GLP joins Japan’s data centre market with US$12bn investment
Real estate developer GLP has today announced a substantial plan to enter the Japanese data centre market, with a target of delivering 900 megawatts (MW) of power capacity, which would make the company one of the leading data centre operators in the country.
GLP is targeting to invest more than US$12 billion in the move over the next five years to support increasing demand for high-performance and environmentally-friendly data centres in Japan. The focus investment regions are Greater Tokyo and Greater Osaka, the main economic clusters in the country, which are the most active and demanding areas for online consumption and digital applications, which is driving demand for data centres.
The company has secured land to develop data centre facilities that aim to provide around 600 MW of power capacity when they are completed. GLP expects to break ground on its first Japan data centre campus in Greater Tokyo in 2023, with the first building expected to be ready for service from 2024.
Yoshiyuki Chosa, President of GLP Japan, said: “We have a two-decade track record in developing, owning and operating state-of-the-art, sustainable logistics facilities that make the world run more efficiently. Our further expansion into data centres is a natural extension of our mission to provide critical infrastructure systems to support increasing digitalisation in the new economy. With our investment and operating expertise, we believe we are well-positioned to build and scale a high-quality, full-service digital infrastructure platform to serve the growing needs in this market and serve the growing institutional investor demand for this asset class.”
Japanese data centre market experiences an annual growth rate of 16%
Japan’s data centre market is growing annually at a rate of 16% year-on-year. Increased adoption of new technologies, data analytics and the Internet of Things have encouraged a surge in demand for secure, reliable and efficient digital infrastructure solutions to support digital consumption across work, life and entertainment. Third-party data centre providers offer access to leading-edge infrastructure, economies of scale and modern, energy-efficient technologies and equipment with lower upfront capital requirements and increased flexibility to seamlessly scale to adapt to evolving business demands.
Digital infrastructure is a key growth engine for GLP, sitting alongside the established logistics real estate business and the emerging renewables business. To offset this high-energy-consuming industry, GLP data centres will align with GLP’s ESG policy and seek to adopt efficiency measures throughout the design, build and operations, to reduce operational costs for customers while helping them reach their sustainability goals. These include determining the most energy-efficient configuration to optimise airflow design, promoting the use of clean energy from renewable sources and intelligently linking IT and facility management with performance-related metadata to optimise cooling and power usage effectiveness.
GLP is building a comprehensive digital infrastructure business of more than 2,500 MW. In China, GLP is one of the largest vertically integrated data centre operators with over 300 team members and assets that will provide over 1,400 MW of It capacity. GLP recently delivered the first phase of a 120 MW built to suit data centre campus in Changshu High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Jiangsu Province outside of Shanghai to one of GLP’s existing customers. In addition to China and Japan, GLP has also secured prime data centre campus sites in Europe to capitalise on growth opportunities in the digital infrastructure industry.