Principal Real Estate completes second close for European data center fund

Principal Real Estate has completed the second capital raise for its Principal European Data Centre Fund I, bringing total equity investments to €205 million ($204.6 million).

The second capital raise funneled an additional €50 million ($49.9 million) of equity to the fund. The investor base consisted of asset managers, pension funds and insurance companies.

With a fundraising target of €450 million ($449 million), Principal European Data Centre Fund will focus on manage-to-core data center assets. At least 60 percent of the fund will be allocated to the core European markets of Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and Ireland, with as much as 40 percent in secondary markets such as Spain, Italy and Switzerland.

Earlier this week, the firm acquired its first asset for the fund, a 10,502-square-meter (113,042-square-foot) data center