Huge money being made in U.S. data center real estate

A recent announcement from Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT has shown data center real estate in the States is demanding a pretty penny.

The company has revealed the value of the recent sales of two data center properties, reaching a total staggering sum of $85 million.

The first was in Wisconsin, where the company sold the 'Milwaukee Data Center' to Landmark Infrastructure Operating Company (a Delaware liability company) for $21 million on June 11 2018.

The purpose-built mission critical data center is located in Hartland within Wisconsin around 30 miles from Milwaukee and sits on 7.98 acres with the data center itself stretching 59,516 square feet.

The aggregate net book value of the Milwaukee Data Center, including intangible assets and liabilities recorded upon acquisition of the property and straight-line rent receivable, was approximately $17.4 million as of March 31, 2018.

The second sale took place on June 15 2018, where the company sold the Alpharetta Data Center II to Alpharetta DC (a Delaware limited liability company) for $64 million.

This data center is substantially bigger than the Milwaukee Data Center with the facility consisting of 165,000 square feet, including 50,440 square feet of powered-shell enterprise data center space, 54,814 square feet of office and administration space and 59,746 square feet of supporting infrastructure space.

The Alpharetta Data Center II is situated on 14.4 acres in Alpharetta Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta. The aggregate net book value of the Alpharetta Data Center II, including straight-line rent receivable, was approximately $55.1 million as of March 31, 2018.

"Consistent with our strategy of pursuing liquidity for our data center assets, we have successfully monetized two of our three remaining data center properties," says Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT chief executive and president Michael A. Seton.

"Our board of directors is actively evaluating how to best deploy the proceeds from these transactions, after any required paydown of the Company's debt obligations, including, but not limited to, further reducing the leverage of the Company and possibly paying a special distribution to our stockholders.

And it doesn't stop there as the company still has one more data center to sell, deemed the Andover Data Center, which is currently under contract to be sold and anticipated to close in the third quarter of 2018.