Pure Data Centers has acquired a plot of land in Madrid as it plans its first foray into the Spanish market.

ActivumSG, a European real estate private equity manager, this week announced it had sold Pure a 190,000 sq ft (17,650 sqm) site in the Meco area of the Spanish capital.

Sold on behalf of ActivumSG Fund VI, the data center firm bought the land for €11 million ($11.9m).

Update: Pure has said it plans to develop a 25MW data center on the site, though further details weren't shared.

Tech-Stone, a Madrid-based real estate development and asset management firm involved throughout the process, will continue to manage the delivery of the scheme for Pure DC.

Dawn Childs, Pure DC CEO, said: “Our expansion into Madrid allows us to serve a growing European market and to further extend our global portfolio of data centers. We are excited about working with partners in Spain to deliver another next-generation data center campus which can help to satisfy the increasing need for data storage and processing power.”

Pure was established in 2015 and is backed by funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management. The London-based company currently has more than 250MW of IT capacity in operation or development in markets across Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Reports that Pure was interested in entering Spain first surfaced in 2022.

Saul Goldstein, CEO, ActivumSG, added: “This deal is a perfect demonstration of our Spanish teams’ creativity. We have capitalized on the growing interest of global data center operators in Madrid by bringing power to land situated in a highly advantageous location for data center development, allowing us to achieve a high exit multiple and deliver strong returns for our investors in an otherwise subdued transactional environment.”

ActivumSG acquired the site in July 2021 from two local manufacturing companies.

The real estate firm said the acquisition followed an analysis of the Madrid Municipality Electricity Grid to identify areas that would be most suited to data center development; the company secured a 25MW power agreement in 2022 to allow the connection of power cables from a nearby electric substation and was granted the dual feed in 2023.

The transaction is ActivumSG’s first powered land sale. The company said it “sees further opportunity” in acquiring sites that can be prepared for data center development and sold to operators.

Brian Betel, head of direct asset transactions, ActivumSG, said: “There is a huge opportunity in powered land plays as they help solve a pressing issue: a growing requirement for sites suitable for data center development, which are needed to support the significant expected investment into emerging technologies such as AI. ActivumSG has an extensive network of in-country teams across Europe to support sourcing and delivery of similar projects.”

Pure growth

In its own update, Pure added that the company recently reached full operating capacity at its north London campus.

The completion of Data Halls 3 and 4 in Brent Cross, London, marks the company's first fully available customer-occupied data center, with a capacity of 20MW.

Work has already begun on an adjacent site, which would take the overall capacity at the London campus to more than 80MW, with potential to extend further.

Pure said its next campus due live is located in Abu Dhabi's Yas Island in the UAE. Set to provide 45MW of capability and complete its first phase in early 2025, the site will be Pure DC’s first venture in the Middle East.

The company also has live sites in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Dublin, Ireland. The company has more than 200MW of capacity live or under development.

A version of this story appeared on our Spanish edition.