Mega $14 billion data center project proposed in metro Phoenix – Phoenix Business Journal – The Business Journals
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A Denver developer has plans to build a $14 billion master-planned data center complex across 1,000 acres in metro Phoenix.
Between two campuses, the development will span across nearly 30 buildings totaling 5.6 million square feet, one of the largest data center projects proposed in the Valley by acreage. The development is being spearheaded by Denver-based Tract, a new data center developer embarking on its first project in the Grand Canyon State.
The facility, called Project Range, will also be supported by three Arizona Public Service substations in the Buckeye planning area, according to recent project documents submitted to Maricopa County.
The buildings will range from 149,000 square feet to 260,000 square feet each, and will be located north and south of Yuma Road between Jackrabbit Trail and Perryville Road on a county island.
The Phoenix market is the second-largest data center market in the U.S. with only a 2.2% vacancy, or about 156,556 square feet of available inventory, according to JLL research for the second half of 2023. More data center developers have flocked to Phoenix to keep up with demand for emerging tech such as artificial intelligence, drawn by competitive power rates, low latency and lack of natural disasters.
Tract’s technology park is being proposed as two adjacent campuses that will require the county to rezone the property to industrial uses. Tract is in the process of working with Maricopa County’s planning department on applications for rezoning and comprehensive plan amendments for the overall site. It has yet to be scheduled for a public vote.
The master-planned complex for computer processing is expected to bring ongoing tax revenue and investment to Maricopa County through construction, operations and jobs.
Tract expects to employ up to 300 people with salaries ranging from $80,000 a year for entry level technicians to $150,000 to $250,000 a year for HVAC, electricians and engineers.
Improvements to the site are expected to start in 2025, and the buildout of the whole technology park is estimated to occur over 15 to 18 years, according to project documents.
Graham Williams, chief investment officer for Tract, said in a March 18 email that the firm envisions “a high value economic development project that will deliver significant tax revenues and high-paying jobs to the community.”
Originally, the project was going to include buildings reaching 110 feet high, which is about 10 stories. It was also set to feature setbacks, or distance from the surrounding residential communities, of about 100 feet. Since then, feedback from the cities and neighbors changed the proposed maximum height to 60 feet and setbacks to 500 feet. Tract is also proposing to designate about 100 acres for community and public uses such as parks and fields.
Williams said early community engagement on the project has led to an “improved application with significant setbacks, lower building heights and community uses for some portions of the site.”
He said data center campuses generate less traffic than housing or distribution uses while the project is expected to consume about a quarter or less of the water that’s currently consumed by the existing farming operations on site.
Tract expects to use a portion of 4,000 acre-feet of grandfathered groundwater rights to supply its project for domestic water uses and for cooling the buildings. An acre-foot is about 325,851 gallons, which is how much three Arizona households use on average per year.
At full buildout, the campus could use 6.3 million gallons per year for domestic water uses and between 570,000 to 1.2 million gallons per day for cooling, according to the company’s estimates. Project documents say Tract could use misting water tech with closed-loop water systems.
After plans for the project were first submitted last year, Tract received strong opposition letters from the city of Goodyear and Buckeye, as well as surrounding neighbors.
Chief among the city concerns were building heights, noise from the data centers, emergency resources and incompatibility with Buckeye’s designated land uses for the site, which is neighborhood and residential.
Buckeye and Goodyear already have designated industrial areas for projects like data centers, manufacturing and warehouses around major roads and airpots.
“It is the city’s strong desire to cluster those types of uses in appropriate ‘centers’ as opposed to haphazardly locating industrial uses in unrelated pockets across the entire planning area,” city of Buckeye principal planner Ken Galica said in an email to the county in November.
“I anticipate you can expect additional correspondence from Buckeye staff and/or elected officials in opposition to this request,” Galica added.
The city of Buckeye referred back to Galica’s previous statements when reached for comment.
Katie Wilken, the interim planning director for city of Goodyear, said they want the county to consider similar stipulations as Goodyear for data centers such as height limitations, noise mitigation, landscaping and setbacks.
“It can change the character of a neighborhood,” Wilken told the Business Journal. “Rather than being a residential, neighborhood area, if you have large industrial buildings it can give your neighborhood a different feel than what the general plan called for.”
Fire protection for the project is expected to be provided by the Arizona Fire & Medical Authority, while public safety will be handled by the Maricopa County Sheriff, project documents said.
Tract’s facility is the second major data center project to be proposed for the city of Buckeye. A nearly 2,000-acre master-planned data center campus called Buckeye Tech Corridor is also being planned just west of the city’s airport, a future industrial corridor for Buckeye.
“It speaks widely about the positive growth our market’s been incurring on the data center side when you see announcements such as these with this much acreage dedicated to data center,” Carl Beardsley, a managing director and data centers lead for JLL, told the Business Journal.
About 2.8 million square feet of data center space was under construction with 2.7 million more in the pipeline by the end of 2023, according to JLL, but the pace of construction could slow as it’s becoming more difficult to secure power quickly.
After Microsoft started buying land for new data centers in the West Valley, other companies followed suit including Compass Data Centers, Stream, Vantage and QTS, which acquired nearly 400 acres along the Loop 303 for a major campus. Prime Data Centers is also planning a $2 billion project in Avondale with five buildings and 210 megawatts of power, the Business Journal previously reported.
Both Buckeye projects will be large master-planned campuses, which is a shifting trend in how data center projects have been developed, according to Beardsley.
“We have a lot of data center campuses in Arizona with five to six buildings,” Beardsley said. “This is a totally different strategy, from my perspective, on how this is being approached and really looking at the long-term versus the immediate needs.”
He said many Valley cities have also been upping the requirements for data centers so they blend in better with surrounding communities and have less impact on residents.
In its proposal, Tract says its mission is to facilitate “well-designed and thought-out” master-planned technology campuses to serve data center developers while providing a central location for infrastructure and commerce.
Tract was founded by Columbia Capital and the van Rooyen Family Office, which in 2022 announced the new firm was seeking $1 billion in funding for a portfolio of land for hyperscale and wholesale data center, media reports said. The former CEO and president of Cologix, Grant van Rooyen, leads Tract.
Tract recently acquired 517 acres next to another 686 acres it owns in Storey County, Nevada at the Tahoe-Renoe Industrial Center.
© 2023 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated January 24, 2023) and Privacy Policy (updated December 19, 2023). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of American CityBusiness Journals.
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
A Denver developer has plans to build a $14 billion master-planned data center complex across 1,000 acres in metro Phoenix.
Between two campuses, the development will span across nearly 30 buildings totaling 5.6 million square feet, one of the largest data center projects proposed in the Valley by acreage. The development is being spearheaded by Denver-based Tract, a new data center developer embarking on its first project in the Grand Canyon State.
The facility, called Project Range, will also be supported by three Arizona Public Service substations in the Buckeye planning area, according to recent project documents submitted to Maricopa County.
The buildings will range from 149,000 square feet to 260,000 square feet each, and will be located north and south of Yuma Road between Jackrabbit Trail and Perryville Road on a county island.
The Phoenix market is the second-largest data center market in the U.S. with only a 2.2% vacancy, or about 156,556 square feet of available inventory, according to JLL research for the second half of 2023. More data center developers have flocked to Phoenix to keep up with demand for emerging tech such as artificial intelligence, drawn by competitive power rates, low latency and lack of natural disasters.
Tract’s technology park is being proposed as two adjacent campuses that will require the county to rezone the property to industrial uses. Tract is in the process of working with Maricopa County’s planning department on applications for rezoning and comprehensive plan amendments for the overall site. It has yet to be scheduled for a public vote.
The master-planned complex for computer processing is expected to bring ongoing tax revenue and investment to Maricopa County through construction, operations and jobs.
Tract expects to employ up to 300 people with salaries ranging from $80,000 a year for entry level technicians to $150,000 to $250,000 a year for HVAC, electricians and engineers.
Improvements to the site are expected to start in 2025, and the buildout of the whole technology park is estimated to occur over 15 to 18 years, according to project documents.
Graham Williams, chief investment officer for Tract, said in a March 18 email that the firm envisions “a high value economic development project that will deliver significant tax revenues and high-paying jobs to the community.”
Originally, the project was going to include buildings reaching 110 feet high, which is about 10 stories. It was also set to feature setbacks, or distance from the surrounding residential communities, of about 100 feet. Since then, feedback from the cities and neighbors changed the proposed maximum height to 60 feet and setbacks to 500 feet. Tract is also proposing to designate about 100 acres for community and public uses such as parks and fields.
Williams said early community engagement on the project has led to an “improved application with significant setbacks, lower building heights and community uses for some portions of the site.”
He said data center campuses generate less traffic than housing or distribution uses while the project is expected to consume about a quarter or less of the water that’s currently consumed by the existing farming operations on site.
Tract expects to use a portion of 4,000 acre-feet of grandfathered groundwater rights to supply its project for domestic water uses and for cooling the buildings. An acre-foot is about 325,851 gallons, which is how much three Arizona households use on average per year.
At full buildout, the campus could use 6.3 million gallons per year for domestic water uses and between 570,000 to 1.2 million gallons per day for cooling, according to the company’s estimates. Project documents say Tract could use misting water tech with closed-loop water systems.
After plans for the project were first submitted last year, Tract received strong opposition letters from the city of Goodyear and Buckeye, as well as surrounding neighbors.
Chief among the city concerns were building heights, noise from the data centers, emergency resources and incompatibility with Buckeye’s designated land uses for the site, which is neighborhood and residential.
Buckeye and Goodyear already have designated industrial areas for projects like data centers, manufacturing and warehouses around major roads and airpots.
“It is the city’s strong desire to cluster those types of uses in appropriate ‘centers’ as opposed to haphazardly locating industrial uses in unrelated pockets across the entire planning area,” city of Buckeye principal planner Ken Galica said in an email to the county in November.
“I anticipate you can expect additional correspondence from Buckeye staff and/or elected officials in opposition to this request,” Galica added.
The city of Buckeye referred back to Galica’s previous statements when reached for comment.
Katie Wilken, the interim planning director for city of Goodyear, said they want the county to consider similar stipulations as Goodyear for data centers such as height limitations, noise mitigation, landscaping and setbacks.
“It can change the character of a neighborhood,” Wilken told the Business Journal. “Rather than being a residential, neighborhood area, if you have large industrial buildings it can give your neighborhood a different feel than what the general plan called for.”
Fire protection for the project is expected to be provided by the Arizona Fire & Medical Authority, while public safety will be handled by the Maricopa County Sheriff, project documents said.
Tract’s facility is the second major data center project to be proposed for the city of Buckeye. A nearly 2,000-acre master-planned data center campus called Buckeye Tech Corridor is also being planned just west of the city’s airport, a future industrial corridor for Buckeye.
“It speaks widely about the positive growth our market’s been incurring on the data center side when you see announcements such as these with this much acreage dedicated to data center,” Carl Beardsley, a managing director and data centers lead for JLL, told the Business Journal.
About 2.8 million square feet of data center space was under construction with 2.7 million more in the pipeline by the end of 2023, according to JLL, but the pace of construction could slow as it’s becoming more difficult to secure power quickly.
After Microsoft started buying land for new data centers in the West Valley, other companies followed suit including Compass Data Centers, Stream, Vantage and QTS, which acquired nearly 400 acres along the Loop 303 for a major campus. Prime Data Centers is also planning a $2 billion project in Avondale with five buildings and 210 megawatts of power, the Business Journal previously reported.
Both Buckeye projects will be large master-planned campuses, which is a shifting trend in how data center projects have been developed, according to Beardsley.
“We have a lot of data center campuses in Arizona with five to six buildings,” Beardsley said. “This is a totally different strategy, from my perspective, on how this is being approached and really looking at the long-term versus the immediate needs.”
He said many Valley cities have also been upping the requirements for data centers so they blend in better with surrounding communities and have less impact on residents.
In its proposal, Tract says its mission is to facilitate “well-designed and thought-out” master-planned technology campuses to serve data center developers while providing a central location for infrastructure and commerce.
Tract was founded by Columbia Capital and the van Rooyen Family Office, which in 2022 announced the new firm was seeking $1 billion in funding for a portfolio of land for hyperscale and wholesale data center, media reports said. The former CEO and president of Cologix, Grant van Rooyen, leads Tract.
Tract recently acquired 517 acres next to another 686 acres it owns in Storey County, Nevada at the Tahoe-Renoe Industrial Center.
© 2023 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated January 24, 2023) and Privacy Policy (updated December 19, 2023). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of American CityBusiness Journals.
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
