2 Huge New Data Center Campuses Planned In Metro Atlanta
Two major data center players are preparing to develop massive new projects in Metro Atlanta as demand for computing power among large technology companies accelerates.
DataBank has acquired 95 acres in Lithia Springs, some 18 miles west of Downtown Atlanta, and plans to develop 1M SF across two multistory data centers, adding to the 200K SF ATL4 data center facility already under construction nearby, according to a press release.
DataBank plans to include a Georgia Power-operated, 180-megawatt substation on the property as well.
"Atlanta is one of the most sought-after markets for data center capacity across all segments of our customer base — enterprises, technology, and hyperscale public cloud providers," DataBank CEO Raul Martynek said in a statement. "And now with new AI applications coming online, we're seeing an entirely new driver of demand that promises to make this an even more attractive market in the years ahead."
DC Blox also announced an acquisition this week, purchasing 55 acres in Douglasville where it will build a $1.2B, 750K SF, two-story data center with 180 MW of capacity to support an unnamed customer.
These are the latest data center operators to expand in the Metro Atlanta area, which is experiencing a renaissance in the growth of the industry and is pushing to become a Tier 1 market for data center providers, Data Center Frontier reported. Growth in Atlanta has been aided by a slowdown in Northern Virginia, the preeminent data center hub in North America, which is experiencing power constraints and a restriction in new data centers. Atlanta is also benefiting from cheaper power and an abundance of undeveloped land, attractive especially to hyperscale operators, according to Data Center Frontier.
The metro is already home to 2.8M SF of data center space providing 390 MW. Operators were underway on 1M SF and 152 MW as of the third quarter and had a pipeline of an additional 2.6M SF and 571 MW planned for the region, according to a JLL data center report.
T5 Data Centers in September filed plans for a 3M SF, seven-building campus in Coweta County, while Vantage Data Centers in August submitted plans for a three-building campus in Douglas County. EdgeConneX is also looking into building in Douglas County, while Edged Energy has started work on a data center in Atlanta. Major data center firms and cloud providers like Digital Realty, Google, Microsoft, CoreSite, Flexential and QTS already have a major presence in Georgia.
DC Blox’s Douglasville project is part of the firm’s 500-mile, east-to-west dark fiber route that will connect communication hubs in Atlanta, Augusta and the cable landing station in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a path that is expected to finish later this year, according to a release.
