Dive Brief:
- Amazon plans to invest $3.5 billion to establish new data centers in New Albany, Ohio, according to a Press release shared with Construction Dive.
- The new data centers will support IT servers, networking equipment and AWS technology, while increased tax revenue from the expansion will support schools, essential services and infrastructure investments such as local parks and roads, according to the release .
- The investment in New Albany marks the initial part of Amazon’s $7.8 billion commitment to expand data centers in the state, which Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted first announced in June.
Diving knowledge:
Amazon isn’t the only tech giant that has identified New Albany as an emerging data center.
Google also announced in August a Investment of 1.7 billion dollars at its three data center campuses in Ohio, one of which is located in New Albany. The tech company selected the site because of its ample land, water supply, low risk of natural disasters and aggressive tax incentives.
Major hyperscale and data center operators such as Amazon and Google continue to show interest in the Columbus market, including nearby cities such as New Albany, Hilliard, Dublin and Delaware, Ohio, according to a report. data center market report from Dallas-based real estate services firm CBRE.
These markets attract data center players because they are among the major developed data centers such as Northern Virginia, Atlanta and Chicago.
Additionally, more than 50% of the US population lives within 750 miles of Columbus, which is advantageous for clients looking to build and develop nearby end users, according to the CBRE report.
Amazon’s data center projects in central Ohio represent the second-largest private-sector corporate investment in Ohio history, behind only Intel’s $20 billion investment in January 2022 to build its semiconductor facility.
