There’s also the recently completed Amazon data center at 42 Blueett Dr, Smeaton Grange, a 20,773-square-metre facility built by Goodman.
Another deal saw iseek acquire data center operator YourDC, which includes two South Australian assets in Mitcham and Salisbury.
To attract more investors, the NSW Department of Planning has updated the definition of a data center to temporarily allow more warehouses and data centers to be assessed as State Significant Developments (SSD). These changes were made to provide a clearer and more certain planning path for warehouses and data centers.
The amendment changes how the SSD threshold for data center development is measured from capital investment value (CIV) to total power consumption. These changes will more accurately reflect the scale, complexity and potential impact of such developments.
This will temporarily change the SSD threshold for data centers from a CIV of $50 million to a total power consumption of 10 MW, which roughly equates to a CIV of $40 million for two years, then 15 MW.
The department has identified warehouses and data centers as the type of development suitable to support the state’s short-term economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stockland is leading the way with its $2 billion M_Pak innovation and technology campus at Macquarie Park, whose first phase was “topped off” last week. It consists of three commercial buildings covering 62,500 square meters of shared amenities on site, including the data centre.
In Melbourne, NEXTDC, the only listed pure-play data center group, has entered into an agreement with HDR to design its two colocation data centers which will house Australia’s largest and most comprehensive cloud ecosystem.
HDR has just completed the design and delivery of two NEXTDC colocation data centers.
M3 Melbourne (a 100,000sqm data center in West Footscray) and M2 Melbourne (a 16,000sqm data center in Tullamarine), built by Kapitol Group, will collectively deliver 210MW of power to businesses and governments in an unprecedented digital environment Critical IT infrastructure innovation.
NEXTDC CEO Craig Scroggie said: “Australia’s digital economy is growing rapidly, accelerating demand for connected cloud services, sovereign security and sustainable solutions supported by Tier IV Certified facility support to ensure business resilience.”
“As a market leader, NEXTDC is responding to market needs by expanding our digital infrastructure platform.”
Sam Faigen, HDR’s project lead, added that using a data-driven design approach, “we have successfully delivered two purpose-built facilities using modular and adaptable solutions that will accelerate industry growth.”
While NSW’s data center market remains Australia’s largest, CBRE’s report said Victoria saw capacity increases, driven by the state’s booming technology sector.
