Digital Realty Trust Announces Strong First Quarter 2010 Leasing Results

SAN FRANCISCO, April 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), the world's largest wholesale datacenter provider, today announced strong leasing results for the first quarter of 2010.  

For the quarter ended March 31, 2010, the Company commenced leases totaling approximately 116,000 square feet of space. This includes approximately 108,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter® space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $139.00 per square foot and approximately 7,500 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $37.00 per square foot.

The Company signed leases during the first quarter of 2010 totaling approximately 241,000 square feet of space. This includes over 171,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter® space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $141.00 per square foot, and more than 69,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $25.00 per square foot.

"Leasing activity continued to gain momentum during the first quarter, resulting in the strongest first quarter on record for Turn-Key Datacenter leases signed. Overall, it was one of the best first quarters for leases signed, second only to the first quarter of 2008," commented Michael F. Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Trust.  "To keep up with this level of demand for our Turn-Key space, we have accelerated plans to bring on additional space in select markets, such as Northern Virginia, where we are fully leased."

Digital Realty Trust Turn-Key Datacenter facilities provide state-of-the-art environments for supporting mission critical infrastructure, with advanced cooling, power, redundancy, and sustainability features to ensure that critical applications are available while optimizing energy efficiency. Digital Realty Trust's Turn-Key Datacenters are scalable from hundreds of kilowatts of IT Load to megawatts of IT load and are located in markets throughout North America and Europe. Each Turn-Key Datacenter facility is physically secure and features a state-of-the-art power and cooling architecture that has been optimized for green operation. Every Turn-Key Datacenter is built using the Company's proprietary POD Architecture® and uses metered power to ensure that clients pay only for the power that they use.

About Digital Realty Trust, Inc.

Digital Realty Trust owns, acquires, redevelops, develops and manages technology-related real estate. The Company is focused on providing Turn-Key Datacenter® and Powered Base Building® datacenter solutions for domestic and international tenants across a variety of industry verticals ranging from information technology and internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty Trust's 84 properties, excluding one property held as an investment in an unconsolidated joint venture, contain applications and operations critical to the day-to-day operations of technology industry tenants and corporate enterprise datacenter tenants. Comprising approximately 14.9 million square feet as of February 25, 2010, including 1.8 million square feet of space held for redevelopment, Digital Realty Trust's portfolio is located in 27 markets throughout Europe and North America. Digital Realty Trust calculates occupancy and leased square footage for some of its properties based on factors in addition to contractually leased square feet, including available power, required support space and common area. For additional information, please visit Digital Realty Trust's website at http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to rent from leases that have been signed but have not yet commenced, leasing demand and growth, and our plans to bring on additional space in select markets, such as Northern Virginia. These risks and uncertainties include the impact of the ongoing deterioration in global economic, credit and market conditions; downturn of local economic conditions in our geographic markets; decreases in information technology spending, including as a result of economic slowdowns or recession; adverse economic or real estate developments in our industry or the industry sectors that we sell to (including risks relating to decreasing real estate valuations and impairment charges); our dependence upon significant tenants; bankruptcy or insolvency of a major tenant or a significant number of smaller tenants; defaults on or non-renewal of leases by tenants; our failure to obtain necessary debt and equity financing; increased interest rates and operating costs; our failure to repay debt when due or our breach of covenants or other terms contained in our loan facilities and agreements; financial market fluctuations; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; our inability to manage our growth effectively; difficulty acquiring or operating properties in foreign jurisdictions; our failure to successfully operate acquired or redeveloped properties; risks related to joint venture investments, including as a result of our lack of control of such investments; delays or unexpected costs in development or redevelopment of properties; decreased rental rates or increased vacancy rates; increased competition or available supply of datacenter space; our inability to successfully develop and lease new properties and space held for redevelopment; difficulties in identifying properties to acquire and completing acquisitions; our inability to acquire off-market properties; our inability to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to public companies; our failure to maintain our status as a REIT; possible adverse changes to tax laws; restrictions on our ability to engage in certain business activities; environmental uncertainties and risks related to natural disasters; changes in foreign laws and regulations, including those related to taxation and real estate ownership and operation; and changes in real estate and zoning laws and increases in real property tax rates.  For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the Company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009.  The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Turn-Key Datacenter, Powered Base Building and POD Architecture are registered trademarks of Digital Realty Trust.

SOURCE Digital Realty Trust, Inc.