Global Switch completes acquisition, leasing deal in Madrid

Global Switch announced on Tuesday that it has finalised the acquisition of the freehold interest of its Madrid data centre. The company added it has also completed what it describes as a significant lease agreement with IBM at the facility.

IBM is already a major occupier at the 23,225-m² data centre in Madrid, as it is across most of the Global Switch portfolio.

In a statement, Global Switch said the Madrid centre is designed to deliver a range of flexible power density solutions from sub 1kw/m² for network applications through to 2kw/m² for blade server environments.

The Madrid facility, the company said, is widely considered to be the premium tier 3 plus facility within the region and serves many national and international organisations.

Global Switch CEO John Corcoran said: 'This is the next step in the Global Switch development within Europe. With the recent purchase of the Madrid freehold, Global Switch now owns all our eight facilities around the world with a total gross area of almost 3 million square feet (279,000 m2).'

Corcoran said he expected to announce further new lettings 'in the not too distant future'.

Owned by the Reuben Brothers, Global Switch is the largest fully fitted turn key data centre owner and operator in Europe and Asia Pacific. The company has invested significantly across its portfolio and it says the latest strategic investment - in line with its model to own its assets on a freehold basis - reflects the strength in customer demand in general and in particular the Spanish market.

The Global Switch business consists of the provision of data centre space which is equipped throughout to a high technical specification in which tenants locate their IT infrastructure. The firm's portfolio comprises eight data centres, six in Europe (London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid), and the others in Sydney and Singapore.