Hyperscale Data Center Campus Coming to DFW

By Tudor Scolca

Aerial view of T5@Alliance campus

A partnership of T5 Data Centers, Hillwood and IPI Partners will develop a data center campus, T5@Alliance, within AllianceTexas, the 18,000-acre master-planned community in Fort Worth, Texas. The development is backed by IPI Data Center Partners Management, ICONIQ Capital and an affiliate of Iron Point Partners. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is one of the fastest growing markets for data centers, according to a CBRE report, with 22 megawatts of net absorption in the first half of 2017, second only to Northern Virginia. Among other companies that drive this market forward, Stream Data Centers broke ground earlier this year on its 145,000-square-foot facility within Legacy Business Park in Plano, Texas.

“Rapid growth in Fort Worth is catching the attention of large technology companies, like Facebook, and is reinforcing AllianceTexas’ position as a premier destination for data centers. With highly acclaimed data centers already developed in eight major markets across the U.S., T5 and IPI Partners are ideal partners for expediting the evolution of AllianceTexas as a large-scale data center destination,” said Mike Berry, president of Hillwood & developer at AllianceTexas, in a prepared statement.

Doubling the DFW capacity

The AllianceTexas mixed-use development initially dedicated up to 400 acres to data centers exclusively, with infrastructure already in place to fit the needs of these facilities. Two separate transmission sources provide power independently with transmission-level redundancy—Brazos Electric Power Cooperative and Oncor. The state’s deregulated electricity marketplace, along with its independent grid, makes power both affordable and reliable for data centers. At full build-out, the development will deliver over 400 megawatts of dedicated critical power, which is the current capacity of the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“Cloud and hyperscale data center users are looking for locations that can offer a growth pathway, incentives, resiliency and speed to operation, all with low costs. T5@Alliance offers a perfect combination of these critical requirements. This partnership with Hillwood and IPI Partners brings together a highly experienced team ready to deliver hyperscale campuses for discerning data center customers,” said Pete Marin, president & chief executive officer of T5, in prepared remarks.

Image courtesy of T5 Data Centers