NextDC has broken ground on its S3 data center in Sydney, Australia.

The data center company has chosen construction firm Multiplex to begin phase 1 construction on the new facility in Artarmon, located on Sydney's lower North Shore. Development is due for completion in the second half of 2022.

NextDC expands presence in Sydney

Designed by architects Greenbox, the facility will be 34,000 square meters (366,000 sq ft) over eight stories and deliver more than 20,000 sq m (215,000 sq ft) of data center floor space and 4,000 sq m (43,000 sq ft) of critical office space. It will directly interconnect with NextDC’s existing S1 and S2 Sydney data centers. The facility is expected to reach 80MW when fully developed.

Mulitplex has previously been involved in the construction of NextDC’s 20MW facility in Perth and the S2 center in Sydney’s Macquarie Park.

“We are thrilled to be appointed to this innovative project and continue our ongoing partnership with NextDC,” Multiplex regional managing director NSW David Ghannoum said. “We're excited to draw upon our experience building ground-breaking high-rise data centers and help expand NextDC's world-class operation of data centers across Australia.”

This month NextDC announced it would start offering a way for its customers to offset their carbon footprint using the Qantas Future Planet (QFP) scheme.