Digital Bridge-owned firm accused of interfering with plans for Tahoe-Reno land.
Switch Data Centers has failed in a bid to quash a legal case brought by rival developer Tract, which alleges the Digital Bridge-owned company has been interfering with its plans for a site in Nevada.
The two firms are locked in a courtroom battle over a piece of land inside and adjacent to the Tahoe-Reno industrial site, in Storey County, Nevada, which Tract purchased in August 2023.
Switch Data Centers is unrelated to Switch Datacenters, based out of Amsterdam.
Tract and its subsidiary NVLCO intend to make the site shovel-ready, so that data center companies could build on it in the future. Switch, which runs its Tahoe-Reno 1 campus, also known as Citadel, on the industrial site, says this violates a covenant it has in place that prevents any other colo data centers from being built on the land.
Switch is seeking a permanent injunction to prevent a data center from being constructed on the land, but was hit with a counterclaim from Tract in October. The company wants to sue Switch and its CEO Rob Roy, as well as Digital Bridge and its chief executive Marc Ganzi, accusing Roy and Switch of “harassment” and saying they attempted to interfere with Tract’s relationship with other companies.
The lawsuit also claims Switch purchased a piece of land in Storey County to thwart Tract’s plans to build a public road and utility right-of-way to the site.
Now an attempt by Switch to get this case dismissed has been rejected by a judge in the Nevada District Court, who said there were no grounds to stop the lawsuit going ahead.
The May 2 ruling means both cases will progress in the coming months.
Tract, which launched in 2022, announced plans to develop the disputed site in October 2023, acquiring further parcels of land in June.
In an interview with DCD, conducted earlier this year, Tract CEO Grant van Rooyen said his company aims to build ‘master-planned data center parks,’ providing all the required infrastructure and permits that allow wholesalers and hyperscalers to build their own data centers on shovel-ready land.
Earlier this month, the firm revealed it had purchased 1,515 acres of land outside Austin, Texas, for a potential 2GW data center park, with 360MW available at first.
Founded in 2000, Switch operates its large 'Prime' data center campuses in Austin, Texas; Reno, Las Vegas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Atlanta, Georgia. Over the last year, it has filed to expand further in Austin and Atlanta.
DigitalBridge, alongside IFM Investors, took Switch private in an $11bn deal in December 2022. Australian pension fund Aware Super invested $500 million into Switch last year.
The company is reportedly exploring going public again, but in September announced it had secured $5 billion in new debt financing to fund its growth plans.
DCD has approached Tract, Switch, and Digital Bridge for comment on the ruling.
