US investor Hines is set to make a move into the UK data center market.
The company, which already has data centers in the US and Europe, is actively trying to expand “its footprint in data centers” and has the UK market in its sights, according to Ross Blair, head of its UK operation.
Speaking at the UK Real Estate Outlook event hosted by Bisnow, Blair said: “I think there's a tremendous amount of institutional capital wanting to flow into that sector, so we're starting to invest more people hours in that space.”
Hines has not traditionally been a big player in the market but announced its intention to buy more digital infrastructure assets in 2021 when it set up a new $650m fund in the US targeting properties including data centers.
The firm, which has assets worth $93.2 billion under management, served as development manager for EdgeX Data Center in Oklahoma, and the Americas Data Center in New Jersey, among others.
Among its data center assets is a 49MW facility in the East Bay area of California, which is leased to Amazon.
In 2022 Hines partnered with Compass Datacenters to purchase land outside Milan, Italy, which will host a 48MW data center campus. Construction work on this project was due to begin last year.
Traditional property investors are increasingly looking to data centers as an important income stream. Companies such as Blackstone are spending billions to buy up more digital infrastructure assets as the AI boom drives up demand for server space.
