Indian real estate developer RMZ Corp is expanding into three new asset classes, including data centers.
The company is expecting to develop 350 million sq ft (32.5 million sqm) of commercial space for industrial and warehousing logistics, hospitality services, and data centers in India and abroad by 2032.
The company first announced plans to move into data centers in an interview with the Deccan Herald last month, with more details reported by The Hindu.
The company will begin with industrial and warehousing assets but will follow this with data center developments in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, and the National Capital Region in Delhi.
The company is anticipating the process to take around eight years to complete, from acquiring land to partnering with other companies to develop the spaces.
The fiscal year 2024 will see five million sq ft of development in Hyderabad, followed by 3.3 million sq ft in Bengaluru, and one million sq ft each in Chennai and Pune. In Mumbai, the company estimates that it will take a least 36 months to develop 1.5 million sq ft. How much of this will be dedicated to data centers is yet to be shared.
To fund these developments, RMZ has raised $2 billion by selling some of its assets to Brookfield Asset Management Company.
The company previously had plans to set up offices in Europe and the US, but has temporarily put these on pause due to the recession, said the senior managing director of RMZ, K. Jayakumar.
RMZ Corp is a real estate developer in India, specializing in eco-friendly buildings and office spaces. In December 2022, the company signed the First Movers Coalition which sees the company commit to purchasing at least 10 percent of near-zero cement and concrete per year by 2030 for its real estate development projects.
The Indian data center market has been experiencing significant investment of late. In February 2023, Digital Realty and Brookfield broke ground on a 20MW data center in Chennai. This year has also seen the launch of data centers by Web Werks, OVHCloud, and Varanium, with many more under development.
