Commercial real estate investment firm Legacy Investing has entered into a joint venture with real estate investment management business Invesco Real Estate closing their second sale-leaseback transaction with data centre operator Flexential Corp.

The deal includes the North Carolina-headquartered provider’s 18MW facility in Plano, Texas.

The transaction follows the recent sale-leaseback for the construction of Flexential’s Hillsboro 3 data centre outside Portland, which Legacy and Invesco completed in April.

The Plano data centre is a Tier III certified facility being expanded by 130,000 square feet to over 260,000 square feet with up to 18MW of capacity.

Legacy Investing CEO and co-founder Jay Rappaport, said: “These acquisitions are part of Legacy’s broader focus on partnering with data centre operating companies, enabling them to monetise their real estate-related assets, including funding construction, so they can concentrate their capital on operations and thereby maximise their returns.”

Also commenting, Joshua Siegel, Managing Director, Transactions, Invesco Real Estate, said: “We are pleased to continue expanding our data centre footprint into a new market for Invesco Real Estate.

“Our continued collaboration with Legacy and Flexential is representative of our growing commitment to the data centre sector. We look forward to significantly growing these important relationships in the future.”

The prior Flexential Hillsboro 3 transaction has enabled Flexential to expand its Hillsboro campus by an additional 358,000 square feet and 36 MW with direct connection to multiple transpacific subsea cables’

Chris Downie, CEO, Flexential, added: “These transactions allow Flexential to continue to invest in the 38 highly connected data centres included in our platform of hybrid IT infrastructure solutions.

“Most notably, this partnership enables our ability to expand at an even faster rate to satisfy accelerated customer demand in the hypergrowth markets included in our 19-market portfolio.”

The acquisitions are consistent with Legacy’s broader strategy as a capital partner on mission critical assets across industrial and life sciences, the firm said in a statement.

Legacy has also recently closed transactions on facilities for tenants including Baxter International, Sanofi, Select Comfort, Cogent, IQVIA, PNC Bank, and others.

Elsewhere, Flexential has recently selected Garth Williams to serve as its new Chief Financial Officer.

Located in New York, Williams is a tenured CFO in the technology infrastructure industry with deep capital markets experience. He has been tasked with driving Flexential toward its next stages of growth.

Williams said: “The company is uniquely positioned for significant growth in the coming years with its leading hybrid IT portfolio and compelling vision and market strategy. I am looking forward to joining this seasoned leadership team to help Flexential reach its massive potential for continued success.”