With 34 data center campuses worldwide, a dozen of which are in North America, Vantage Data Centers is no stranger to putting data centers where customer demand and financial incentives are drawing attention.
To wit, this month the company announced a planned $185 million investment in the Silicon Heartland Innovation Park in New Albany, Ohio.
New Albany's Technology Boom
You’re probably already aware of the intense interest in the New Albany area, which really came to national attention when Intel announced that they would be investing in a $20 billion semiconductor fab project in the Silicon Heartland development.
Large data centers were already in the area, as Amazon had opened an AWS facility over a decade ago. And in the last year, Amazon, Google, and Meta have announced plans to invest over $15 billion in data center development. Stack Infrastructure and QTS also operate or are planning data centers in the area.
So in an era of announcements of multi-billion dollar technology investments, the $185 million Vantage Data Centers is investing risks getting lost in the noise.
Though back in April, CyrusOne announced that they would be expanding their North American footprint with a $150 million investment in a New Albany data center.
And the Money Keeps Rolling In
In the middle of June, Vantage announced that they had completed a $9.2 billion equity investment led by DigitalBridge and Silver Lake. With a planned $30 billion investment in data center development, this number reflected a $2.8 billion increase in capital.
The plans for the proceeds are to accelerate growth in North America and EMEA with Vantage Data Centers continuing to target global hyperscalers as they increase their investment in cloud and AI to meet the continuing demand.
“It’s exciting to experience such strong investor demand to fuel our unprecedented growth across North America and EMEA,” said Sureel Choksi, president and CEO of Vantage Data Centers. “The confidence that DigitalBridge, Silver Lake and other investors have in Vantage and our ability to execute, as evidenced by an investment round that was significantly oversubscribed, is a testament to our team’s track record of delivering for our customers."
Choksi added, "This new funding from the world’s leading digital infrastructure and technology investors, along with numerous co-investors, is a game changer that uniquely positions Vantage to capitalize on the incredible AI and cloud opportunity in front of us.”
Building for the Future
Vantage Data Centers is a canny developer, aggressively acquiring land and starting development projects in current hotbeds of data center development, including Georgia, Arizona, and Texas.
And with the current development interest of the major hyperscalers in Ohio, Vantage is able to take advantage of a location that is well prepared for new data centers, and that actually offers significant business benefits including property, sales, and use tax abatements for large scale development projects.
This includes a 10-year 50% sales tax abatement that has already been approved by the Ohio Tax Credit Authority.
As Vantage has indicated that up to $75 million of their investment will be in equipment, the tax savings will be significant and a strong inducement for data center development here.
Silicon Heartland Advancements
Construction of the Silicon Heartland Data Center Campus, where Vantage Data Centers' new $185 million investment is focused, is being led by Lincoln Rackhouse, the data center division of Lincoln Property Company.
Lincoln Rackhouse announced that ground has already been broken on the site, and according to their test documentation could eventually support up to six data center buildings, each with a 36 MW critical load capacity.
Total data center floor space could reach 150,000 square feet, with each two-story data center supporting six 6 MW data halls.
Power will come from a local 300 MVA N+1 substation, with renewable energy sources, and their development credits, available above the meter. The American Electric Power substation is expected to be delivered by Q4 of 2024
The site and infrastructure are designed to support both single and multi-tenant data center development, and all new construction is planned to be carbon-neutral by the end of the decade.
The Silicon Heartland project encompasses 190 acres, so it seems only a matter of time before we see the next data center announcement in the area.
