Lasercharm data campus signs £9.25m funding deal with Topland Group

Topland Group has agreed to contribute £9.25m to refinance the Camro Data Park, located in Sutton, Cambridgeshire.

The new campus is comprised of 43 acres and will developed into a 700,000 sq ft data centre facility, one of the largest in the UK.

Lasercharm, the owner of the data park, has planning permission from local authorities and plans to seek detailed consent prior to submitting the site to a data centre developer. Topland Group noted that it is interested in additional data centre land and development projects in the UK, and is willing to deploy more capital to these investments.

In particular, the Camro Data Park project was attractive for its location in the ‘Golden Triangle’ between Oxford, Cambridge, and London. This makes it a viable alternative to the crowded London data centre market, while the facility’s large-scale capacity will make it interesting to businesses running data-intensive processes.

Anish Vora, Structured Finance Manager for Topland Group said, “Camro Data Park has the potential to become one of the largest data centre sites in the UK. It’s got an exciting future, and with an ever-growing demand for data storage, we are pleased to have helped bring it one step closer through our senior facility.”

He added, “This is another example of our ability to provide funding across all real estate asset classes.!

The original planning application for the campus was filed in 2007, and most recently updated in 2017. The new refinancing deal through the Topland Group should help to reinvigorate the stalled project and bring the data centre plans to life. At this time, the plans include four data centre buildings of one and two stories, although previous iterations submitted to the local planning commission proposed up to six two-storey buildings.

The website for the Camro Data Park notes that while 40 acres have been approved to date, there is a potential to expand an additional 50 acres in the future. The facility, once operational, will offer cloud and colocation services, ‘best-in-class’ facilities management, and a large and diverse pool of technical talent from nearby universities and corporations.