Digital Realty Announces Record Setting Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2011 Leasing Results

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR, news, filings), a leading global provider of data center solutions, today announced leasing results for the fourth quarter and year-end 2011.

The Company signed leases during the quarter ended December 31, 2011 for approximately 446,000 square feet of space, totaling $50.9 million in annualized GAAP rental revenue. This includes approximately 165,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter® space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $178.00 per square foot, approximately 87,000 square feet of Powered Base Building® space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $73.00 per square foot, over 177,000 square feet of Built-to-Suit space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $84.00 per square foot, and approximately 17,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $18.00 per square foot.  In addition, leases signed for colocation space totaled approximately $2.1 million of annualized GAAP rental revenue, bringing total annualized GAAP rental revenue to approximately $53.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

“Lease signings in both the fourth quarter and full year 2011 represented our strongest performances to date,” said Michael F. Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty.  “Markets that experienced the highest level of activity during the year included Dallas, Northern Virginia, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Singapore and Melbourne.  In addition to the quality of our global sales and portfolio management teams, we believe that the strength of our leasing program is the result of our geographically diverse portfolio.  This enables us to deploy growth capital to meet our customers’ data center requirements across multiple markets, while mitigating exposure to any one market.”

Of the total leases signed during the fourth quarter of 2011, approximately 325,000 square feet was for space located in the Company’s U.S. portfolio.  This includes approximately 104,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $151.00 per square foot, approximately 28,000 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $30.00 per square foot, over 177,000 square feet of Build-to-Suit space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $84.00 per square foot, and over 16,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $17.00 per square foot.

Leases signed during the fourth quarter of 2011 for space in the Company’s European portfolio totaled approximately 6,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $159.00 per square foot and nearly 500 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $39.00 per square foot.

Leases signed during the fourth quarter of 2011 for space in the Company’s Asia Pacific portfolio totaled over 114,000 square feet.  This includes nearly 56,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $232.00 per square foot and approximately 59,000 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $94.00 per square foot.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2011, the Company signed leases for approximately 1.2 million square feet of space, totaling approximately $131.3 million in annualized GAAP rental revenue.  This includes approximately 481,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $183.00 per square foot,  over 272,000 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $39.00 per square foot, over 273,000 square feet of Build-to-Suit space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $94.00 per square foot, approximately 34,000 square feet of datacenter master lease space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $84.00 per square foot, and over 179,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $23.00 per square foot. In addition, leases signed for colocation space totaled over $5.3 million of annualized GAAP rental revenue, bringing total annualized GAAP rental revenue to approximately $136.6 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2011.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2011, the Company commenced leases totaling approximately $22.1 million of annualized GAAP rental revenue, including approximately $1.1 million of colocation revenue. Commenced leases totaled over 304,000 square feet, consisting of over 56,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of approximately $218.00 per square foot, over 183,000 square feet of Build-to-Suit space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of approximately $39.00 per square foot, over 24,000 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of approximately $28.00 per square foot, and over 40,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of approximately $23.00 per square foot.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2011, the Company commenced leases totaling over 1.2 million square feet of space, totaling approximately $95.8 million in annualized GAAP rental revenue.  This includes over 378,000 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $174.00 per square foot, approximately 297,000 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $25.00 per square foot, over 239,000 square feet of Build-to-Suit space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $53.00 per square foot, approximately 34,000 square feet of datacenter master lease space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $84.00 per square foot, and over 301,000 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $23.00 per square foot. In addition, commenced leases for colocation space totaled approximately $3.5 million of annualized GAAP rental revenue, bringing total annualized GAAP rental revenue to approximately $99.3 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2011.

About Digital Realty Trust, Inc.
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. focuses on delivering customer driven data center solutions by providing secure, reliable and cost effective facilities that meet each customer’s unique data center needs. Digital Realty’s customers include domestic and international companies across multiple industry verticals ranging from information technology and Internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty’s 101 properties, excluding three properties held as investments in unconsolidated joint ventures, comprise approximately 18.3 million square feet as of January 30, 2012, including 2.4 million square feet of space held for redevelopment. Digital Realty’s portfolio is located in 31 markets throughout Europe, North America, Singapore and Australia. Additional information about Digital Realty is included in the Company Overview, which is available on the Investors page of Digital Realty’s website at http://www.digitalrealty.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to rent from leases that have been signed but have not yet commenced and other contracted rent to be received in future periods, and leasing demand across multiple geographic markets. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the following: the impact of the recent deterioration in global economic, credit and market conditions including the downgrading of the U.S. government’s credit rating; current local economic conditions in our geographic markets; decreases in information technology spending, including as a result of economic slowdowns or recession; adverse economic or real estate developments in our industry or the industry sectors that we sell to (including risks relating to decreasing real estate valuations and impairment charges); our dependence upon significant tenants; bankruptcy or insolvency of a major tenant or a significant number of smaller tenants; defaults on or non-renewal of leases by tenants; our failure to obtain necessary debt and equity financing; increased interest rates and operating costs; risks associated with using debt to fund our business activities, including re-financing and interest rate risks, our failure to repay debt when due, adverse changes in our credit ratings or our breach of covenants or other terms contained in our loan facilities and agreements; financial market fluctuations; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; our inability to manage our growth effectively; difficulty acquiring or operating properties in foreign jurisdictions; our failure to successfully integrate and operate acquired or redeveloped properties; risks related to joint venture investments, including as a result of our lack of control of such investments; delays or unexpected costs in development or redevelopment of properties; decreased rental rates or increased vacancy rates; increased competition or available supply of data center space; our inability to successfully develop and lease new properties and space held for redevelopment; difficulties in identifying properties to acquire and completing acquisitions; our inability to acquire off-market properties; our inability to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to reporting companies; our failure to maintain our status as a REIT; possible adverse changes to tax laws; restrictions on our ability to engage in certain business activities; environmental uncertainties and risks related to natural disasters; losses in excess of our insurance coverage; changes in foreign laws and regulations, including those related to taxation and real estate ownership and operation; and changes in local, state and federal regulatory requirements, including changes in real estate and zoning laws and increases in real property tax rates.  For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2011, June 30, 2011 and September 30, 2011.  The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Digital Realty Trust, Inc.