International real estate-focused private investment firm Starwood Capital Group has announced the launch of Starwood Digital Ventures, a platform devoted to the company’s expanding global data center investment strategy.
Being one of the biggest privately owned data center developers in the US and Europe, Starwood Capital has already invested around $8 billion in data center development over the last five years, totaling 1.5 gigawatts in different stages of construction.
Starwood Digital Ventures intends to use the capital from several Starwood Investment Vehicles to further expand its pipeline and form alliances with top-tier data center operators.
“We are incredibly excited about the launch of Starwood Digital, which will provide us with additional opportunities to grow our data center portfolio amidst strong industry tailwinds,” said Barry Sternlicht, Chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital. “With the strong demand for data center services in the United States and growing needs to support end uses such as artificial intelligence, we see continued opportunity to invest in this growing sector.”
New Data Center Projects
Alongside this announcement, Worldwide Mission Critical, a consulting firm with a wealth of expertise assisting clients with the design and implementation of data center projects, and Starwood Capital announced the establishment of a strategic alliance.
In addition to design management, Worldwide Mission Critical provides construction quality control, integrated testing, bidding and procurement, and other services for data center projects. This company and Starwood Capital have worked together on many projects over the last five years. Starwood Capital says it will be able to quickly expand its data center infrastructure – to handle the anticipated increase thanks to the strategic collaboration.
“We have worked closely with Worldwide Mission Critical the last several years and look forward to deepening our relationship with the industry experts there,” said Anthony Balestrieri, Managing Director at Starwood Capital. “They have become valued partners of ours, as we leverage their skills and strong industry reputation to expand our data center investments both domestically and abroad generating compelling value for our investors.”
