The Sydney-based Lendlease has entered into a deal with a yet-to-be-named institutional investor to funnel $1 billion in data centers across Southeast Asia and the rest of the region. This means data centers will be constructed across Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore, according to APAC Real Estate. Lendlease will shoulder 20% of the JV while the partner will be responsible for the remaining 80%.
Tony Lombardo, CEO Asia at Lendlease, said that the data center deal provides more than just a 'strategic fit' for the group. He said that it aligned with the 'target' trend of infrastructure and telecommunications, as well as the company's integrated business model. He added that the partnership will help leverage to company's track record, which has been proven through project management.
The JV will also be targeting assets which have been completed as well as those currently being developed. Lendlease will be taking on construction, development, investment, and property management responsibilities for the said developments. With the Asia Pacific data center market continuing to expand, it is a great deal to enter for Lendlease.
Some of Lendlease's famous projects include the Athletes' Village in London and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. They were also involved in the September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York and the Sydney Opera House, Kalkine Media reported. Lendlease has been looking at data centers and has seemingly decided that they will be where the 'future' shifts towards.
It is expected that heavy investments will be involved in this project, aside from the undisclosed partner already working with Lendlease. It is a sound investment; according to analysts, today's world has become increasingly reliant on data, particularly on storage found in the cloud.
Some of the destinations where data centers seem to be headed are those where Lendlease is looking at-Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore. The land prices in these places, however, have continued to put Lendlease on notice due to their increasing prices. Maintenance and operational cost of keeping these data centers running have also been a big concern.
The demand for these data centers has come from technological and global cloud corporations operating in the US and China. A big challenge, however, is to beat industrial land and development properties out to purchase land that Lendlease is interested in.
Lendlease will look to keep their partnership with international data center operators beneficial by helping them look for land to put up these data centers.
