The owner of a brand new data centre in Birmingham, GTP3 LLP, is raising £2.8m through investment platform, Downing Bonds, as the site enters its next phase of development.
GTP3 has already completed the first of three buildings on the site to house data, located in central Birmingham near the proposed HS2 terminal. Within the first building there will be two data halls, one of which is already completed. 25% of total capacity in the completed data hall is already operational, with the space contracted out to an established IT services company which also plans to expand their operations over time to take further capacity. The current value of the data centre has been estimated at £24.6 million1.
The Birmingham site is the fourth data centre that Downing has invested in during recent years, having recently completed its biggest ever deal to invest £33m in KAO Data Centre, a brand new data centre on the London-Stansted-Cambridge corridor. Looking ahead, Downing has already further committed investment totalling £21 million in this sector.
Data centre in central Birmingham
Downing Bonds allow investors to lend directly to a wide range of UK businesses via Bonds that are secured against a firm’s operational assets. This security seeks to reduce investor risk by enabling Downing, as Security Trustee, to sell these assets if the borrower defaults on the Bond.
What exactly is a data centre?
Almost all businesses today are producing increasing amounts of data and with this comes greater demand for somewhere to store it. A data centre is a building that houses technology systems that are used to store data, transferred to and from the site via communications cables.
Data centres have very high requirements for security and power which makes location very important. The London area is already the largest data centre market in Europe3 by supply and the UK Government has pledged its support for technology infrastructure through the creation of over 44 Enterprise Zones across England4, with the aim of driving business growth and new development.
Birmingham City Council has also supported the new data centre project with a ‘junior loan’ of £3m, as part of its plans to grow the reputation of the UK’s second largest city as a digital hub through the ‘Digital Birmingham’ initiative.
Peter Beckwith, founding member of GTP3 LLP, commented: “Data centres are becoming an increasingly large part of the UK’s future infrastructure. And the demand for data centres clearly isn’t just in the busy South East either, with Birmingham representing one of many areas that are currently underserved when it comes to this type of facility. We have built a strong relationship with Downing, who have worked on several data centre projects already and we’re excited to have them involved as our latest development continues to gather pace.
Our new Birmingham facility is well-connected with both high levels of fibre connectivity and availability of grid power, making it a prime location to meet the growing demand for data centres."