Blackstone, through its newly launched Blackstone European Property Income Fund (BEPIF), today announced the acquisition from Land Securities Group (Landsec) of 6-9 Harbour Exchange in London, a data center and office building leased to Equinix, for £196.5m ($263m). Specifically, Blackstone is valuing 6-9 Harbour Exchange at a net initial yield of 3.99%, implying that the building generates £7.8m ($10.4m) of net operating income (NOI). Finally, transaction completion will take place before the end of 2021.
Harbour Exchange (6-9) – Equinix LD8 – Blackstone Buys from Landsec
Harbour Exchange is located in the Docklands area of southeast London, which is directly south of Canary Wharf. Buildings 6 through 9 on the Harbour Exchange campus comprise two adjoining re-purposed office buildings, originally constructed in 1989. In aggregate, 6-9 Harbour Exchange spans 278k sqft of data center and office space, across the 10-story (6/7) and 8-story (8/9) buildings.
Data Center
Equinix operates 6/7/8/9 Harbour Exchange Square as its LD8 London IBX data center. Across two distinct buildings, Equinix offers 12 megawatts of power capacity and 137k sqft (12.8k sqm) of colocation space. Specifically, the buildings are distributed as follows:
- Harbour Exchange 6/7: 67.8k sqft (6.3k sqm) of colocation space
- Harbour Exchange 8/9: 69.6k sqft (6.5k sqm) of colocation space
Equinix leases Harbour Exchange, with an unexpired lease term of nearly 20 years. Originally, the company began operating at Harbour Exchange following the completion of its acquisition of Telecity Group in 2016.
Overall, in the London metro, Equinix operates 10 data centers (two xScale and 8 IBX facilities) with 964k sqft (89.6k sqm) of colocation space.
Connectivity
Equinix offers connectivity to 195+ network service providers through its London data centers. For example, Equinix LD8’s on-site network service providers include BT Group, Cogent Communications, Colt Technology Services, Console Connect (PCCW Global), euNetworks, Lumen Technologies, Telia Carrier, Verizon, Vodafone, and Zayo.
Additionally, Equinix LD8 offers connectivity to a number of important internet exchanges. Particularly, these include LINX (London Internet Exchange), NL-ix (Neutral Internet Exchange), and LONAP (London Network Access Point).
Blackstone European Property Income Fund (BEPIF) – Overview
During 2021, the Blackstone European Property Income Fund (BEPIF) was formed with a London-based investment team and Luxembourg-domiciled fund structure. Blackstone’s BEPIF targets Pan-European, stabilized, income-generating investments in sectors including logistics, office, residential, and net leases (e.g., Harbour Exchange).
As of October 2021, BEPIF has €248m of subscriptions for its European income strategy. The BEPIF team is led by James Seppala, Sr. Managing Director, and Abhishek Agarwal, Managing Director.
