Digital Realty Trust Reports Record Lease Signings for 2010

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), a global wholesale datacenter provider, today announced leasing results for the fourth quarter and year-end 2010.  

The Company signed leases during the quarter ended December 31, 2010 totaling approximately 478,000 square feet of space. This includes over 89,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter® space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $184.00 per square foot, approximately 234,000 square feet of Powered Base Building® space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $39.00 per square foot, and approximately 155,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $20.00 per square foot.

"Our fourth quarter lease signings reflect strong demand for both our Turn-Key Datacenter and Powered Base Building products across multiple industry verticals in the U.S. as well as Europe," said Michael F. Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Trust. "Rental rates, particularly for our Turn-Key Datacenter space, vary from market to market, impacting quarterly results.  Markets where we saw the strongest pricing for Turn-Key Datacenter space during the year were Santa Clara and New York Metro, which is reflected in our second and third quarter 2010 lease signings."

Of the total leases signed during the fourth quarter of 2010, approximately 440,000 square feet was for space located in the Company's U.S. portfolio.  This includes approximately 65,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $152.00 per square foot, approximately 227,000 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $37.00 per square foot, and 148,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $19.00 per square foot.  

Leases signed during the fourth quarter of 2010 for space in the Company's European portfolio totaled over 37,000 square feet.  This includes approximately 24,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate $268.00 per square foot, approximately 6,700 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $104.00 per square foot, and approximately 6,600 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $43.00 per square foot.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2010, the Company signed leases totaling approximately 1.2 million square feet of space.  This includes approximately 519,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $172.00 per square foot, approximately 379,000 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $45.00 per square foot, and over 262,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $22.00 per square foot.

"We saw momentum in our sales activity continue to increase over the course of 2010, resulting in our strongest annual leasing performance to date in terms of square footage and total contract value of $1.2 billion. These results represent an increase of over 160% in total square footage and an increase of over 100% in annualized GAAP rent over 2009 lease signings," added Mr. Foust.  "Enterprise demand is driven by the consistent growth of applications in corporate IT departments as well as growth in providers of colocation and managed services.  Our inventory of redevelopment space combined with the just-in-time delivery of our Turn-Key Datacenter and Powered Base Building products enable customers to expand their datacenter operations with minimal capital and execution risk.  We believe these factors will continue to drive growth for the Company as we continue to meet our customers' requirements for secure, reliable and cost effective data center facilities."

For the quarter ended December 31, 2010, the Company commenced leases totaling approximately 143,000 square feet of space. This includes approximately 100,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter® space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $210.00 per square foot, approximately 1,200 square feet of Powered Base Building® space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $78.00 per square foot, and approximately 42,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $9.00 per square foot.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2010, the Company commenced leases totaling over 652,000 square feet of space.  This includes approximately 420,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $159.00 per square foot, approximately 91,000 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $32.00 per square foot, and approximately 141,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $20.00 per square foot.

Digital Realty Trust data centers enable customers to deliver critical business applications by providing secure, reliable, and cost effective datacenter facilities.  The Company 's Turn-Key Datacenters 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. Digital Realty Trust Powered Base Buildings are improved shell facilities designed for customers that seek to build out and operate a data center using their own personnel. Each of these "building within a building" facilities is pre-qualified with power, planning permissions, and fiber connectivity, enabling customers to immediately begin data center construction. In addition, each Powered Base Building is designed to meet the two leading green building standards, LEED in the U.S. and BREEAM in Europe.

About Digital Realty Trust, Inc.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. enables customers to deliver critical business applications by providing secure, reliable and cost effective datacenter facilities.  Digital Realty Trust's customers include domestic and international companies across multiple industry verticals ranging from information technology and Internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty Trust's 96 properties, excluding two properties held as investments in unconsolidated joint ventures, comprise approximately 16.8 million square feet as of December 9, 2010, including 2.3 million square feet of space held for redevelopment. Digital Realty Trust's portfolio is located in 28 markets throughout Europe, North America and Singapore.  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 and other contracted rent to be received in future periods, leasing demand, momentum and growth, and the factors which will drive leasing demand, momentum and growth. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the following: the impact of the recent deterioration in global economic, credit and market conditions; current 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 reporting 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 and the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2010, June 30, 2010 and September 30, 2010.  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.