StratCap’s institutional data center real estate investment platform, Strategic Datasphere, LLC (“Datasphere”), has completed the acquisition of a 187,000 square foot facility with a high-density data centre, banking operations center and flex/R&D space in Cleveland, Ohio.
StratCap is a privately held, global alternative investment management platform committed to providing access to dynamic asset classes and highly experienced investment professionals in order to provide clients with attractive risk-adjusted returns. The company is focused on a wide range of digital economy investments with an emphasis on digital infrastructure, sustainability, and technology-centric sectors.
The acquired data centre is located 5 minutes from the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and 15 minutes from downtown Cleveland, this facility benefits from robust fiber connectivity from over seven providers, the company said in a statement. Originally built in 1988 as National City Bank’s operations and data center facility, it was expanded in 2008 when a major financial institution acquired the property to create a modern technology campus.
This financial institution (an investment grade tenant) leases about 26% of the facility and has approximately 14 years of lease term remaining on their current lease. Datasphere purchased the property on an all-cash basis. Bryan Marsh, CEO of StratCap’s data center platform said:
“We believe the existing 3 MW data center is unique in the local market and will be appealing to technology and financial services firms that run high-density compute applications. The ability to convert underutilized space into operational data halls also creates an attractive value-add opportunity for this asset. In addition, the current lease structure provides us with what we believe are long-term, predictable rental revenues.”
Value-addition
As a value-add investment opportunity, the property has approximately 138,500 square feet of space available to lease. There is an 8,000 square foot turn-key data hall that can supply 3 MW of critical power at N+1.
The data center has a 48” raised floor with liquid cooled racks capable of supporting over 300 watts per square foot. The building also has about 59,000 square feet of flex/R&D space can likely be repositioned to accommodate additional data center space as well.
Serving as a central connectivity point between Chicago and New York, Cleveland has seen an influx of interest due to local and regional companies looking to outsource their data center presence. And because Cleveland is an NFL city, it has seen an increase of cloud and edge customer activity from AWS, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook who are looking to establish nodes and local zones in these markets.
The Seller, Legacy Investing, LLC, a Virginia-based company focused on mission-critical real estate, was represented by Jones, Lang, LaSalle, Inc.
