Sabey Data Centers, a hyperscale data center developer and operator in the United States, today announced that it is developing a new 72-megawatt, 430k sqft, hyperscale data center campus, which will be known as SDC Austin, in Round Rock, Texas, a city which is part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area.
SDC Austin – Round Rock, Texas – Sabey Data Centers
Sabey Data Centers’ SDC Austin data center development project is located at 1300 Louis Henna Blvd, which is just north of State Highway 45, in Round Rock, Texas.
Specifically, on ~22 acres of this 39.7-acre property resides the old Sears Teleserv building, a 139.5k sqft former call center and office building, which Sabey intends to demolish by December 31, 2022, at a cost of ~$2m. Additionally, the remaining ~17 acres on the north part of the site is currently undeveloped land.
Presently, Sabey Data Centers has commenced site preparation works and plans to construct two purpose-built data center buildings. Particularly, the project is planned to be developed in two phases:
- Phase 1: first data center built on the site of the former Sears Teleserv building
- Phase 2: second data center and an electrical substation built
At full build-out, Sabey Data Centers’ SDC Austin campus will offer up to 72 megawatts of critical IT load across 430k sqft. Additionally, the data center buildings will have a maximum height of 110 feet, equivalent to 3 to 4 stories.
In terms of timing, Sabey will break ground on the new data center campus in June 2022 with a target ready for service date of Q1 2023.
Connectivity
Sabey Data Centers’ SDC Austin campus will be carrier-neutral, allowing for interconnection between multiple telecommunications carriers for both metro (intra-city) and long-haul (inter-city) networks. More precisely, Sabey indicates that its Austin campus will support connections to 5+ Tier-1 network providers. Finally, the site will have dual campus fiber entries and redundant pathways, as well as on-site meet-me-rooms.
Power
The SDC Austin campus will be diversely fed from an adjacent 200-megawatt substation.
Economic Development Incentive Agreement
Round Rock’s Transportation and Economic Development Corporation (TEDCO) and City Council approved an economic development incentive agreement with Sabey Data Centers’ entity SDC Austin LLC. As part of this agreement, Sabey will invest at least $185m in real property improvements and $5m in new equipment and business personal property for the SDC Austin campus.
Additionally, the economic development incentive agreement stipulates that Sabey will create 20 new primary jobs, with an average salary of $90k, over a 5-year period between 2023 and 2027.
In return for these commitments, Sabey will receive economic incentive payments (EIPs) totaling $1m (i.e., 50% of demolition costs). The EIPs will be issued through the City’s Type B sales tax fund.
Customers
Sabey Data Centers’ SDC Austin campus will support the requirements of enterprise and hyperscale customers. To this end, several large technology companies have moved to or opened office campuses in Austin recently, including hardware and software companies like Tesla, Google, Apple, Oracle, and Canva.
Previously, Sabey has had success with hyperscale / technology companies, signing a 12-megawatt leasing deal in Ashburn, Virginia with Workday, during 2020.
Sabey Data Centers – Overview
Sabey Data Centers’ operational and under development data center portfolio comprises 6 campuses and 370+ megawatts of power capacity across 4+ million sqft in the United States. Specifically, this portfolio includes data center campuses in Seattle, Washington; Quincy, Washington; East Wenatchee (Columbia), Washington; Ashburn, Virginia; New York City (Manhattan), New York; and Austin (Round Rock), Texas.
Of Sabey Data Centers’ total portfolio, the company currently operates 2 million sqft of data center space in both Washington State and New York State.
In terms of ownership, Sabey Data Centers is a joint venture between Sabey Corporation, a real estate development and investment company, and National Real Estate Advisors (NREA), a commercial real estate investment manager for institutional capital. NREA is a subsidiary of and manages $6.2bn in gross real estate holdings for the National Electrical Benefit Fund (NEBF), a pension trust.
To-date, Sabey Data Centers and NREA have secured funding from Manulife Investment Management (via John Hancock Life Insurance), Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors, and Wells Fargo Real Estate Capital Investments.
