Amazon buys massive Valley site for potential data center
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) has bought a 220-acre site in Laveen for a potential data center campus in Phoenix.
Amazon acquired the site for $277 million in cash through its subsidiary Amazon Data Services, according to land records and Tempe-based real estate database Vizzda. It paid more than $1.2 million an acre in the deal.
An Amazon Web Services spokesperson confirmed the land purchase in a statement to the Business Journal and said “we are constantly evaluating new locations based on customer demand.”
Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud-based computing platform, has invested more than $108 billion since 2011 to expand its cloud computing infrastructure, according to its 2023 economic impact report.
The Laveen property is located near the Loop 202 and Dobbins Road, about 20 minutes west of downtown Phoenix. It is part of an industrial corridor the city wants to establish as a technology center and was one of two areas Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. first considered for its Phoenix manufacturing complex.
So far, other companies that have expanded to the Laveen industrial corridor include Japanese food manufacturer United Foods International Inc. and Performance Food Group at new industrial parks being developed IDM Cos. and Scannell Properties.
Amazon has other Valley projects underway
Across the Valley in Mesa, plans are already underway for two Amazon data center projects that will each include two main buildings and total 465,541 square feet. It’s also planning to open three new facilities each totaling more than 1 million square feet across the West Valley, creating hundreds of new jobs.
Washington-based developer IDM Cos. sold the site through a double escrow transaction to Amazon after buying the property for a total of $100.9 million. IDM paid $36 million to Smith Trust for 70 acres and nearly $65 million to Williams Family Trust for 148 acres.
Nate Nathan and Courtney Buck of Nathan & Associates Inc. facilitated the Smith Trust sale and also represented the buyer in the Williams Family Trust sale. George Quinif of Peak Group LLC and Dave Fretz of Fretz Realty & Investment represented the Williams family in the sale to IDM Cos.
Cushman & Wakefield was involved in facilitating the land sale to Amazon.
The Amazon Data Services subsidiary has been acquiring large sites in other major markets such as 118 acres in Douglas County, Georgia, where it confirmed plans for a potential data center location, and in Covington, Georgia, where it acquired 430 acres.
Phoenix is the No. 2 market in the U.S. for planned data center growth with 757 megawatts under construction and an additional 3,766 planned. The market is also home to all major cloud providers including Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Amazon Web Services and Meta.
Other major land closings related to data centers in the Phoenix region this year include:
- Tract: The data center infrastructure developer acquired 2,100 acres in Buckeye for a master-planned data center campus for $136 million in August.
- Microsoft: Microsoft paid $258 million for 283 acres for a data center expansion in El Mirage totaling 750,000 square feet across three buildings.
- Compass Datacenters: Shortly after Microsoft acquired its site, Compass Datacenters bought 121 acres in the same industrial park in El Mirage for $39.7 million.
- QTS Realty Trust: The data center giant acquired 206 acres in Avondale for $246.8 million with plans for a data center campus. It’s also building a 400-acre campus in Glendale.
- Aligned Data Centers: The data center firm bought nearly 80 acres at the Peoria Logistics Park for $43.2 million for what could be Peoria’s first data center project.