GI Partners has secured planning permission for a new data center in Santa Clara, California.
As reported by the Silicon Valley Voice, the Santa Clara City Council unanimously approved plans for a new data center at 2805 Bowers Avenue during this week’s council meeting.
GI filed for permits earlier this year to demolish an existing office property and develop a new four-story, 72MW data center at 2805 Bowers Avenue. Set on five acres and to be known as the Bowers Data Center and Bowers Backup Generating Facility, the data center would span 244,070 sq ft (22,675 sqm). A new substation will also be built.
The site could come online as soon as 2028, though is more likely to be sometime in 2029 or 2030.
While the Santa Clara Planning Commission voted 3-2 in favor of the project back in March, it failed to receive the requisite number of votes to issue permits and recommend the city council grant the rezoning request. Two members of the commission were not present.
Though county staff had identified issues around the project’s “consistency” with the area’s General Plan and Zoning Ordinance, they had recommended approval with conditions.
Plans for a data center and generating plant were first filed with the energy commission by GI affiliated ‘DayZenLLC’ back in August 2022. A decision that the plans would not have a significant impact on the environment was made by the commission in November 2023.
The site currently features a 55,000-square-foot (5,110 sqm), two-story office building. Built in 1975, it is part of several buildings on an 11-acre site collectively known as the Walsh Bowers Technology Center.
According to an old Cushman & Wakefield sales brochure, the site currently features a small data center. An existing Silicon Valley Power substation is located nearby.
GI acquired the property, along with the rest of the technology center, in early 2021 for a combined $79 million via its then-new Essential Tech + Science Fund. KeyPoint Credit Union sold 2805 Bowers to the investment firm for $37.5 million, while the other buildings were acquired from Equus Capital Partners. The site had been credit union Keypoint’s headquarters.
GI, which founded and then divested Digital Realty, owns stakes in a number of data centers and owns US operator LightEdge.
When asked about using the site as offices during this week’s meeting, a GI representative said: “There’s no market … there’s no one to lease it to.”
Mayor Lisa Gillmor said this was an “easy” approval since the data center is a good business for Santa Clara and she likes the look of the “aesthetics.”
She also downplayed the vote by the Planning Commission and said she’s never heard any opposition to data centers.
“What I was concerned about when this didn’t pass the planning commission, wasn’t really turned down, but it wasn’t passed either was there was a quite a big brouhaha that the community was very upset with data centers,” said Gillmor. “I have to say, I’ve been in public office for quite a while and I didn’t feel it, I didn’t hear it and I didn’t see the community opposition. I know there was some people, or there was people, creating things that didn’t really exist.”
