By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
Despite an increasing shift in preference by City officials for high job count industrial uses like advanced manufacturing, Mesa remains a leading attraction center for large-scale data center operations. (AZBEX, Nov. 10)
Three weeks ago, we reported on a new six-data hall plan in pre-submittal for 178 acres at the NEC of Pecos and Crismon roads. (AZBEX, Nov. 15)
Late last week, BEX Research staff uncovered pre-submittals for Project Borealis—another six-data hall campus that would include an office complex and warehouse on approximately 160.49 acres at the NWC of Ellsworth and Warner roads. The pre-submittal narrative from project representative Quarles & Brady LLP does not identify the owner. It does say, however, that the ownership team acquired the property in an Aug. 29 Arizona State Land Department auction.
ASLD records show NOVAA Holdings, LLC successfully bid $62.7M for 165.3 acres east of the NEC of Warner Road and Loop 202.
Record searches show no listing or registration for NOVAA Holdings, LLC anywhere in the country. The website for AE Urbia Architects & Engineers, the design firm for Project Borealis, shows they have worked with a data center developer called NOVVA Data Centers, which has locations around the West and Southwest. An article on DataCenterDynamics.com confirms NOVVA CEO Wes Swenson was the sole bidder in the August auction.
Project Borealis
The narrative says data centers are permitted by right under the site’s current zoning. The property is part of the Hawes Crossing Planned Area Development and is zoned Light Industrial with a Planned Area Development Overlay and Airport Overflight Area Three Overlay.
“…the approved Hawes Crossing PAD outlines the modified list of permitted uses for properties with the LI base zoning district and specifically includes Indoor Warehousing and Storage as a permitted use. The City of Mesa issued a formal interpretation on March 8, 2023, prior to the Arizona State Land Department’s auction/sale of the Property, stating data centers fall under the Land Use Classification for Indoor Warehousing and Storage, and further confirming data centers are permitted by-right on the Property within the Hawes Crossing PAD,” it says.
Adding to the argument in favor of using the site for a data center, the narrative says there is a 180-foot-wide earthen channel on the edge of the northern property line, as well as a powerline easement, which would make creating north-south collector roads a difficult proposition. The Project Borealis plan is “designed as a closed-campus data center industrial complex around one primary office building, one warehouse building, six data hall buildings, and two new utility substations.”
Plans include a 141.5KSF office building along Ellsworth that will serve as a visual focal point and entryway for the campus. Also along Ellsworth will be a 100.8KSF warehouse and one 257KSF data hall. Five more data halls of 257KSF and two substations of 3.58 and 7.98 acres will also be built on the site. In the north portion of the property is a 6.21-acre lot that will connect to Ellsworth at a later point. The eight planned buildings will have a maximum height of 75 feet.
Older-style data centers used massive amounts of water as part of their cooling systems, which raised concerns in many communities about their environmental and sustainability impacts. Most modern centers use high-efficiency cooling systems with minimal overall water consumption. According to the narrative, Project Borealis’ design is particularly resource-conscious and will make use of rainwater harvesting along with a closed-loop water cooling system.
The system consists of a mix of 60% water and 40% glycol. Each data center building will require 200,000 gallons to fill the systems in a one-time event. The narrative says, “No evaporative methods are used for reducing air temperature; therefore, the closed-loop cooling system has no evaporative or condensing loss. Additionally, anytime the ambient air is below 72 degrees, a free cool system is used. This system saves approximately 200 million gallons of water per building in the Arizona climate, annually, with 1.2 billion gallons of water saved annually for the entire projected campus at full utilization.”
In requesting review and approval of the proposed Specific Plan for the development, the submittal claims, “Project Borealis aims to create the greenest data center in the United States.” No hearing dates have been set to review or discuss the proposal.
The property is owned by NOVVA Data Centers. AE Urbia Architects & Engineers is the design firm, and the project is represented by Quarles & Brady.
Mesa Data Center Snapshot
A review of existing project information shows that Mesa has earned its status as a leading data center destination and partly explains why some officials believe area industrial development may have shifted too far in favor of that land use.
According to the DATABEX project database, since 2016 16 data center projects—not including Project Borealis—have entered the planning/proposal/approval/construction process in Mesa. Of those, only one has been canceled.
Looking at the 15 remaining data centers, all of them are concentrated in the 85212 ZIP Code area, which is generally bounded by Guadalupe and Germann roads to the north and south and Meridian and Power roads to the east and west.
Eight of the projects are in the Design or Design/Plan review stage and total nearly $4.4B in development costs and more than 6.7MSF of build area. One project is listed as Pending Procurement/In Negotiations and totals $400M and 490KSF.
Two projects have been completed, with total construction valuations of $158.5M and 214.4KSF. The completed projects include what is by far the smallest on the list—a 32.4KSF development from Comarch that was delivered this summer.
Mesa is poised to see a significant influx of operational capacity in the near future with four projects identified as Under Construction. These total more than $1.83B in construction valuations and have a build area of more than 4.2MSF.
Regardless of City leaders’ thoughts and actions for future projects, the recent history and ongoing project pipeline for data center development have cemented Mesa’s status as the project type’s primary Arizona market.
