Stack Infrastructure taps real estate firm Hickory for Australian expansion

US colocation provider Stack Infrastructure has partnered with Melbourne real estate developer Hickory to expand into Australia.

The company revealed plans to construct data centres in Melbourne, Canberra and Perth by 2023, including two 36MW data centres in West Melbourne’s Truganina, a 28MW data centre in Hume, Canberra and a 24MW data centre in Wangara, Perth.

The Melbourne facilities are currently under construction, while the Canberra and Perth facilities have received development approval. All four are expected to be delivered in 2023.

Stack said the developments were strategically located with robust access to power and network scalability and reliability for higher rack densities and floor loading specifications.

Hickory chief executive officer Michael Argyrou said Hickory’s data centre management team led by Joel O’Halloran, Michael Gunton, and James Veness would join the Stack global platform as part of the partnership.

“Hickory is well-positioned to help concurrently develop efficient facilities across three key locations,” Argyrou said.  

“Partnering with STACK enables us to leverage an outstanding global operating platform and innovative capital solutions to target hyperscale customer growth in key markets.”

The Australian property development company’s entry into the data centre market began in June last year when it launched its new business unit: Hickory Data Centres and began constructing the Truganina data centre in December. 

Stack chief executive officer of APAC Pithambar ‘Preet’ Gona said the new data centres would enable hyperscalers and enterprise clients to address the evolving requirements in Australia and the APAC region more broadly.

“Stack’s expansion into Australia, building on our recent Japan development, exemplifies our focus on establishing a scalable presence in core regional markets that are strategically important to our clients,” 

Stack’s entrance to the APAC market last year began with the opening of its Singapore regional headquarters followed by the announcement of a 36MW data centre in Inzai, Japan.

“The partnership with Hickory demonstrates our ability to leverage our partnership model and expertise to the benefit of our customers while attracting leading data centre talent regionally to the Stack platform”

Stack said the transaction was still subject to review by the Foreign Investment Review Board and approval by the Australian Commonwealth Treasurer under Australian foreign investment rules.