A Houston, Texas, facility has received $40 million in investment to be retrofitted as an artificial intelligence (AI) data center.
First reported by Bisnow, the former Compaq Computer site set to be upgraded is located at 11445 Compaq Center W. Drive and is part of the 66-acre Viva Center campus at State Highway 249 and Louetta Road.
Lone Star PACE and Nuveen Green Capital have secured $40 million in clean energy financing for the first phase of retrofitting the facility which spans 774,000 sq ft (71,907 sqm).
Known as C-PACE financing, commercial property-assessed clean energy financing is a long-term low-cost financing solution that incentivizes developers to make efficiency upgrades to properties.
The $40 million will be used at the recently rebranded "Viva Center" to install energy-efficient windows, LED lighting, new HVAC systems, and high-efficiency plumbing upgrades for the first phase of the data center.
The first phase is currently around "50 percent complete" and should be operational in the next six to nine months, according to Sean Ribble senior director of originations at Nuveen Green Capital. At full buildout, Viva Center will offer 250 megawatts of power, a chilled water plant, and a natural gas pipeline for energy generation.
The site specifically set to become a new data center was built in the 1980s and was previously the headquarters of Compaq Computer prior to its acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. in 2002
HPE began building a new campus in 2020, and launched a new HQ in April 2022 shortly after selling off 11445 Compaq Center W. Drive to MFI, an affiliate of Mexcor International. Eduardo Morales, CEO of Mexcor is also head of Morales Capital Group.
The major retrofit is being led by VivaVerse Solutions, a subsidiary of Morales Capital Group. The company is redeveloping the entire Viva Center which includes more than a dozen buildings that consist of offices, manufacturing, and distribution facilities.
VivaVerse plans to turn the campus into a tech hub with public gathering areas, events and apartments.
“At Viva Center, our commitment to technological innovation and forward-thinking design drives the integration of state-of-the-art building systems,” Freddy Vaca, president of VivaVerse Solutions, said. “Partnering with Nuveen Green Capital and Lone Star PACE has been instrumental in aligning our advanced sustainability objectives with our investment returns.”
In May 2024, power solution provider RPower partnered with VivaVerse Solutions to build a 17MW microgrid at the Viva Center campus. RPower’s microgrid will use natural gas generators to deliver ‘Resiliency-as-a-Service’ (RaaS) to ViVaVerse’s colocation data center operations during outages.
