National data center company to build new facility in Allen, TX

Dive Brief:

National data center firm CyrusOne plans to begin construction this week on a new facility on a 66-acre site in Allen, TX, according to The Dallas Morning News. When complete, the data center will be one of the biggest in North Texas.
The 1-million-square foot, 100-megawatt project will be spread over three buildings, but the first segment will see the construction of approximately 340,000 square feet. CyrusOne will use waterless cooling technology, according to Allen officials, which will minimize the new center's environmental impact. The new center will also add to the tax base without requiring many city services.
The new CyrusOne center will join other data center operators like Cisco Systems in building new facilities in North Texas. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area is one of the busiest areas in the country for data center construction, second only to Northern Virginia.

Dive Insight:

Vantage Data Centers is adding to Northern Virginia's data center volume with a $1 billion, 42-acre complex in Ashburn, VA. The company announced earlier this month it would break ground on the project next year and that it would include 1 million square feet spread over five buildings, all with a 108-megawatt capacity. Ashburn has been dubbed "data center alley" with good reason; it hosts 4.6 million square feet of those facilities already.

According to an analysis of the H1 2017 U.S. Data Center Trends Report from CBRE, The Morning News reported the data center market in North Texas increased by 22 megawatts in the first six months of 2017, in comparison to Silicon Valley's 12 megawatts and Northern Virginia's 41.5 megawatts.

Facebook, however, is defying the Northern Virginia trend by planning a $1 billion data center near Richmond, VA, which is about 130 miles south of Ashburn. Likely swaying the social media giant was a $19 million tax state incentive package. The company will reportedly invest $750 million in the construction of the data center and $250 million into solar power infrastructure, which will power the complex.

As for the U.S. in general, total investment in data centers hit a record $18.2 billion in the same time period, which is twice the amount of full year 2016's level of activity. In addition, more than half of the $45 billion of investment that the industry has seen in the last five years has happened since the beginning of 2016.