Griffin Capital Essential Asset, a real-estate investment trust (REIT), has bought a six-story Verizon Wireless data center building in Warren new Jersey for US$40m.

Verizon leases the 210,500sq ft building on a long-term basis, its current agreement extending until the end of 2020. The real-estate company's business model is based on buying properties that are essential to corporate tenants that occupy them for the long term.

Louis Sohn, senior VP of acquisitions at Griffin Capital, said Verizon had been occupying the building since its formation in 2000. “Over the past 13 years, the tenant has continually reaffirmed its commitment to the property through significant capital investments into the asset to position it as a premier, self-contained corporate campus with back-up power, dining, fitness and data center facilities.”

The property serves as a key operating facility for the tenant's IT group and is less than 10 miles from Verizon's corporate headquarters in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. This suburban area of northern New Jersey benefits from a high concentration of executive housing options, as well a deep pool of highly skilled workers that live within immediate proximity of the property, the data center's new owner said.

Its previous owner was an institutional investor whom Griffin Capital did not name. The REIT is a subsidiary of Griffin Capital Corp., a privately held Los Angeles-based investment and management company.