PATRIZIA’s plans for an industry-leading high-tech data centre at Court Lane Industrial Estate in Iver, Buckinghamshire, are approved by Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Angela Rayner.
The proposals for the site involve the development of a c. 65,032m2 140MW data centre, as well as the full refurbishment of the Grade II listed Iver Court Farmhouse building.
Court Lane, which is owned by PATRIZIA’s Hanover Property Unit Trust, one of the UK’s oldest and best-performing open-ended property funds, is currently a c. 5.7-ha industrial estate, comprising a mix of occupiers from vehicle storage, scrap metal recycling and office uses, adjacent to the M25. PATRIZIA has executed a long-term asset management strategy for Court Lane having identified its potential for a data centre, including securing a contracted power agreement with the National Grid, which is crucial to enable a data centre development.
The UK government has recognised data centres as critical infrastructure for the UK economy, with demand for data centre capacity increasing exponentially, driven by the growing popularity of cloud-based infrastructure, the rise of AI, and the continuous increase in e-commerce and social and online media use.
But the size and complexity of data centres mean that only a small number of sites are suitable for their construction and operation. Court Lane is a rare example of a site fulfilling all the requirements to build and operate a successful data centre, given its location within the Slough-Hayes data centre ‘golden corridor’ and its proximity to many fibre networks.
PATRIZIA has agreed the conditional sale of the site to clients of Affinius Capital. It is anticipated that the project will be developed by Corscale – a hyperscale data centre developer that specialises in developing energy-efficient, sustainable data centres.
Simon West, Fund Manager for PATRIZIA Hanover PUT, said: “We welcome the decision by the Secretary of State to approve plans for a high-tech data centre on the Court Lane industrial site. Our asset management strategy for the site has focused on maximising its potential and, after securing an agreement with the National Grid, it is ideally suited for an industry-leading data centre, providing vital infrastructure for the continued growth of the UK economy.”
The project reflects PATRIZIA’s commitment to delivering on its new mid-term strategy to become a EUR 100bn real assets investment manager by 2030, as part of which ‘RE-Infra’ – assets that blend real estate and infrastructure, like data centres – has been identified as one of the five key growth areas to catalyse this growth.
Phoebe Smith, PATRIZIA Head of Fund Management RE-Infra, commented: “We are excited to see another proof point of PATRIZIA's RE-Infra strategy, with the exciting progress on this real estate investment, benefitting from a repositioning to develop infrastructure assets on its site. We continue to see further examples of this convergence of real estate and infrastructure, and it is fantastic news to see the Hanover team deliver such an outcome to their investors, while also delivering benefit of more much-needed data centre capacity in the UK.”
Image source - PATRIZIA.
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