An air-cooled data center will expand after the Chandler City Council gave final approval to a zoning change July 15. The expansion will be built where there’s currently a little-used parking lot along Frye Road, as an extension of a former Bank of America building.
The expansion of a large Chandler data center was given the green light when the City Council approved the consent agenda at its July 15 meeting.
The approval of an application for a zoning change — from a planned industrial district to a planned area development, or PAD — allows CBRE Investment Management to significantly expand a data center campus along the north side of Frye Road at Ellis Street. It is a couple blocks east of Price Road and Loop 101.
The application also included mid-rise overlay for buildings as tall as 95 feet.
Bank of America developed the Frye Road campus in the 1980s when it became one of the first international firms to locate along the Price Road corridor.
Bank of America sold the land that includes the data center in 2019. The development booklet states there is still a high demand for data centers.
“The proposal is to create additional data center supply by building an expansion on an underutilized parking lot within a parcel that is already dedicated to a data center use and has been for many years,” the booklet states. “The proposal will convert this parking lot into a highly attractive data center expansion. This will provide additional capacity for the market, and the building’s sophisticated design will enhance the aesthetics on Frye Road.”
There are restrictions on how Arizona planning commissions can address water use as part of development applications. But the CBRE proposal mentions Chandler’s water-use ordinance passed in 2015.
The booklet promises not only a fully electric air-cooling solution in the expansion, but also a contract with the city that requires replacement of each of the existing water chiller units with an electric air-cooling solution.
The council gave preliminary approval to the ordinance at its June 27 meeting.
Attorney Taylor Earl presented to council at its June 24 study session, pointing out the air cooling not only as a feature of the new data center build, but also in converting existing data servers from water chillers to air cooling.
Jason W. Brooks News Editor | Chandler Independent
Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.
Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.
Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.
Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.
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