Novva Data Centers Enters Las Vegas Market with 100 MW Project

Data center developer Novva Data Centers plans to open a new data center in North Las Vegas, Nevada, the company said today. The 100-megawatt facility will be the third data center for Novva, which has sites in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs.

The expansion is the latest step in Novva’s ambitions to expand across the United States and deploy up to 1 gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) of data center capacity in strategic markets by 2027.

Novva says it began work on the North Las Vegas site in October 2021, and the facility is expected to open in late 2023. The 275,000 square foot, $400 million data center will be located on a 20 acre campus.

“Since our founding, Novva has sought to bring purpose-built, futuristic, eco-friendly facilities to the Western United States and we’ve been very selective and intentional with our site locations,” said Wes Swenson, founder and CEO of Novva Data Centers. “North Las Vegas is an ideal location for a data center because it allows us to take advantage of the abundant renewable energy alternatives, and its proximity to the California and regional markets. It is a great addition to our other western data center locations.”

Switch a Dominant Player in Las Vegas Market

In entering the Las Vegas market, Novva will be competing with Switch, which for years has been the dominant player in the Las Vegas market. Switch operates one of the largest cloud campuses in the world at its Las Vegas CORE Campus, which currently spans 2.3 million square feet and 315 megawatts of power capacity. DigitalBridge and infrastructure investors IFM have announced plans to buy Switch for $11 billion, with the deal scheduled to close late this year.

Other data center operators with a presence in Las Vegas include Flexential, EdgeConneX and DataBank.

The Novva project is in North Las Vegas, which borders Las Vegas.

“North Las Vegas is a growing hub for global brands and innovative industries and Novva’s new data center will help serve and attract top enterprises to our community” said North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee. “Novva’s track record of building thoughtful, sustainable data centers proves they will be good stewards of local resources while bringing major value as North Las Vegas builds upon its reputation as a business hub.”

Novva Data Centers launched in 2020 with the development of a 1.5 million square foot campus in a growing cloud cluster in West Jordan, Utah. The first of four planned buildings opened last November. Last year Novva added a second market with the acquisition of a data center campus in Colorado Springs, with an existing 190,000 SF facility and 37 acres of land.

Leading With Water-Free Cooling

Novva is among a group of new entrants in the fast-growing digital infrastructure arena that pair experienced executive leadership with a well-funded capital partner. Swenson built C7 Data Centers into Utah’s leading colocation player before selling the company to DataBank in 2017.

The new facility was made possible with a growth equity investment from Novva’s partner, CIM Group, a real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer. In June 2022, CIM Group and Novva announced agreement on additional investment of up to $355 million in capital from CIM Group to support Novva’s plans to expand across the United States.

“This also gives us another opportunity to implement our water-free cooling technology, which will save approximately 150 to 200 million gallons of water a year, and in 2024 we plan to deploy atmospheric water generation for landscape needs,” said Swenson. “The facility will also benefit from tax abatements from the state of Nevada, which were approved in the summer of 2022.”