SEATTLE — Amazon Web Services (AWS), a division of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) that offers on-demand cloud computing platforms to individuals, companies and governments, plans to make a big investment in Central Ohio. The company, along with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, announced the firm will invest approximately $7.8 billion to expand its data center operations in the region by the end of 2029. AWS is currently undertaking a site selection process across numerous localities in Central Ohio for the new data center campuses, the total number of facilities of which was not disclosed. Final site selections will be decided and announced at a later date. The move is expected to create 230 new jobs and an estimated 1,000 support jobs, according to J.P. Nauseef, president and CEO of JobsOhio, an economic development corporation based in Columbus. The AWS data center project represents the second-largest single private sector company investment in Ohio’s history, according to the governor’s office. The new data centers will contain computer servers, data storage drives, networking equipment and other forms of technology infrastructure used to power cloud computing. “Amazon is already one of the largest private-sector employers in Ohio, and the company’s continued growth …
Data Centers
AVONDALE, ARIZ. — Prime, a global developer and operator of data centers, has announced plans for a $2 billion data center campus in Avondale, roughly 20 miles outside Phoenix. The development will include five data center buildings spanning 1.3 million square feet, generating a total of 210 megawatts of critical power upon completion. The speculative project will target occupancy by hyperscale service providers, large internet brands and global technology companies. The data centers will span 260,400 square feet across three stories, and have access to a wholesale dark fiber connectivity network. Each building will include 12 data halls and 120,000 square feet of white space — which is the space where IT equipment is placed within a data center — alongside separate infrastructure galleries. The campus will offer access to 100 percent renewable energy and a closed-loop cooling system, which is expected to save millions of gallons of water across the facilities. The first data center building is expected for completion in the third quarter of 2025. “Phoenix presents an incredible growth opportunity for Prime as a top-five, North American data center market with increasing demand from cloud and enterprise data center buyers,” says Chris Sumter, executive vice president of …
ASHBURN, VA. — GI Partners Real Estate has purchased a data center located at 43915 Devin Shafron Drive in Ashburn, a city in North Virginia known as “Data Center Alley.” According to LoopNet Inc., the facility spans 138,600 square feet. Starwood Capital Group and minority owner and property manager Digital Realty sold the facility to GI Partners for an undisclosed price. CBRE’s Data Center Capital Markets team represented the sellers in the transaction. Built in 2010, the property was fully leased at the time of sale to two undisclosed “creditworthy tenants.” The 98-acre property offers 9 megawatts (MW) of critical power and can be expanded in the future.
ASHBURN, VA. — H5 Data Centers has broken ground on a three-story, 255,000-square-foot data center in Ashburn, a city in Northern Virginia. The Denver-based developer has begun preleasing the property, which is set for delivery in the third quarter of 2024. The data center located on Beaumeade Circle will qualify for Virginia data center sales and use tax exemption, according to H5. Ashburn is known as the data center capital of the world and houses facilities leased to Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta, among others.
BRYAN, TEXAS — Aphorio Carter, a division of Tampa-based investment firm Carter Funds, has acquired a data center and office complex located in the Central Texas city of Bryan for $55 million. The complex consists of two data center buildings and one office building totaling 69,788 square feet. At the time of sale, the facility was fully leased to colocation services provider Fibertown, which recently entered into a 20-year net lease at the property. The seller was not disclosed.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Locally based firm Nauset Construction is underway on the renovation of a 90,000-square-foot data center that is located across the Charles River from Boston in Cambridge. The project represents the third phase of capital improvements at the property at 300 Bent St. Upgrades will include the demolition and excavation of the existing lobby, the revamping of mechanical and utility systems and the addition of another 8,000 square feet of tenant space. Khalsa Design is the project architect. Construction is anticipated to be complete this fall. CEM Realty Trust owns the property.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Hilco Real Estate has brokered the bankruptcy sale of a 48,980-square-foot data center located along U.S. Highway 287 in Fort Worth. Built in 2018 as an industrial flex property and recently repositioned to support data center usage, the facility features 18- to 26-foot clear heights, 22 drive-in doors and office space. The site includes 6.5 acres for future expansion. The facility was leased to an undisclosed trucking company at the time of sale. The buyer and seller were not disclosed.
Data Center Developers Consider Unconventional Sites, Streamlining Strategies to Meet Immense Demand
Data center development is simultaneously growing by leaps and bounds as well as suffering from its own success. The easy-to-develop sites have been snapped up and demand for additional data and cloud services continues to grow, forcing developers to look beyond the obvious locations for sites. This can entail running into less-than-obvious delays in the development process. Data centers reliably store and transmit the deluge of information that makes modern life possible. The factors driving the need for data centers — enterprise demand for cloud services, dependence on 5G cell networks, artificial intelligence technology, edge computing capabilities, social media use and streaming needs — will continue to grow exponentially in the coming years. According to a September 2022 report by advisory company Arizton, approximately 2,825 megawatts of power capacity will be added to the data center market in the next five years. The same report forecasts the U.S. data center construction market will reach $25 billion by 2027, up from $20 billion in 2021. Data centers are utility-intensive property types, and the sites that can support their formidable power, communication and water needs often require high-level considerations right from the start. How can the development process for such projects be streamlined …
Crane, Principal Asset Management to Develop Data Center Campus Near Portland, Oregon
by John Nelson
FOREST GROVE, ORE. — Crane Data Centers Inc. and Principal Asset Management plan to develop a data center campus in Forest Grove, a suburb of Portland. The campus will be situated near the Hillsboro data center ecosystem, which houses data centers for users including Meta, Twitter and Microsoft, among others. The estimated development cost for the project was not disclosed. “We’re honored to partner with Principal Real Estate Investors to develop a new data center campus in the Portland market,” says Matt Pfile, CEO of Crane. “This strategic partnership with Crane and data center investment in the Portland area is an exciting project for all parties involved and makes for an excellent addition to our current portfolio of data centers,” says Ben Wobschall, managing director of real estate at Principal Asset Management. The first phase of the project includes a data center spanning approximately 300,000 square feet on a 35-acre site. The facility will have an initial capacity of 50 megawatts (MW) with plans to expand to over 100 MW, according to the developers. The two-story property will have 30-foot clear heights with flooring that can support 400 pounds per square foot, according to Crane. The construction timeline for Phase …
CHICAGO — Metro Edge Development Partners has unveiled plans to build a $257 million data center within the Illinois Medical District (IMD) in Chicago. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2023 and be completed in 2024. Metro Edge secured a 75-year ground lease on a nearly two-acre parcel owned by IMD. The data center will rise five stories and span 184,720 square feet. The facility is 50 percent preleased. Corgan is the project architect. Clune Construction is overseeing all construction in partnership with Power Construction and Ujamaa Construction. T5 Data Centers is the project manager.
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