Singapore-based Digital Edge has entered a partnership with Japanese builder Hulic to develop a carrier-neutral data centre in downtown Tokyo, marking the platform’s seventh facility serving the capital city area.
The project, known as TYO7, will provide interconnect-focused co-location capacity to one of the world’s largest data centre markets as Digital Edge expands its platform across Asia Pacific, the company said Wednesday in a release.
The new facility in the Nihonbashi commercial district will be situated less than 300 metres (328 yards) from Digital Edge’s existing TYO2 site, formerly known as ComSpace I, acquired from Arteria Networks Corporation in 2021.
“This strategic project is another important step in our journey to build a regional platform and establish a thriving digital ecosystem across Asia,” said Digital Edge CEO Samuel Lee. “We are pleased to partner with Hulic, a well-respected Tokyo-based real estate developer, to leverage their local market knowledge alongside our data centre know-how to provide much needed digital infrastructure capacity in the heart of Tokyo.”
Demolishing Office Block
Digital Edge gave no details about TYO7’s precise location, physical size or power capacity, saying only that the data centre would operate under the Digital Edge brand and enter service in early 2025 — but information dug up by Japan Property Central sheds some light.
The real estate website reported last year that Tokyo-based Hulic planned to demolish its Kobunacho Kinen-Kaikan Building, a 1982-vintage office block in Nihonbashi, and develop its first data centre: an eight-storey facility to be completed in 2025.
Digital Edge, which is backed by Manhattan-based private equity shop Stonepeak, has $1 billion in deployed and committed capital and an established presence in Japan, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines.
The platform’s 17 ongoing projects represent a combined 516 megawatts of power across 1.2 million square feet (111,484 square metres) of IT space. With the latest development, Digital Edge’s Japan portfolio includes four data centres in Tokyo, three in Yokohama and two in Osaka.
The company said TYO7 would help answer unmet demand in Tokyo’s $2.2 billion data centre market, where a land shortage in the network-dense downtown area makes retail co-location space highly sought after.
“This small but strategically located site will complement our other facilities that cater to enterprise, hyperscale and high power density applications, as we further contribute to the development of Japan’s vital digital infrastructure,” said Kei Furuta, president and chief revenue officer at Digital Edge.
Japan Maintains Lustre
Japan has continued to attract interest from data centre developers at home and abroad in 2023, with a joint venture of Mitsubishi Corporation and US giant Digital Realty opening a fourth building at its Osaka campus last month. The latest phase offers up to 21MW of IT capacity, bringing total capacity at the campus to more than 70MW.
Last December, industrial specialist ESR announced it was teaming up with US-based operator Stack Infrastructure on a 72MW Osaka campus targeting hyperscale customers. The project will bring Hong Kong-listed ESR’s Japan portfolio to 168MW, with Osaka also being home to the company’s first-ever data centre investment: the 96MW ESR Cosmosquare hyperscale campus under development in the Nanko Kita area near the city centre.
Other announced projects include Macquarie-backed AirTrunk’s second hyperscale data centre in Japan, a 110MW development in western Tokyo. Google revealed last October that it would build its own data centre in Inzai City east of Tokyo, marking the tech giant’s third server shed in Asia after facilities in Taiwan and Singapore.
