Expands presence in Northeast Asia with carrier-neutral facility in Seoul
SAN FRANCISCO, July 31, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire land in Seoul, South Korea for the development of a new, carrier-neutral data center facility. The site is located within the Sangam Digital Media City in northwest Seoul, a newly developed urban planning zone focused on technology and media companies, designed to promote South Korea's digital economy.
The 22,000 square foot land parcel is being sold by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and will support the development of up to 12 megawatts of critical IT capacity. Construction is expected to commence within the coming months and to be complete in 2021.
"Our entry into South Korea is an important milestone as we continue to expand our platform across the Asia Pacific region," said Digital Realty Chief Executive Officer A. William Stein. "South Korea is incredibly well positioned as a digital hub and center for innovation within the region, given the growing global demand for big data, mobile services and connected devices. Our investment in Korea demonstrates our commitment to powering our customers' digital ambitions across a truly global platform."
Upon completion, the new facility will span more than 129,000 square feet and will rise 10 stories above ground and extend three stories below grade. The new facility will offer clients excellent connectivity with diverse fiber routes secured via strategic partners.
"South Korea is one of the largest data center markets in the region, and we are pleased to be able to help drive the country's digital transformation and bring value to our customers in the region and around the world," added Mark Smith, Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Digital Realty. "With a population of more than 25 million, the Seoul Capital Area is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and home to half of all the residents in South Korea. It's the ideal location for building our first facility in the country and bringing our differentiated, carrier-neutral solutions to meet pent-up local and global customer demand."
Digital Realty is one of the world's largest owners, developers and operators of highly reliable data center facilities. The new Seoul development will strengthen Digital Realty's presence within the Asia Pacific region, where the company currently operates a network of industry-leading data centers located in Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne. In 2018, Digital Realty achieved "five nines" of uptime for the 12th consecutive year, surpassing 2.1 billion operating minutes across data center suites owned and operated by Digital Realty worldwide.
About Digital Realty
Digital Realty supports the data center, colocation and interconnection strategies of more than 2,000 firms across its secure, network-rich portfolio of data centers located throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia. Digital Realty's clients include domestic and international companies of all sizes, ranging from cloud and information technology services, communications and social networking to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare and consumer products. www.digitalrealty.com. Follow Digital Realty on social media: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the Seoul Sangam Digital Media City (DMC) land acquisition, our plans to develop a ICN10 Seoul data center, and the expected data center demand in South Korea. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the following: reduced demand for data centers or decreases in information technology spending; decreased rental rates, increased operating costs or increased vacancy rates; increased competition or available supply of data center space; the suitability of our data centers and data center infrastructure, delays or disruptions in connectivity or availability of power, or failures or breaches of our physical and information security infrastructure or services; our dependence upon significant customers, bankruptcy or insolvency of a major customer or a significant number of smaller customers, or defaults on or non-renewal of leases by customers; breaches of our obligations or restrictions under our contracts with our customers; our inability to successfully develop and lease new properties and development space, and delays or unexpected costs in development of properties; the impact of current global and local economic, credit and market conditions; our inability to retain data center space that we lease or sublease from third parties; difficulties managing an international business and acquiring or operating properties in foreign jurisdictions and unfamiliar metropolitan areas; our failure to realize the intended benefits from, or disruptions to our plans and operations or unknown or contingent liabilities related to, our recent acquisitions; our failure to successfully integrate and operate acquired or developed properties or businesses; difficulties in identifying properties to acquire and completing acquisitions; risks related to joint venture investments, including as a result of our lack of control of such investments; risks associated with using debt to fund our business activities, including re-financing and interest rate risks, our failure to repay debt when due, adverse changes in our credit ratings or our breach of covenants or other terms contained in our loan facilities and agreements; our failure to obtain necessary debt and equity financing, and our dependence on external sources of capital; financial market fluctuations and changes in foreign currency exchange rates; adverse economic or real estate developments in our industry or the industry sectors that we sell to, including risks relating to decreasing real estate valuations and impairment charges and goodwill and other intangible asset impairment charges; our inability to manage our growth effectively; losses in excess of our insurance coverage; environmental liabilities and risks related to natural disasters; our inability to comply with rules and regulations applicable to our Company; our failure to maintain our status as a REIT for federal income tax purposes; our operating partnership's failure to qualify as a partnership for federal income tax purposes; restrictions on our ability to engage in certain business activities; and changes in local, state, federal and international laws and regulations, including related to taxation, real estate and zoning laws, and increases in real property tax rates. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2019. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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