates the SG1 Dodid data center in Singapore, and beyond that, it has a pipeline of over 200 MW of projects across Asia. They are headquartered in Singapore with regional offices in Seoul and Taipei, also having a presence in core markets such as Taiwan, Japan, and Indonesia.

Seraya Partners says that it targets control-oriented, middle-market platform investments in next-generation infrastructure, with an initial focus on the digital infrastructure and energy transition sectors primarily within developed Asia markets.

They say that they are one of the first independent, locally based Asian infrastructure managers with a senior team that has close to two decades of sector expertise.