[Rendering via DataNovaX]
The data center boom in Dallas-Fort Worth and North Texas shows no signs of slowing.
Wylie-based custom data center provider DataNovaX today announced its first campus in Wichita Falls with the construction of its $1 billion Pioneer Park project, an effort it aims to be a “superior alternative” to Dallas-Fort Worth’s tough data center connectivity market.
Ahmed Abdelgani, Founder and CEO of DataNovaX
According to CEO Ahmed Abdelgani, the region’s abundant resources and business incentives create a “very welcoming environment” for hyperscalers, data center operators, government agencies and large enterprises. Data centers are currently hosting customers at Pioneer Park.
According to Data Center Dynamics, the CEO, who launched DataNovaX in January 2024, is also the CEO of Star Texan Properties, which acquired a Wichita Falls call center earlier this year.
“North Texas is one of the most exciting data center growth zones in the United States,” Abdelgani said in a statement. “While fiber optic connectivity in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is at or near capacity, Wichita Falls in North Texas offers a world-class data availability zone with multiple metro and long-haul fiber optic pathways and network providers within a one-mile radius.”
Phase 2 expansion will add 150MW of capacity
The first phase of Pioneer Park is a 37,000 square foot facility with 6 MW of power and N+1 system redundancy. The first phase of the $1 billion investment property is expected to be operational in December.
Going forward, Phase II is slated to be transformative, featuring a vast 550,000 square foot facility with 150 MW of power designed to support high-density AI and HPC applications. This significant increase in capacity will make Pioneer Park one of the largest data centers in the region.
“With extensive untapped sustainable power resources across North and West Texas and numerous urban, regional and long-distance networks within one mile, Pioneer Park provides the scalability and high computing power required for today’s growing data needs,” Abdelgani said.
JLL report highlights regional data center growth, challenges
According to a recent JLL report, the DFW metroplex is one of the largest and fastest-growing data center markets in North America. Strong demand across a variety of sectors drove growth and momentum in the North Texas data center market in Q1 2024.
Commercial real estate firms noted that leasing activity is strong, with major cloud service providers, technology companies and corporations pre-leasing a large portion of new data center capacity under development, and rental rates for data center space in the DFW area continue to rise due to high demand and limited supply, with premium facilities offering the highest rates on the market.
But the report also notes that power supply, sustainability and addressing land constraints remain challenges.
DataNovaX highlighted Wichita Falls’ abundant power and dense data connectivity. The park is located off I-44 Central E. Freeway and Airport Drive at Highway 287, next to Sheppard Air Force Base.
Abdelgani is from Pioneer Park. It can receive power from both North and West Texas, “enabling a low-cost, sustainable source of power that can scale with the organizations it supports.”
“That’s one of the great advantages of this location,” he said.
The Benefits and Future of Pioneer Park
DataNovaX states that Pioneer Park is located in a rich data availability zone that includes:
- Many network providers, including Zayo, AT&T, Indian Nations Fiber Optic (INFO), Syntrio, Spectrum, Vexus, Comcell, Consolidated Communications, Crown Castle, Dobson Fiber, Hillary Communications, MetroNet Fiber, Texas Lone Star Network, Uniti Fiber, and Windstream
- Adequate dark fiber to support AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and data-intensive applications
- Gold Standard Cardinal Diversity with 4X Fiber Routes: North, South, East, West
- Carrier-neutral provider ecosystem
Other major operators also pump billions into North Texas
Other major operators including CyrusOne, Digital Realty, QTS and NTT Data Centers have also announced major expansions and new campus openings in North Texas, totaling billions of dollars in investment.
NTT Data plans a $42 million expansion of its data center campus in Garland that will add a 236,000-square-foot building and is scheduled for completion in April 2026. Prime Data Centers applied for permits with Dallas County earlier this year for a $22 million, 96,800-square-foot data center, with construction scheduled to begin in May 2024 and be completed in May 2025. The company is also considering additional facilities in the region, including plans for a $1.6 billion data center campus near Fort Worth.
PowerHouse Data Centers, in a joint venture with Harrison Street, has acquired a 50-acre site in Irving-Las Colinas to develop a nearly 1 million square foot data center campus called PowerHouse Irving. Once complete, the project will deliver a total of 200 megawatts of power capacity, with construction expected to begin in early 2025.
CyrusOne has announced plans to build a huge data center campus north of Dallas, capitalizing on strong demand there; its first facility in Allen will be 340,000 square feet, while Compass Data Centers signed a $3 billion contract last year to “build rooms with power management equipment” to support the “new world” of power-hungry cloud-based services and AI.
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