The Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT (real Estate Investment Trust) has completed its purchase of a data center in the old Macy’s department store in downtown Atlanta for US$94.75m.

The multi-tenant wholesale Peachtree Data Center sits inside a 1927 property, but features state-of-the-art facilities inside including extra allocations for power for redundancy.

Carter Validus said it will now control and run the data center, and will carry out additional renovations at a cost of US$200m, as well as two carparking garages.

It said the previous owner, Peachtree Carnegie, had already invested US$30m to see the 338,000 sq ft data center sitting at the bottom of the building upgraded.

It currently supports 20MW of power into the building through five switches, and uses a loop-fed design to ensure electrical services are not interrupted should a circuit or transformer fail.

On top of this, 14 generators provide power backup and 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel can be delivered on site through cross-fed tanks to provide 31.2MW of emergency power.

The building itself, on Peachtree Street, sits on 3.1 acres and was designed by Philip Shutze, and built in 1927 for US$6m.

Carter Validus’ John Carter said while tenants could not be named, the data center, which is already 100% leased, currently services two Fortune 500 companies and is used by other tenants requiring mission critical operations, one of which has taken out a 30-year lease.

Six different tenants reside in the data center and the average remaining lease term is 11 years.

“We believe the quality of the tenants in the Peachtree Data Center combined with their remaining lease terms and the capital investments in their spaces will help provide stable and predictable income for a very long time,” Carter said.