CBRE has agreed to acquire data center infrastructure provider Direct Line Global from Guardian Capital, the company announced Wednesday.
Founded in 1997, Direct Line Global provides design, installation, maintenance and management solutions and server support infrastructure to data center operators and owners in a number of technology firms, CBRE said in a news release Wednesday. The company is focused on serving large global technology companies in the enterprise co-location and the fast-growing hyperscale market, CBRE said.
Combining this expertise with CBRE’s facilities management services will enable the commercial real estate service provider to deliver “integrated data center solutions that no other service provider can match,” it said.
Data centers continue to grow in importance to organizations big and small, with the growing demand for AI-driven processing power driving large-scale construction, renovations and innovation within the sector.
About 92% of respondents in CBRE’s June 2024 Global Data Center Investor Intentions survey said they intend to allocate more than $100 million in equity to the sector this year, and about 44% stated an intent to apportion more than $500 million. Despite power availability delays and rising construction costs, projects already underway in primary markets are expected to reach more than 2,500 megawatts in 2024, the firm said in its North America Data Center Trends H2 2023 report.
Almost a third of respondents believe that hyperscale build-to-suit projects presents the biggest opportunity in the data center sector, increasing 22% from 2022, while the segment remained flat year over year, per the report.
As a result of the purchase, Direct Line Global will operate as part of CBRE’s data centers solutions business, within its Global Workplace Solutions business segment, according to the release from CBRE.
“This acquisition fits squarely with our strategy of enhancing our capabilities in asset classes that benefit from secular tailwinds – in this case, the increasing digitization of the global economy,” CBRE Chief Operating Officer Vikram Kohli said in a statement.“Direct Line Global perfectly complements our existing data center management capabilities and provides us with best-in-class technical capabilities that differentiate our service offering.”
Based in Fremont, California, DIrect Line Global has more than 1,000 employees, with significant operations in northern Virginia as well as a presence in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and the Philippines. The acquisition is expected to immediately boost CBRE’s core earnings-per-share, CBRE said in the release.
Due to heightened complexity in the design and operations of data centers compared with other building types, real estate service firms and building technology companies have been working to bolster their capabilities to meet the sector’s growth and demand.
In May, JLL announced it had acquired data center design and engineering firm SKAE Power Solutions, forming a new technical services division that would add technical depth to its existing offerings. In early June, the real estate services firm announced the appointment of former GLP executive Kristen Vosmaer as a managing director of its Data Center Work Dynamics business.
Meanwhile, Cushman & Wakefield appointed David Bukovac as global head of integrated facilities management within its global occupier services leadership team, where he will lead critical data center management and other operations services.
