CalSTRS Buys Another Data Center

KANSAS CITY—The California State Teachers' Retirement System has just added another data center to its vast real estate portfolio, this time in Kansas City at 10828 NW Airworld Drive. The acquisition was made through DataCore, LP, a $500 million fund created by CalSTRS in 2012 and managed by GI Partners. It's another sign that institutional investors have a growing interest in this sector, which experts expect to grow tremendously as users put increased emphasis on cloud computing.

Datapipe, Inc., a cloud and managed services provider, fully leases on a long-term basis the 78,000 square foot facility, which was first developed in 1982 but renovated in 2009, 2012 and 2015. The property sits just southeast of Kansas City International Airport.

“We are pleased to own Airworld Drive and form a long term relationship with the tenant, Datapipe, Inc.,” said Mike Armstrong, principal of Menlo Park, CA-based GI Partners. “The facility's robust infrastructure, connectivity, and location make it an attractive addition to the DataCore portfolio. We believe that Kansas City is a compelling and growing data center market and are excited to complete our first acquisition in the MSA.”

CalSTRS started DataCore to invest in technology-oriented real estate in the US, including data centers, internet gateways, corporate campuses for technology tenants and life science properties located in primary MSAs and leased to industry-leading tenants. Since 2012, DataCore has acquired roughly 1.3 million square feet of mission critical data center properties throughout the nation.

“Companies have embraced the cloud as a solution for their IT platform,” and this has created much of the demand for new space by the cloud providers, especially in the primary colocation markets, Chad Freese, a Chicago-based executive vice president at CBRE, told GlobeSt.com. A recent report by CBRE predicted that cloud center data traffic will grow 32% annually through 2018.