AirTrunk embarks on ‘multi-billion dollar' Sydney data centre campus
AirTrunk has withdrawn its original application to build a second hyperscale data centre in Sydney’s west and will instead proceed with “multi-billion dollar” plans to create Asia-Pacific’s largest data centre campus outside China.
Dubbed SYD3, it will have more than 320 megawatts of capacity and be built on an 8.3 hectare site in Blacktown close to AirTrunk’s original SYD1 Huntingwood hyperscale data centre.
If approved, it will be powered by a 132KV onsite substation with the new campus “connected” to SYD1, which has 130 megawatt capacity. AirTrunk also operates a 110 megawatt hyperscale data centre near Macquarie Park in Sydney’s inner north-west.
Preliminary plans lodged as with the state government last year revealed that AirTrunk had aggregated 34 lots covering multiple zoning types to create a 23 hectare site at Blacktown.
The originally proposed data centre would have been built over four levels incorporating 16 data halls, 161,730 square metres in gross floor area powered by two electricity substations.
At that point, capital investment value was estimated at $472 million. Those plans were withdrawn earlier this year.
Chief executive Robin Khuda declined to comment on the decision to change tack or reveal what is happening with the rest of the land it originally intended to build the first data centre on.
“With SYD1 nearing full capacity, SYD3’s location less than one kilometre away will help our major customers scale and creates synergies between the campuses,” Mr Khuda said in a statement.
In the same statement, AirTrunk said SYD3 would “bring a new multi-billion dollar investment into NSW and create hundreds of new jobs”.
No plans have yet been lodged or time frame provided.
SYD3 is the latest in a series of new data centres proposed for Sydney, one of the world’s top 10 markets, according to AirTrunk.
Two weeks ago PGIM and Equinix announced a $770 million ($US575m) hyperscale data centre joint venture.
The partnership, due to finalise later this year, will develop and own two hyperscale data centres at Rosehill in western Sydney managed and marketed by Equinix.
Data centres will also be built at Horsely Park, near AirTrunk’s western Sydney holdings, after CSR sold two major land parcels to operators NextDC and Digital Realty in the past 12 months for $208 million.
Meanwhile, data centre operators are expected to drive demand for a sprawling ABC television site in Artarmon now on the market.
Demand for hyperscale data centres, which house large-scale IT infrastructure to support cloud computing and big data storage, is surging due to surging technology and internet use.
