TAMPA, FL—Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT Inc., which specializes in purpose-built properties in the healthcare and data center sectors, said Tuesday it had struck two purchase and sale agreements with a combined value of more than $1 billion. The non-traded net lease REIT has agreed to sell a Chicago-area facility to Digital Realty for $315 million, and separately it has signed a deal to sell a 14-property portfolio to a joint venture of Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd. (MIPL) and Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT) for about $750 million.

For Singapore-based MIT, the JV deal represents its entry into the US commercial property market. CEO Tham Kuo Wei notes that it's in keeping with his company's mission to expand its data center holdings beyond Singapore, and that it will also more than double data centers' share of its total global portfolio from 6.7% to 16%. MIT holds 40% of the JV while MIPL, its sponsor, controls the remaining 60%.

“The growth in data creation and cloud computing will continue to drive the demand for data center space, especially in the United States, leveraging on the highly developed infrastructure and favorable business environment,” saw Hiew Yoon Khong, group CEO at MIPL. He calls the proposed acquisition “another milestone in our strategy to broaden our investments into sustainable growth sectors in developed economies.” Currently, the US represents 28% of the global data center market, and it's expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 3.1% between 2015 and 2020.