Teraco has acquired the iconic Great Westerford building in Rondebosch, Cape Town from Ingenuity Property Investments, which boasts over 30 000m2 of premium grade office space.
The conclusion of the acquisition means that Teraco has ownership of the building that houses its CT1 data centre investment and the full ownership of all facilities and the underlying land that supports its carrier neutral colocation portfolio. CT1 is the second largest interconnect hub in Africa with over 6 300 interconnects and more than 1 000 deployable cabinets supported by 5 megawatts (MW) of utility power.
Cape Town is a preferred destination for Teraco’s continued investment into data centre infrastructure in SA as it is home to thriving digitally connected enterprises that include telecommunications, financial services, e-commerce, logistics, and retail. The city also benefits from being the landing of multiple major subsea cable systems.
“We’re extremely honoured to be the next custodian of this iconic building,” says Jan Hnizdo, CEO at Teraco. “We see Great Westerford as the home for technology, professional services, telecommunications, and financial services firms looking for the convenience of being located in the heart of Cape Town’s southern suburbs, close to transport nodes, shopping centres, and excellent schools while enjoying access to Teraco’s global digital reach.”
As part of Teraco’s broader Cape Town campus, the CT1 data centre provides enterprises with direct access to Platform Teraco comprising an ecosystem of over 250 network providers, global cloud on-ramps, subsea cable systems, access to over 50 managed service providers, and direct peering at NAPAfrica, Africa’s largest internet exchange point.
Clients deployed in either of these facilities can connect to AWS Direct Connect and Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute directly or via Teraco’s Africa Cloud Exchange (ACX). The Great Westerford acquisition brings an historic South African building into the digital age, which is now capable of supporting its tenants’ physical and digital business requirements.
They also benefit from having their digital operations and data close to the edge of their networks, increasing performance, reducing connectivity costs, and scaling their digital business operations globally, while reaching their entire connected data communities through a single private and secure connection.
“The sale of this prime property was done to provide capital for our large development pipeline. Our close relationship with Teraco, one of many good years standing, afforded us the opportunity to identify the appropriate buyer of this unique asset. We are confident Teraco will take this building into the digital future, providing a home for the many fine tenants it already has,” says Arnold Maresky, CEO at Ingenuity.
