Goodman Enters Japan Data Centre Market with ST Telemedia Greater Tokyo Projects

Australia’s Goodman is matching rival logistics heavyweights ESR and Logos in expanding its presence in the Asia Pacific data centre arena, teaming up with Singapore’s ST Telemedia on two projects in the Inzai City digital hub northeast of Tokyo.

The new facilities, to be developed by and leased from Goodman, represent the first foray into the Japanese data centre market for ST Telemedia Global Data Centres. The two server facilities are to span 60,000 square metres (645,835 square feet) of gross floor area and will yield up to 60 megawatts of IT power across the two buildings, the companies said Thursday in a release.

The new campus will be located within Goodman Business Park, an integrated industrial and data centre estate in Inzai City with over 800,000 square metres of lettable area upon completion and a value of more than A$4 billion ($2.9 billion).

“We are excited to welcome STT GDC to Goodman Business Park and the opportunity to partner with a fast-growing global data centre operator,” said Goodman CEO Greg Goodman. “With this pre-lease, we will have fully leased eight separate stages of development within Goodman Business Park, which also includes amenity and retail offerings for our customers and the wider community.”

Scalable Capacity

Under the deal with STT GDC, Goodman Japan will develop the shell and core of the data centres and lease the buildings on a long-term basis to the subsidiary of ST Telemedia, a portfolio company of Singapore state holding firm Temasek.

Greg Goodman has been brushing up on his MW and his PUE

STT GDC will fit out and then operate the facilities, with the first building expected to be ready for service in the second quarter of 2024, bolstering the company’s active portfolio of over 130 data centres across Singapore, India, China, Thailand and other Asian markets.

“With power already secured, these new, carrier-neutral facilities are purpose-designed to meet the scalable capacity demands of hyperscale and enterprise customers looking for large-scale facilities to meet growing requirements,” said Nicholas Toh, CEO for Northeast Asia at STT GDC. “With this, we are confident of bringing significant value to the Japan data centre market as we grow with our customers who are expanding their footprint into this market.”

Logistics specialist Goodman, the largest Australia-listed industrial property group, is branching out into the APAC data centre field after fellow Aussie firm Logos and Hong Kong-based ESR launched their own initiatives earlier this year.

In April, ESR announced its entry into the segment with the acquisition of an Osaka data centre asset as part of a planned $2.15 billion project. Two months later, Logos leapt into the space by partnering with UK’s Pure Data Centres to develop a 20MW hyperscale facility in Jakarta.

Inzai Cluster Booming

Inzai City, a commuter suburb located 40 kilometres (25 miles) from central Tokyo in Chiba prefecture, is home to a growing cluster of data centres developed by some of the sector’s busiest players.

In September last year, AirTrunk revealed plans to build a 300MW-plus data centre campus sprawling across seven buildings and more than 13 hectares (32 acres) in Inzai. The initial 60MW phase of the campus is scheduled to open in late 2021, and when finished the facility will be the largest in APAC outside of China, according to Sydney-based AirTrunk.

In March this year, US-based Equinix announced the opening of its first hyperscale data centre in Asia, an Inzai facility designed to support 54MW of power when all phases are complete.

UK-based Colt Data Centre Services, meanwhile, pre-sold 94 percent of capacity before last year’s launch of the 27MW Inzai 3.

Note: An earlier version of this article indicated that the data centre projects were Goodman’s first in Asia. They are the first in Japan for ST Telemedia. Mingtiandi regrets the error.