(Featuring Ben Wobschall, Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, Principal Real Estate Investors)

Data center investments have proven resilient in periods of economic volatility—and they’re only going to become more essential and important into the future.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/data-centers/

Once viewed as a niche real estate investment, data centers have risen in popularity as the need for data storage and processing has rocketed in parallel with the amount of data consumed by individuals, businesses, and new technologies.

While pandemic-related social restrictions have accelerated data usage trends, data centers have long been vital to the global economy’s reliance on connectivity. With an attractive risk/return profile and significant barriers to entry, the industry has proven itself resilient in both good and bad economies, making high-quality data centers an increasingly attractive opportunity for real estate investors.

As the world grows increasingly interconnected, the demand for data requires more storage solutions and robust processing power. While in the past the primary purpose of data centers was to simply store data, today computing power and network connectivity have become the most important purpose for these facilities.

Ben Wobschall, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for Principal Real Estate Investors talks about the investment opportunities in this specialized but increasingly critical sector.