Global Technical Realty and KKR build momentum for new data centre

Author: Beatrice

Global Technical Realty (GTR) has announced the launch of a new 10.5 megawatt (MW) data centre in Petah Tikva, Israel’s premier data centre hub. The location of the campus has a connectivity ecosystem currently made up of seven cloud service providers, the Israeli Internet Exchange (‘IIX’) and multiple carriers. In addition, Petah Tikva has developed into a base for many high-tech multinationals and communications companies.  

The data centre will be a secure underground site, built to suit hyperscale specifications, comprising of 4,800 square meters across two floors, with each floor offering 8MW and 2.5MW of IT capacity respectively.  GTR will be designing the leading-edge facility with existing construction partner, Mercury, directing and managing the build process. The project will be built to a N+1 Tier III Infrastructure rating, offering a high standard of power usage effectiveness (PUE) at under 1.17 on full load. The facility will be delivered in two phases with the first phase expected to be fully operational by Q2 2023.

“I am excited to announce the launch of our second data centre in one of the fastest growing global tech hubs, shortly after the launch of our first project in July,” says Franek Sodzawiczny, Founder and CEO at GTR. “The dynamic, rapidly evolving data centre sector is experiencing an unprecedented level of global investment activity. As a well-capitalized agile platform with a clear strategy and experienced team, we are able to move quickly when we identify opportunities in our priority markets.”

Andrew Peisch, Director at KKR, comments: “Israel is an entrepreneurial hub for high-tech innovation and an important market for our data center strategy in EMEA. We are pleased to make this investment in a high-quality project to help accelerate the digital transformation that is underway in the region.”

The project marks GTR’s second investment in EMEA and first investment in Israel. KKR has made three investments in Israeli tech companies, most recently leading an $80m funding round into digital content platform Artlist in 2020.

GTR was launched last year by leading global investment firm KKR and Franek Sodzawiczny, a highly experienced and successful serial entrepreneur in the data centre sector who has a focus on delivering leading-edge designs that support sustainability objectives. The company’s focus is on designing, building and operating bespoke data centres across the EMEA region for large technology clients, meeting growing demand for third-party data centre provision amid ever-increasing growth in data usage and cloud services adoption. KKR’s original investment in GTR was made primarily from its third global infrastructure fund.