Dallas-based data center developer Skybox Datacenters has started work on a new data center campus in Lancaster called PowerCampus Dallas in partnership with developer Bandera Ventures and Principal Asset Management.

The campus on roughly 100 acres near I-35E in Southern Dallas County will provide up to 300 megawatts (MW) of power supported by a private onsite substation, with up to 1 million-square-feet of data center space, the company said.

“PowerCampus Dallas will raise the bar in the North Texas data center market and beyond,” Skybox Datacenters CEO Rob Morris said in a statement. “This partnership brings together expertise in multiple disciplines that are critical for delivering significant capacity in this dynamic data center market.”

North Texas a hot market for data centers

The campus is in one of the fastest-growing data center submarkets in the nation, Skybox said, and is surrounded by some of the strongest infrastructure in the region, providing seamless interconnections and unparalleled expansion capabilities.

According to Baxtel, one of the largest information resources for data centers, the Dallas data center market has 121 data center facilities with over 13 million square feet of space and 1,128 megawatts.

DFW has millions of square feet of new data center projects on the way.

For example, Google announced in August plans for a more than $600 million data center in Red Oak, just south of Dallas.

And in July, we told you that Dallas-based Compass Datacenters and Schneider Electric, a global leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, are partnering to build a state-of-the-art integration facility in Red Oak to support the increasing demand for prefabricated modular data centers.

PowerCampus Dallas ‘tailored to hyperscale clients’

Skybox said the Dallas market is one of the nation’s primary peering and interconnection hubs, featuring excellent proximity to cloud providers and exchanges as well as substantial network availability to major metros.

Dallas has low energy costs and access to renewable power, Skybox said. PowerCampus Dallas is designed to allow users to benefit from available local and state tax incentives, Skybox said.

Texas offers a state sales tax exemption on electricity or equipment for qualified data centers that lowers the cost for data center customers to deploy large-scale footprints in the state.

Skybox said that PowerCampus is its latest product for large-scale data center assets “tailored to hyperscale clients across major and emerging U.S. markets.” The company said that PowerCampus Dallas will strategically address emerging high-density compute needs in the Dallas area providing up to 300 MWs of power.

“The partnership with Skybox and Bandera continues Principal’s long commitment to the data center sector,” Ben Wobschall, managing director, real estate, Principal Asset Management, said in a statement. “With over $3 billion committed to the data center sector over the past 17 years, we’ve been able to witness the evolution of the sector first-hand and are excited to utilize strategic partnerships like this one to drive continued success for our clients and customers.”

With its customer-centric approach, Skybox said it delivers purpose-built, mission critical facilities for speculative, campus, powered shell, turn-key, and build-to-suit project capabilities through an active development and operations teams across the nation.

The backers

Dallas-based Bandera Ventures was founded in 2003 by Charles Anderson, Pryor Blackwell, and Tom Leiser and is a real estate development and acquisition firm. The company was created to responsibly develop, acquire, own, and operate commercial real estate.

The three founding principals are all former partners and senior executives at the Trammell Crow Co. with more than 100 years of combined commercial real estate experience. The partnership has recently expanded with the addition of Matt Ashbaugh.

Bandera Ventures has developed and acquired 101 commercial projects since 2003 and has provided investment capital to a variety of projects and businesses. The partners’ track record covers over 100 million square feet of development in excess of $10 billion.

With public and private market capabilities across all asset classes, Principal Asset Management’s dedicated real estate investment team manages or sub-advises $95.5 billion in commercial real estate assets. Its real estate capabilities include both public and private equity and debt investment alternatives.

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