Telecom puts $60M price tag on new Auckland data centre, Hawkins, AECOM win build

Monday 2nd September 2013

Telecom Corp, the country's biggest telecommunications company, said its new Takanini Data Centre will cost about $60 million to build and will be shared by its Gen-i and recently acquired Revera unit.

Telecom signed a development agreement with Retail Holdings Ltd, a privately owned group that specialises in property development, investments and financing, according to a statement. Retail Holdings engaged Hawkins Construction and AECOM Technology to design and build the new facility, which is slated for completion in the second half of 2014.

Revera will use the site to host its 'all of government' operations and Gen-I will use it for its enterprise data centre clients. Telecom acquired Revera this year for $96.5 million, gaining access to a contract to provide information technology infrastructure for the government that Gen-i missed out on in 2011.

Revera and Datacom originally won the contract and IBM New Zealand was added last year.

The facility will be of modular POD construction with 4 x 100 rack data halls in each POD, Telecom said. The site has room for three PODs, giving it capacity for up to 1,200 racks. The racks are a shelving system that servers get stacked into.

"The new Auckland facility will further increase our capability to deliver the data centre and cloud services our clients increasingly need and want," said Gen-i chief executive Tim Miles. The investment will be funded out of Telecom's capital spending budget for 2015.

Telecom's shares fell 1.1 percent to $2.25 today rose 0.6 percent to $2.58 today, and have fallen about 7 percent in the past year.

Revera was set up in 2002 when Hitachi Data Systems local managers, Roger Cockayne and Wayne Norrie, bought a controlling stake in the New Zealand operation and refocused it on ICT infrastructure services.

Retail Holdings' previous projects include the Queensgate Shopping Centre in Lower Hutt, significant ownership of the Mission Bay hospitality precinct and development and ownership of the Southgate Shopping Centre in Takanini.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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