BlackRock has announced plans to invest up to £500m in the delivery of next generation enterprise data centres across the UK.
The investment programme will be made through its European value-add real estate series and will finance the modernisation of operational enterprise data centres to better serve blue-chip companies with enhanced hybrid cloud solutions.
The programme will be delivered by a newly launched data centre operating platform called Gravity Edge, which is a joint venture between BlackRock and specialist digital infrastructure investor and adviser DGP.
The platform will acquire, expand and refurbish enterprise data centres in key UK markets where supply has been constrained by power availability.
Gravity Edge will build out a portfolio of state-of-the-art 5MW to 20MW data centres and BlackRock and DGP have launched the platform with the off-market acquisition of an enterprise data centre located to the west of London, which is underpinned by a Tier-1 financial services tenant.
With an initial investment of more than £100m, the site, which has near-term expansion potential to 20MW, will be modernised to unlock further capacity, improve operational efficiency and meet the needs of high-density enterprise compute.
Thomas Mueller-Borja, global co-head of real estate at BlackRock, said: “Investing in the critical real estate that underpins our economies is essential for accelerating the digital transition. With capital markets largely focused on the hyperscaler end of the market, enterprise data centres play a crucial role in boosting overall compute capacity and serving UK plc with more sophisticated digital capabilities.
“With the launch of our investment programme, we are enabling our clients to access new opportunities across the data centre value chain and unlocking capital for what we believe will be a transformational platform in the data centre market together with our experienced partners at DGP.”
Thor Johnsen, managing partner at DGP, added: “We are thrilled to partner with BlackRock in building out this data centre platform in the UK, which has the potential to scale across select sites in Europe. Gravity Edge currently delivers mission-critical data centre services to a Tier 1 financial institution at an exceptionally well-run site.
“We plan to further modernise the facility, enhancing energy efficiency, enabling higher rack density, and unlocking additional sellable capacity. Our shared vision is to establish Gravity Edge as the default choice for customers requiring high performance, mission-critical infrastructure, with operations designed for modern enterprise use cases in proximity to major urban hubs.”
