Digital Realty Buys Out Blackstone’s Stake in Three NoVa Data Centers for $3.5B

Digital Realty has agreed to acquire Blackstone’s blended 64% equity interest in three fully leased data centers in Northern Virginia, paying $3.5 billion — split between $1.2 billion in cash and $2.3 billion in Digital Realty stock — for assets valued at $7.8 billion on a full portfolio basis. The transaction reflects an expected initial stabilized capitalization rate above 6.5%.

The portfolio includes two 96-megawatt data centers in Manassas, where Digital Realty is acquiring Blackstone’s 80% interest, and one 96-megawatt facility on the Digital Dulles campus in Sterling, where it is buying a 50% interest. All three are fully leased to three distinct investment-grade hyperscale customers under 15-year agreements carrying a blended average AA- credit rating and 3.6% annual rent escalators. Two of the facilities are expected to stabilize in the first half of 2027, with the third following in early 2028.

“We have developed a strong partnership with Blackstone through the successful ongoing development of these assets, and we continue to work together across the remaining data center investments in our joint ventures in Northern Virginia, Paris and Frankfurt,” said Greg Wright, chief investment officer of Digital Realty.

Blackstone’s Mike Forman and Greg Blank, global heads of digital infrastructure for the firm’s real estate and infrastructure arms, said demand for digital infrastructure has only strengthened since the joint venture was established in 2023.

In April, Related Digital and Blackstone secured financing for a $16 billion data center campus in Saline Township, Michigan, that Related Digital is developing for Oracle. Last month, Blackstone’s Credit and Insurance platform partnered with Apollo to provide an initial $35 billion in financing for Broadcom’s custom AI chips.