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New Data Center Planned for Fayette County, Ga., Could Be World's Largest

Wed September 21, 2022 - Southeast Edition #22
DCD & ASBN


Quality Technology Services (QTS), a data center provider, is planning to build a mammoth new data center campus in Fayetteville, Ga., that could span up to 16 buildings and offer 6.6 million sq. ft. of space on the 615-acre site.

Known as "Project Excaliber," the QTS project also is slated to include a 400,000-sq.-ft. office building, Data Center Dynamics (DCD) reported Sept. 20.

QTS aims to start construction next year, and the site is expected to reach a full build-out by 2032. When completed, it could end up being the world's largest multi-tenant data center campus, DCD noted.

The site for the data center, just northeast of Peachtree City, and west of Fayetteville, was acquired by QTS in August for $153.8 million, equating to approximately $250,000 per acre, according to the Fayette County Development Authority (FCDA).

QTS is yet to make an official announcement about the project.

Earlier media reports on the development — which were not attributed to QTS — suggested the site could extend to 250-megawatts (MW) and 1.5 million sq. ft. In all, the company is expected to invest more than $1 billion in developing the data center and employ over 1,000 people.

The new campus will host data for a variety of companies, including those in the financial, technology and healthcare industries, according to Atlanta Small Business Network (ASBN). In addition, the data center will be built near several major highways and have direct access to a fiber optic network.

Georgia Becoming Big Player in Data Industry

The Fayette County site, 25 mi. south of Atlanta, currently is farmland, bordered by Georgia Highway 54, Flat Creek Trail, and Tyrone Road, and has been labeled as suitable for a business park in Fayetteville's comprehensive plan. The city hopes it will fit well alongside Trilith Studios, an existing film production company, DCD reported.

The idea of a data center on the site had been in discussion for several years, with the most recent proposal coming from Oceanic Data Centers in 2020. Facebook also considered building a facility there in 2018, before the data giant settled in Newton County to the east of Atlanta.

Tim Huffman and Mike Lash of the CBRE Group, a real estate company, represented the Fayette County Development Authority in securing the land deal with QTS.

"The FCDA executed on an amazing strategy that will bring exceptional revenue benefits to the city and county, and high-quality jobs for decades to come," Huffman told ASBN. "Georgia continues to thrive as a premiere global data center market, and one of the key drivers for metro Atlanta is readily available access to reliable power and fiber connectivity."

QTS has two other existing campuses in Georgia, the 1033 Jefferson Street NW site in central Atlanta, spanning more than 100 acres and offering more than 275MW of capacity; and a 385,000-sq.-ft. facility to the northeast of the capital city in the town of Suwanee.




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