A massive data center — which would be the biggest in North Carolina— may be coming to west Charlotte if the city approves a rezoning request for the project.
Digital Realty Trust is looking to rezone 156 acres at 12899 Moores Chapel Road to allow for a 3-million-square-foot data center. The proposal was heard at Monday’s City Council rezoning meeting.Currently, the wooded site is zoned for general industrial use with a warehouse usage space covering 1.5 million square feet, explained Collin Brown, a land use attorney with law firm Alexander Ricks who represents Digital Realty.
But Digital Realty wants to add a second floor to accommodate additional square footage that would double the scope of the data center. However, the building height and size wouldn’t increase, Brown added.
The proposal wasn’t voted on in Monday’s meeting but will return for a vote, possibly next month.
If approved, the site would house two buildings that could support up to 400 megawatts of IT capacity, the company previously said. For reference, that’s 400,000 kilowatts; the average home uses 30 kilowatts a day.
It would also be North Carolina’s biggest data center in terms of square feet and power capacity. Currently, Apple has the largest center, located in Maiden with a size of 505,000 square feet, according to Baxtel, a data center research and advisory firm.In terms of power, the largest center is Core Scientific in Marble, the county seat of Cherokee County, with 104 megawatts.
But even if the request is denied, Digital Realty could still build a data facility on the site, just at the allotted 1.53 million square feet. That’s allowed under the area’s current rezoning.
Site history and neighbors’ concerns
Monday’s rezoning proposal brought up the site’s history and neighbors’ previous concerns with the area being zoned for industrial use.
The Keith Corporation, a commercial real estate firm, requested the site be rezoned from residential to industrial in 2020. In site plans submitted to the city, the firm would either build one or three buildings totaling 1.53 million square feet of warehouse space.
Neighbors were against the change, citing traffic, noise, property value and environmental concerns. A petition was created that garnered close to 1,300 signatures. But the zoning request passed, 7-4.What is Digital Realty?
However, Keith Corp never built anything on the site and it remained vacant.
The real estate firm eventually sold the land to Digital Realty in November for $160 million, the Charlotte Business Journal reported.
The sale marked the beginning of an expansion for Digital Realty in Charlotte. It would be the second data center owned and operated by the digital giant here. The first comprises a cluster of sites in uptown at 731 E Trade St., 113 North Myers St. and 125 North Myers St.
And Digital Realty just added to that cluster with a March purchase of 725 E. Trade St. for $9.5 million, the Court Arcade building, CBJ reported.
Digital Realty, which is based in Austin, Texas, is a major data center builder, and has over 115 data centers in North America alone.
What’s next for Moores Chapel Road area?
During Monday’s hearing, councilmembers’ main concerns focused around the environment and the impact the center would have on neighbors.The site is close to several homes along Moores Chapel Road but there is a planned buffer that would be placed between the residents and the center.
Digital Realty would be working with Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation to create a park or greenway on the site, Brown added.
The data center would also have less of a traffic impact than the originally planned warehouse, Brown said., mainly because the site wouldn’t use tractor trailers and fewer people would be onsite per shift.
It’s unclear how many jobs would be created. Brown said hundreds of jobs could be available, ranging from engineers to security guards.
Typically, data centers don’t yield many jobs, a News & Observer report found. Apple isn’t among the top 25 employers in Catawba County despite running a large operation, the Observer’s sister news outlet found.
Microsoft’s planned, and postponed, $1 billion data center in Catawba County is only set to bring in 50 jobs.
Several councilmembers wanted planning staff to provide environmental reports on water, air and noise quality, including Councilmembers LaWana Mayfield, Reneé Johnson and Tiawana Brown.
Mayfield said she was disappointed that a thorough report was not initially provided given the site’s proximity to residents and the Catawba River. She was also concerned that even if the proposed rezoning failed, a data center could go on the site by right of existing zoning.
“It’s concerning that this would be presented to us without staff providing additional information of the potential impacts when we have invested a number of years and dollars into our environmental protection plan,” Mayfield said. “It will be more helpful to get a better understanding of the true potential environmental impact. It’s not a hard stretch because we already have communities that have data centers in them.
Thankfully, California has a lot more.”
Coucilmembers should be voting on the proposal next month.
Data center growth in the Charlotte region
There are about 36 data centers in the region, according to Data Center Map, a research tool.
And data center investment in Charlotte and that state has increased. Besides Microsoft and Apple, Bed Bath & Beyond opened a data center in Claremont in 2013. That site was sold to co-location center Data Journey last year, Business North Carolina reported.
In Caldwell County, Google said it was considering expanding its existing data center. It would invest $600 million for a new site in Lenoir, near Hickory.
