Amazon appears to be planning a massive data center campus in the New Albany area of Columbus, Ohio.
Local press reports the company acquired around 400 acres in the city in Licking County, close to its existing data center site, and is seemingly planning to use the site for both data centers and provide space to other industrial users.
While the company has not yet commented on its intentions with the land, the New Albany Co. has filed plans with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) featuring proposals for multiple data center developments, seemingly on the Amazon-owned land. And on January 11 a surface water permit was approved for Amazon Data Systems inc for a data center development at the same site.
The New Albany Co. is also planning another campus nearby, alongside a massive industrial park to serve Intel's supply chain for its new fab in the city.
Last month, Amazon purchased 400 acres of land along Beech Road in New Albany for $116.6 million, just north of the 112 acres the company purchased in 2020. The Amazon parcels are on land that New Albany is annexing for Intel and other projects within the ‘New Albany International Business Park’.
There are multiple filings by MBJ Holdings-linked New Albany Co. with the OEAP; the North Beech Corridor East that overlaps Amazon's land purchase makes reference to a 4.7 million-square foot data center complex on the east side of Beech Road NW including 10 or 11 data center buildings depending on the configuration. Further filings for a North Beech Corridor West on the other side of Beech Road NW suggest an 18-building data center complex totaling 7.5 million sq ft.
On the west side, the plans propose 18 buildings, each 414,725 sq ft (38,500 sqm), along with a 52,270 sq ft (4,860 sqm) office building and 28 acres for a substation. On the east side of the road, and also straddling Miller Road, New Albany Co. is proposing 11 buildings each 414,725 square feet (~38,500 sqm), along with a 52,270 sq ft (4,860 sqm) office building and 11 acres for a substation.
Construction costs for the two sites could reach $10 billion. The proposed developments would provide 'expanded facility space for an undisclosed, confidential user'.
According to another New Albany Co. filing, to the east of both those developments, the New Albany Tech park would see 4.7 million square feet of building space developed for advanced technology manufacturers and suppliers. The site would include multiple warehouses, flex office, and manufacturing/maintenance buildings primarily occupied by companies supporting and supplying the nearby Intel semiconductor facility.
The exact timing of construction has not yet been determined, however, the plans state that the ‘initial phase will commence upon or soon after the isolated wetland permit issuance in 2023 and be completed within three years’ and that the subsequent phase of development is expected to commence in 2024 and be ‘completed over the following three years, such that full build-out is completed by the end of 2027.’
Construction of Intel's new semiconductor manufacturing site commenced in August 2022, also in the Licking County portion of the New Albany International Business Park.
Amazon already operates a 459,000 sq ft (42,640 sqm) data center nearby, at 2570 Beech Road. In 2019 the company announced plans to develop a 170,000-square-foot data center on 100 acres on the northeast corner of Harrison Road and Innovation Campus Way to the east of the Beech Road facility. The company also has data centers in the Hilliard and Dublin areas of Columbus, and is seeking to develop nine more data centers in Hilliard.
According to research by 42 Floors, the Columbus Ohio region is now home to 4.7 million sq ft (436,344 sqm) of data center space. Companies including Meta and Google have facilities in the area.
Lincoln Rackhous and Harrison Street's 1.2 million square feet (111,480 sqm) Silicon Heartland Innovation Park is located just east of the North Beech Corridor East site.
DBT Development Group is planning a new data center campus just south of the New Albany Tech Park on the corner of Jug Street.
