DataBank Completes 6th SLC Data Center

SLC6 in Bluffdale, Utah. Photo courtesy of DataBank

Salt Lake City’s data center market continues to grow. DataBank has finished construction on its sixth facility in the metro, situated within its Granite Point campus in Bluffdale, Utah. On Nov.15, the developer plans to hold a grand opening event for the 171,000-square-foot data center.

SLC6 features two new data halls, comprising a total of 100,000 square feet of raised floor space. Half of this space is currently available, while the second half will be completed at a later date.

DataBank plans to bring online a total of 22 megawatts at SLC6, of which 11 megawatts will be made available on day one, while the rest will be deployed in the future. This makes the newly constructed facility the largest within the Granite Point campus.

SLC6 will become operational next month. DataBank cited the growing demand for IT infrastructure in the region as the main reason behind the expansion. Clients will have access to 13 on-site carriers via SLC6’s direct fiber connection to DataBank’s SLC1 carrier hotel. The facility is located at 14870 S. Pony Express Road, adjacent to the other buildings within the campus. SLC6 meets a variety of compliance requirements, including HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SSAE-18 SOC1 and SOC2, GDPR and FISMA.

The 23-acre Granite Point campus comprises 268,000 square feet of raised floor space, offering 34.8 megawatts of IT load. It also features its own, 66-megawatt power substation that has an N+1 configuration and diverse A/B feeds, provided by Rocky Mountain Power. According to DataBank, the low cost of power is one of the main reasons why expanding its footprint in the region is economically feasible.

Growing footprints

DataBank currently operates a total of 74 facilities across the U.S., which comprise 2.6 million square feet of raised floor space and offer 303 megawatts. The company expanded in Houston earlier this year—DataBank purchased four facilities for $670 million from CyrusOne, growing its footprint by 300,000 square feet of raised floor space.

According to JLL research, Salt Lake City is currently experiencing a surge of new supply, with existing and new providers looking to expand their footprints. Preleasing is becoming more common, as the current capacity—157 megawatts as of June this year—is unable to keep up with demand levels. Besides DataBank, other providers expanding in the market include Aligned Data Centers and Novva. According to the same source, there are 405 megawatts in the planning and permitting stages in Salt Lake City.