Data center operator STT GDC has acquired land in Johor, Malaysia.
In a Bursa stock exchange announcement this week, local real estate firm Crescendo Corporation announced it had sold seven parcels of land to STT GDC Malaysia 2.
The land banks total just under 90,600 sqm (975,000 sq ft) and were acquired for RM117 million ($25 million). The land sales, made across two deals, are expected to close in Q2 and Q4 of 2024.
The company said all seven parcels were located in the Nusa Cemerlang Industrial Park (NCIP), a light and medium industrial park in Johor being developed by Crescendo subsidiary PID.
STT hasn’t made an announcement about the purchase or its plans for the land, but the conditions of sale note at least one land parcel will be used for a substation on a 99-year leasehold.
Founded in 1989, Crescendo is a publicly-listed Malaysian property development firm.
Only this month, STT GDC announced a Malaysian joint venture with local operator Basis Bay to develop two data centers in Cyberjaya. It’s unclear if Basis Bay is involved in the Johor project.
In Cyberjaya, STT and Basis Bay are planning two buildings on a three-acre campus. The campus will total just under 20MW; one 2.8MW building and one 16.5MW facility.
The first building will be named Cyberjaya DC.2 and will focus on serving the financial sector, government agencies, and other mission-critical sectors. The data center will be ready for service in 2024. The second building, STT Kuala Lumpur 1, will serve hyperscalers. Construction will begin in the next few months and should be completed by 2025.
Basis Bay provides colocation and managed data center services from two data centers in Malaysia: one in Glenmarie and the other in Cyberjaya. One of the buildings is likely leased from Keppel.
Located close to the border with Singapore, Johor is quickly becoming a data center hotspot as developers and operators look to secure overspill from Singapore amid ongoing capacity issues.
Chinese operator GDS – in which STT GDC is an investor – is developing two sites in Johor. The company recently launched three buildings at the Nusajaya Tech Park (NTP), having acquired land in the NTP in July 2021 and broke ground on the site in April 2022. Phase 1 of the campus (consisting of Nusajaya 1, 2, 3, aka NTP1, 2, 3) offers a total net floor area of 22,500 sqm (242,200 sq ft) and 69.5MW.
GDS is also developing another data center campus at YTL’s upcoming Green Data Center Park. In April 2022, YTL Power International Berhad and GDS signed a partnership to co-develop 168MW of data center capacity across eight data center facilities at the YTL park. The first phase of the co-development will enter service in 2024.
Other developers and operators in Johor include PDG, AirTrunk, Equinix, Keppel, ChinData's Bridge DC, and Yondr.
