Digital Realty has topped out ICN11, a 64MW data center in northwest Seoul that will not open until the second half of 2027. The company announced the milestone this week. That schedule puts the facility roughly four years behind the original plan, which called for service in the first half of 2023.

The topping out marks the point where a building reaches its final height. Construction continues after it. ICN11, also known as Digital Seoul 2, spans almost 1 million sq ft (92,903 sqm) on a land parcel in Gurae-dong, Gimpo City, which Digital Realty bought in 2021.

The company framed the milestone in terms of its workforce rather than its schedule. "The topping out isn't just a construction milestone; it's a powerful symbol of what happens when incredible teams come together to build something bigger than any one of us could achieve alone," Digital Realty said.

How does ICN11 compare with Digital Seoul 1?

The new facility is more than five times larger than the company's existing Seoul site. Digital Realty currently operates ICN10, also called Digital Seoul 1. That facility was announced in 2019 and went live in 2022. It is a ten-story building offering up to 12MW of IT capacity across 132,000 sq ft (12,265 sqm) of floorspace.

The comparison matters for capacity planning. Seoul customers drawing on Digital Realty today work within a 12MW envelope. ICN11 adds 64MW to the same market in a single build.

Who is building it?

Four firms are executing the project alongside Digital Realty:

• DPR Construction
• DL E&C Co.
• Turner & Townsend
• Heerim Architects & Planners

What does this change for the Seoul market?

Not immediately. A topping out signals structural completion, not readiness. Operators and enterprises seeking capacity in Seoul must wait until the second half of 2027 for ICN11 to come online, and the four-year delay from the original 2023 target shows how far schedules can slip on large builds in this market.

For Digital Realty, the project more than quintuples its footprint in South Korea and establishes Gimpo City, rather than the existing ICN10 site, as the center of gravity for its Seoul capacity.