The first phase of Tsukuba Tech Central is scheduled to enter service in 2028 (Image: Goodman Group)
Goodman Group has signed a global hyperscale customer to a 20-year lease for the 50-megawatt first phase of its 1-gigawatt data centre campus in Greater Tokyo, anchoring one of Japan’s largest digital infrastructure developments.
The ASX-listed industrial builder will develop, own, fit out and operate the facility at Tsukuba Tech Central, with the building under construction and scheduled to enter service in early 2028, Goodman said in a release.
Goodman did not identify the customer or disclose the rent, investment cost or other financial terms of the deal. The group said it had secured power from Tokyo Electric Power Company and multiple dark-fibre routes connecting the campus with Greater Tokyo’s main interconnection points.
“Securing this global hyperscale customer unlocks Tsukuba Tech Central as a premier data centre hub in Tokyo,” said Paul McGarry, Goodman’s head of Asia. “We are already in advanced discussions with customers over the next phases at the campus.”
AI-Ready Build
The binding lease advances a heads of agreement announced in January 2024, when Goodman first unveiled plans for the 1GW Tsukuba campus. The earlier announcement had targeted completion of the initial 50MW facility in 2026, putting the current service date roughly two years behind the original timetable.
Goodman Group Asia head Paul McGarry (Image: Goodman Group)
The Sydney-based group acquired the 45 hectare (111 acre) site, roughly 50 kilometres (31 miles) northeast of central Tokyo, in 2022. Goodman paid the Tsukuba City Land Development Corporation JPY 11 billion (then $85 million) for the plot, according to municipal records.
Site-wide civil works have been completed, while TEPCO is supplying power to the project through new grid infrastructure that Goodman said would not reduce capacity available to other users. The group has also secured diverse dark-fibre routes for its exclusive use.
Each facility is designed for cloud and artificial intelligence workloads, including liquid-cooled deployments. Goodman said demand was shifting towards metropolitan locations as AI workloads move from training to inference, while the group continues to discuss renewable power supplies with customers and utilities.
On the southern side of the site, Goodman is building a 45,000 square metre (484,376 square foot) public amenity and disaster-prevention hub designed by Tezuka Architects, including a plaza, cafes, shops, an emergency warehouse and a dedicated water source.
“The campus is a long-term investment in Tsukuba City,” McGarry said, adding that phased construction would support local contractors and create permanent skilled jobs.
Digital Buildout
The lease provides validation for a development programme increasingly dominated by server infrastructure. Data centres accounted for 73 percent of Goodman’s A$14.5 billion in work in progress at the end of March, with the group forecasting data centre WIP of more than A$14 billion ($10 billion) by June.
Goodman’s global power bank reached 6.4GW as of May. In Japan, the group has developed more than 300MW of data centre projects at Goodman Business Park in Inzai and was appointed that month to lead planning for a proposed campus in Sagamihara, 15 kilometres from Tokyo’s central business district.
In Hong Kong, Goodman last month began construction of HKG09, a 50MW conversion of an ageing Kwai Chung industrial property pre-leased to an unnamed Singapore-based data centre operator. The group’s ninth Hong Kong data centre is due for completion in 2029 and will help lift its capacity under management in the city to 392MW.
The digital push is accompanied by capital recycling elsewhere in the portfolio. A Barings-led consortium agreed in June to buy Melbourne’s Moorabbin Airport from Goodman for A$1.5 billion, with the developer set to retain a minority stake alongside Aware Super and Rest Super.
Goodman and its flagship Australia Industrial Partnership also agreed to pay a combined A$2.65 billion to buy out industrial holdings from Soul Patts, consolidating control of 1.3 million square metres of logistics assets in Sydney and Brisbane as the group scales both its warehouse and data centre platforms.