Canada: Loblaw former data center in Canada bought by Grain & StratCap

Grain Management and StratCap bought a data center on the Canadian outskirts of Toronto. This week, the firms announced the formation of a joint venture to purchase 55 Hereford Street in Brampton, Ontario. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but per the joint venture contract, StratCap will acquire a minority stake in the asset and manage the entire facility.

The facility, which was constructed in 2013 and is located west of Toronto, is a 127,000-square-foot, Tier III data center with 10MVA of utility electricity and plans to expand to 27MVA. The location was formerly a business facility run by Loblaw Companies Limited, a Canadian food retailer. The company has an Uptime Certificate for its Tier III facility in Brampton, which is adjacent to a Loblaw office building.

At the time of development, Canadian REIT Choice Properties, established by Loblaw to hold its real estate assets, owned the property. Loblaw is a Google Cloud customer. It is unknown whether Choice acquired the property or Loblaw wholly vacated the facility. According to Grain and StratCap, the site has "considerable lease-up prospects" because of the existing mechanical and electrical infrastructure, as well as the additional land to accommodate expansion.