DALLAS — Equinix Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX), a data center owner and operator based in Redwood City, Calif., has agreed to purchase Infomart Dallas from ASB Real Estate Investments for $800 million.
The 1.6 million-square-foot Infomart Dallas is a highly visible data center facility located at 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Dallas North Tollway.
Equinix is the facility’s largest tenant, representing approximately 40 percent of lease revenues. The facility houses four of eight Equinix Dallas International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers.
Infomart Dallas is home to 45 tenants, including global companies such as Bank of America and Verizon Wireless. The transaction includes developable land adjacent to the facility that will allow the new ownership to potentially increase the facility’s current capacity of 11MW of power to 40MW.
The capital consideration will consist of $31 million in cash and $750 million in debt securities that will be paid out to ASB over a three-year period following closing, which is expected to occur in the second quarter. (The notes will be valued at roughly $769 million when adjusted to current trading value of Equinix’s outstanding bonds.)
Washington, D.C.-based ASB, a division of ASB Capital Management LLC, originally purchased Infomart Dallas in 2005, and is selling the complex via its $7.4 billion Allegiance Fund.
“ASB has benefited from significant value creation over the term of our investment, and we saw the opportunity to realize gains for our investors, while rebalancing our diversified real estate portfolio in line with allocation targets,” says Robert Bellinger, president and CEO of ASB.
As part of the deal, approximately 50 Infomart employees and contractors, mostly on the operations side of Infomart Dallas, will become Equinix employees or contractors.
Equinix’s stock price closed on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at $418.27 per share, up from $380.76 a year ago.
— John Nelson