Cologix to Build 250 KSF Data Center in Columbus

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Cologix Inc. is planning to extend its cloud-first strategy in Columbus, Ohio, by expanding its local campus with a new addition. The company just acquired a parcel of land adjacent to its existing Columbus site where it will erect COL4, a new 250,000-square-foot data center that will increase capacity by 40 megawatts.

COL4 will sprout up on the newly acquired land at the intersection of Alta View Boulevard and Worthington Wood Boulevard, practically abutting the complex containing COL1, COL2 and COL3. The carrier-neutral data center will feature a Tier III design and will include roughly 117,000 square feet of raised floor space across six data center halls. Cologix has not disclosed specifics about development costs, however, the project’s realization will come at a premium. “Our investment in the new facility will run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The final costs will reflect our client’s needs,” Bill Fathers, CEO, Cologix told Commercial Property Executive.

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Cologix felt compelled to secure land for COL4 as a result of a surge in demand at its Columbus campus, which consists of a 32 mw hyperscale edge facility that the company completed only two years ago. According to a press statement, the cry for more accommodations can be traced to the fact that Google Cloud, AWS and Facebook have established a major presence in the Columbus area. The COVID-19 health crisis also played a role in the surging demand for additional data center accommodations.

“The pandemic accelerated a number of the trends that were already driving explosive growth in the data center market in Columbus,” Fathers said. “Cologix has operated the main network traffic hub in the market for several years and we have seen a considerable increase in traffic volumes driven by an increase in uptake of public cloud type services as well as bandwidth-intensive applications like telehealth, remote workers and Artificial Intelligence.”

Moving up on the Radar

Columbus is a rising star in the data center world for a bevy of reasons. As noted in a 2021 report by Cushman & Wakefield, the Columbus market offers a few advantages, including affordable land, which eases the cost of entry for developers; an ecosystem providing access to local, long-haul and international networks; incentives; and comparatively lower taxes.

Cologix is not finished growing in Columbus just yet. “This is our fourth facility, and we would expect to continue to the rate of expansion by adding a new similar-sized facility every few years,” Fathers added.