Digital Realty to Leave San Francisco for Austin

Encino Trace – Building 1. Image via Google Street View

Digital Realty has joined the ranks of tech companies that have chosen to move their global headquarters from California to Texas, a phenomenon which has been named “Texit.” Examples include Hewlett-Packard’s move to Houston and Oracle’s move to Austin. The data center company, which has called San Francisco its home for the past 17 years, is also moving its corporate offices to the increasingly popular Austin office space market.

The company currently leases space at Four Embarcadero Center, a 938,749-square-foot office property in San Francisco’s financial district. Boston Properties owns the LEED Gold-certified property, CommercialEdge data shows. Other tenants include Sheppard Mullin, Greenberg Traurig and Stockbridge Capital Partners.

Looking ahead

Digital Realty has leased space at 5707 Southwest Parkway in Austin, according to Austin Business Journal, which cited statements from company officials. Named Encino Trace – Building 1, the property spans 161,600 square feet and was completed in 2015. Starwood Capital Group owns the asset. The tenant roster also includes Swinerton and Arm Ltd.

Additionally, Digital Realty owns an 86,000-square-foot data center at 7500 Metro Center Drive in Austin. Completed in 2001, the facility provides 16 MW of critical power. The company owns and operates 30 data centers in Texas. The facilities encompass more than 4 million square feet and have a combined capacity of 100 MW. Moreover, approximately 20 percent of the firm’s North American employees are situated in the state.

Earlier this week, Madison Capital and PGIM Real Estate sold a former Digital Realty data center in San Francisco for $165.5 million. Harvest Properties purchased the 173,900-square-foot building and financed the acquisition with a loan from Deutsche Bank.