Digital Realty Trust, Inc., a leading owner and manager of corporate datacenters and Internet gateways, announced today the acquisition of 900 Walnut Street and 210 Tucker Boulevard, together previously known as the Bandwidth Exchange Buildings, located in St. Louis, Missouri. The total purchase price was $53.0 million.
The seven-story 900 Walnut building serves as the premier Internet gateway facility for the St. Louis region and contains over 25 local and long haul fiber carriers and ISPs. It totals approximately 110,000 rentable square feet and is 100% leased. The 18-story 210 Tucker Boulevard building serves as a multi-tenant datacenter facility with a significant amount of dark fiber connecting directly to the 25+ fiber carriers at 900 Walnut Street. It contains approximately 200,000 rentable square feet, including 62,000 square feet of redevelopment space. Excluding the redevelopment space, the building is approximately 98% leased.
"The addition of these buildings to our income producing portfolio represents a very attractive value-add investment opportunity for us. Both buildings were renovated in 1999 to serve as Internet gateway and corporate datacenter 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," commented Michael Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust. "We plan to make select improvements to each building in order to meet the current tenants' ongoing datacenter requirements and build out the redevelopment space at 210 Tucker Boulevard to attract new customers to the facility."