NEXTDC’s entrepreneurial founder has injected $15M in equity into the new data centre company to secure strategic footholds in both Melbourne and Brisbane for the expansion of the company’s data centre business.

NEXTDC founder and Director, Bevan Slattery said the two premium properties were both strategically located, close to the CBDs and, importantly close to power and telecommunication services.

“We have acquired 14,300m2 of vacant land in Port Melbourne to construct cutting edge, purpose-built concrete data centres. The property is large enough to allow for future expansion and will create a data centre campus over time as demand increased.

We have also acquired a solid concrete building in Brisbane CBD with net lettable area of approx 2,300m2. This property will enable NEXTDC to address immediate demand for data centre space in Brisbane.”

NEXTDC expects that its initial Brisbane data centre will be fully operational by December 2010 and purpose-built facility in Melbourne will be operational in just over twelve months time.

Both acquisitions are subject to relevant due diligence, which is expected to be completed within the next few weeks.

Mr Slattery said NEXTDC had also established a technology research and development centre in Brisbane focused on delivering commercial innovation, technology leadership and green credentials to its customers and vendors.

“In line with our business strategy, NEXTDC will undertake significant investment in the Australian and New Zealand data centre markets, deploying some of the smartest technologies available to empower our customers and also reduce their carbon footprint,” he said.

“We are on track to acquire an additional property in Brisbane over the coming weeks that will enable us to establish a purpose-built facility to address future demand in the Brisbane market. This facility will be operational within twelve months.”

ENDS