Singapore-listed Industrial REIT Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT) (SGX:ME8U) celebrates the groundbreaking of its build-to-suit development for Equinix Singapore at one-north. Occupying a total gross floor area of 385,000 square feet. The S$108 million development will be Equinix’s third International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centre in Singapore.

This is the second built-to-suit facility embarked by MIT after the Tata building  near Tai Seng.

The new IBX data centre will further extend Equinix’s ability to meet the strong demand for premium data centre services from financial and cloud companies in Singapore. It will also be compliant with the guidelines set by the Monetary Authority of Singapore in July 2012 which addresses the changing security requirements of financial companies.

“We are pleased to break ground on the new IBX data centre, SG3, which will provide the infrastructure and scale for Equinix to expand its presence in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region. The commitment from Equinix affirms MIT’s proven track record in delivering quality and customised industrial space solutions for our clients’ evolving business requirements. This is MIT’s second data centre development, extending MIT’s foothold in Singapore’s growing data centre industry,” said Mr Tham Kuo Wei, Chief Executive Officer of the Manager for MIT.

Equinix, a global interconnection and data centre company, is committed to lease the entire building for a minimum tenure of 20 years. This development will offer MIT income stability and portfolio diversification from a high-quality tenant in a growing trade sector. The development is expected to be yield-accretive upon its completion in the second half of 2014.

MIT’s first data centre development, Tata Communications Exchange at Paya Lebar iPark, was another build-to-suit project completed in 2010 as the flagship data centre for Tata Communications International Pte. Ltd. Another BTS project which MIT is developing is the new global headquarters for Kulicke and Soffa that is slated for completion in the second half of 2013.