Two large data centers are heading to Allen following approval from city council.
The 65-acre Cyrus One Data Center will build its new facility off Allen Commerce Parkway and Chelsea Boulevard, just north of Allen Premium Outlets. The three-building campus will boast more than a million square feet of data center equipment and offices.
It’s the newest addition to Allen’s burgeoning data center corridor. A Cisco data center is already operating across the street. Compass Datacenters recently broke ground on a new facility next door. And on the same night the Cyrus One project was approved, city council members green-lighted the addition of a second Compass Datacenters campus down the street. That project will add another 87,000-square feet of data center space.
“For years after Cisco came to town, [Allen Economic Development Corporation CEO] Dan Bowman told us that we were ripe for more data centers,” said council member Joey Herald during the May 9 meeting. “Now…they’re springing up like daisies over here.”
Data centers are an attractive asset for cities like Allen. Their large investments in both real estate and personal property are a boon to the local tax base. Yet they require minimal city services and generate little additional traffic.
“They bring so much to our community and so few people,” said Herald.
Both new data centers will be built in three phases. A construction timeline has not yet been finalized.