Mesa City Council has approved two major data center projects in the southeast of the Arizona city.
During an August 26 council meeting, both the Pacific Proving Technology Campus and the Merit Legacy Technology Park received unanimous approval to move ahead, reports the Phoenix Business Journal.
First proposed in November 2023, the Pacific Proving Technology Park will be built on nearly 170 acres on the northeast corner of Pecos and Crimson roads, and will see seven data halls developed with nearly 1.7 million sq ft (157,935 sqm) of total floorspace, alongside a 100,000 sq ft warehouse and a two-story office building, according to a presentation shared during the meeting. The data center campus is expected to offer 360MW of capacity.
Mesa City Council voted unanimously in favor of the proposal.
An earlier iteration of the Pacific Proving campus would have had 11 buildings spanning over 2.5 million.
The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval for the updated Pacific Proving campus at the end of July 2024.
Phoenix-based Gammage & Burnham PLC is the applicant for the project, with AE Urbia Architects and Engineers also part of the development.
Pacific Proving is one of the largest land owners in Southeast Mesa, having bought the southern 1,800 acres of the former GM proving grounds in 2004 for $45 million at the time.
Opened in 1953, the former GM Desert Proving Ground in Mesa was a General Motors facility for the testing of HVAC, propulsion, and other automotive systems in a desert climate. GM relocated to Yuma in 2009.
Part of the proving grounds has since been turned into the Legacy Industrial Park.
The nearby Merit Legacy Technology Park was also approved by the Mesa City Council on August 26.
The technology park will be developed on 43 acres of land also owned by Pacific Proving LLC. Phoenix-based Merit Partners will spearhead the data center project that is planned to feature three data halls spanning 1 million sq ft (92,903 sqm).
The applicant behind the project is also Gammage & Burnham. Similarly, the Mesa City Council voted unanimously to allow the development.
In late July, CyrusOne received approval for a data center campus on 62 acres on the corner of Elliot and Ellsworth Roads. It aims to develop up to five two-story buildings, spanning 286,530 square feet (26,620 sqm) each, for a total of around 1.4 million sq ft (130,000 sqm).
While approved, that project was less well-received than the two of Pacific Proving's land, garnering a 4-3 vote from the planning commission.
Phoenix is a major data center hub, with the Mesa area home to Polish software firm Comarch as well as EdgeCore, Meta, Novva, Apple, CyrusOne, and NTT. Amazon is planning two campuses in Mesa.
Across the rest of Phoenix, the likes of Stack, Stream, Prime, Aligned, Iron Mountain, Vantage, Compass, QTS, EdgeConneX, Expedient, and H5 are all present. Microsoft operates a cloud region out of the area.
