Digital Realty Plans New Data Center Project in Santa Clara

Data center specialist Digital Realty continues to create runway for future growth in key markets. The company has announced plans to a build a large new data center in Santa Clara, the leading data center hub in the strategic Silicon Valley market.

Digital Realty will team with local developer Pelio & Associates on a 430,000 square foot, four-story data center adjacent to its existing connected campus in Santa Clara, providing room for expansion in an important destination for enterprises and digital businesses.

Santa Clara has long been the Data Center Capital of Silicon Valley due to competitive power pricing from the municipal utility, Silicon Valley Power. It’s the favored spot to deploy new hardware and services from the Valley’s marquee technology companies, as well as a legion of fast-moving startups. That’s why there’s about 40 data centers are located in an 18-square mile municipality.

It’s also a market where development sites are in short supply. This has led to a repurposing of existing properties, with data center developers acquiring sites with existing structures and knocking them down to make way for a purpose-built data center.

The new Digital Realty data center at 641 Walsh Avenue will follow that path as well. This approach requires more development time than a “greenfield” build on open land, so working ahead on site procurement is important for developers in the Santa Clara market. The first phase 8 megawatts of customer capacity is targeted for the third quarter of 2022.

Room for Growth in a Key Digital Destination

The new facility will build upon Digital Realty’s existing Silicon Valley footprint, which includes 12 data centers and a business ecosystem of more than 360 enterprises, network, content and cloud providers, including direct access to AWS and IBM Clouds. It reinforces the company’s focus on data gravity – the massive aggregation points for data, which attract applications, services, and infrastructure to them.

“We are committed to providing our Bay Area customers and partners a future growth path that will overcome data gravity barriers and support their digital ambitions,” said Tony Bishop, Digital Realty Senior Vice President, Platform, Growth & Marketing. “Today’s announcement marks another milestone on the roadmap for extending the global reach of PlatformDIGITAL and will spur continued opportunities for innovation at the heart of the vibrant tech community in Silicon Valley.”

Digital Realty plans a new dark fiber ring to provide additional connectivity to its key interconnection hub at 200 Paul Avenue in San Francisco, as well as its facilities in downtown San Francisco and Oakland.

Digital Realty’s partner on the project, Pelio & Associates, has been developing data centers in Santa Clara for more than 20 years. The new facility will be built with the use of sustainable materials, including recycled concrete and steel, and is designed to achieve LEED Gold certification. It will include a rooftop solar array to provide renewable energy for some operations, along with onsite electric vehicle charging options.

In 2020, Digital Realty received EPA ENERGY STAR certifications for an industry-leading 31 data centers across the company’s North American operating portfolio. The company has also taken significant steps to reduce its impact on the Santa Clara potable watershed through a partnership with Nalco Water that aims to use up to 10 million gallons of reclaimed water annually.

The new project continues a period of heightened activity for the Santa Clara market, featuring a steady stream of new providers, and a robust cycle of new construction. The region is already home to some of America’s leading tech players, including Apple, Google, Facebook, Intel, Cisco, Oracle and many others.