By Roland Murphy for AZBEX – BEXclusive
A proposal to rezone and expand an existing data center in Chandler will eliminate an outdated, water-intensive cooling system, resulting in significantly lower usage and adding 243KSF of new space.
CBRE Investment Management has requested a rezoning from light industrial to planned area development and approval for a preliminary development plan for a data center on 14.5 acres at 2500 W. Frye Road.
The data center was part of a campus acquired by Bank of America in 2008, according to the staff report. In 2019, BofA split the parcel and sold the data center portion, which then ran independently of the office campus.
In 2022, Chandler changed its zoning code to restrain data center development in the city. Under the revisions, PAD zoning is required for properties where data centers are the primary use, and neighborhood notifications and noise mitigation measures are also mandated.
Having been built before the updated regulations were implemented, the facility, now owned by CBRE Investment Management, has a “legal, non-conforming” status.
The CBREIM Frye Data Center Expansion proposal would add a three-story building totaling 242,915SF and update the zoning to bring the facility back into compliance. The new structure would be built on an underused parking lot on the current site. An existing Salt River Project substation that powers the data center is located on an adjacent parcel and would be expanded as part of the project.
The request includes a height request of 90 feet using a mid-rise overlay to maximize the project’s land use potential, cost efficiency and future scalability, among other benefits, according to the project narrative.
There are several facilities in the immediate surrounding area with heights of four stories or more. If the planned site were within 300 feet of a planned or existing single-family community, mitigating circumstances would be necessary to allow the 90-foot height request. The nearest home, however, is approximately 1,400 feet away.
As part of the expansion, the data center operation would be modernized, replacing the 2008 cooling and infrastructure technology with the current state of the art. According to the report, “The original data center at the heart of this request was originally developed to support the Bank of America campus to the north using water-cooling technology that was the norm in 2008… Public Works and Utilities has reviewed the water consumption associated with the existing data center and reports the amount of water used in 2023 was 14.09 million gallons. While it is difficult to quantify how much of that water was used for data center equipment cooling vs. typical domestic water usage or landscape irrigation purposes, Planning is confident that the amount of water Chandler will reclaim from this conversion will be significant. This will be a substantial benefit to the City of Chandler.”
In the project narrative, land use law firm Earl & Curley said, “The existing data center has long used water chillers to support its operations, whereas the proposed expansion area will rely fully on an electric air-cooling solution. This strategic shift is not merely a technical upgrade but a step towards heightened efficiency, reduced environmental impact, and a substantial decrease in water consumption. To do so, we recognize the need to design the site in a way that provides appropriate sound buffering. Careful consideration has been given to the design of the site, with a specific focus on addressing potential sound disturbances associated with the new cooling system. The integration of sound buffering measures underscores a comprehensive approach, ensuring that the environmental impact of the expansion is not only minimized in terms of resource usage but also in terms of community well-being.”
CBRE Investment Management is the project owner. Gensler is the design firm. Landscape planning is through Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc., and the project representative is Earl & Curley, P.C.
The requests were recommended for approval as part of the Chandler Planning and Zoning Commission’s consent agenda in its June 5 meeting.
