CoreSite has secured approval from Santa Clara’s Planning Commission to start building a 34MW, 200,000 square foot (18,500 sq m) data center in Silicon Valley.
The approval for the site at 2905 Stender Way comes after more than a year of negotiations and discussions about the facility. A substation to support the data center was also approved.
Construction of the SV9 data center is expected to be completed in 2023, with preleasing available now.
“Our approach to data center design and construction is purposeful,” said Rob Dean, CoreSite’s VP of design and construction.
“CoreSite’s campus model is driven by customer demand and requirements. This Silicon Valley market expansion is further testament that leading enterprises and service integrators require modern and efficient data centers that can provide native access to the leading cloud providers and a comprehensive interconnection ecosystem to ensure an exceptional customer experience.”
Last year, the Planning Commission delayed a decision into whether to approve the project, and passed the decision onto the city council.
In an April meeting, several commissioners spoke out against the project - and the wider growth in Santa Clara data centers.
“Currently, we have around 54 [data centers in the City],” said Commissioner Priya Cherukuru. “These are dead places from an urban planning perspective. When a power outage happens… can you imagine all of those diesel generators turning themselves on? Do you understand the water consumption of all of these 54 sites that are impacting the City’s water table?”
Commissioners Nancy Biagini and Yuki Ikezi concurred with the statement.
Commission Chair Lance Saleme noted that the single project should not be punished due to a larger issue, but added: “I am concerned that we’re turning our city into a data center. That it’s becoming nothing but data centers for a big chunk of our industrial space… it’s less about the pollution and more about the way the city is evolving that concerns me.”
The Planning Commission at the time voted 3-2 against the project, but required a majority of 4 to make a decision (one commissioner was recused due to financial ties to the project). Instead, the decision was punted to the City Council.
The council unanimously voted to approve CoreSite's rezoning request at its June 15 meeting, and approved the design of the data center in July 28.
Now CoreSite, which has already demolished the existing structure on the project site, has received all the necessary approvals to begin work on the data center.
The company was recently acquired by American Tower for $10.1bn.
