Data center developer Prime will continue its national expansion with a massive new campus in the Phoenix market, the company said today. The company has bought 66 acres of land in Avondale, Arizona where it plans to build five data centers that will span 1.3 million square feet of space and 210 megawatts of power capacity.
The project provides Prime with a presence in one of the nation's hottest growth markets for cloud computing. Phoenix is in the midst of a data center building boom, and was one of the industry's strongest growth markets in 2022.
“Phoenix presents an incredible growth opportunity for Prime as a top-five, North American data center market with increasing demand from cloud and enterprise data center buyers,” said Chris Sumter, EVP of Acquisitions at Prime. “With compelling state tax incentives, power costs 16% to 18% below national averages and low risk of natural disasters, Phoenix will sustain its position for years to come. This project will further Prime’s commitment to sustainability and technology advancement through efficient enablement of higher power densities and recycled water.”
The first data center at the campus is projected for Q3 2025 completion and will provide 260,400 square feet and 42 critical megawatts to the capacity-constrained market.
Water Conservation a Priority
Prime says its campus will feature a closed-loop cooling system that will save millions of gallons of water when compared to evaporative systems. Water scarcity is a major issue in Phoenix, especially in the wake of new restrictions that will reduce the water Arizona gets from the Colorado Basin. The drought in the Western US is bringing sharper scrutiny of data center water use in Phoenix amid concerns that they may compete with local residents for access to water. Prime says its campus will operate with a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) near zero.
The Phoenix campus continues a national expansion that has seen Prime announce new campuses in Suburban Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas, as well as multiple data centers in its initial markets in Santa Clara and Sacramento. The company has also expanded into Europe with a large campus in Denmark.
In 2021 Prime announced a strategic partnership with global infrastructure investor Macquarie, which said it will invest more than $5 billion over 10 years. Prime’s expansion illustrates how this type of investment creates new possibilities, allowing the developer to acquire properties for short-term growth as well as “land banking” for future growth.
In the Phoenix market, Prime has chosen to build in a growing cloud cluster around Goodyear to the West of Downtown Phoenix. Avondale is next to Goodyear and is already home to several large data center projects.
“With Prime’s data center campus and investment of more than two billion dollars, Avondale is poised to become a next-generation technology hub," said Avondale Mayor Kenneth Weise. "This will foster lasting, positive economic growth for years to come with hundreds of permanent and temporary jobs created with the construction of each data center. Also, the sustainable campus design aligns with local and state government commitments to water conservation, energy efficiency and the proliferation of clean energy consumption.”
