Amazon may expand its presence with data centers
Amazon is expanding its presence in Mesa with applications to build two data centers in the city’s southeast area.
The mega-retailer is eyeing land that it owns along Signal Butte and Elliot roads and Signal Butte and Pecos roads to build data centers.
Amazon already has a strong presence in Mesa, including its largest distribution center in the nation. Representatives of Amazon did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Arizona Republic Thursday.
Site plans for the project include two buildings each about 227,000-squarefeet in size. The campus would also include administration buildings.
The Elliot Road location, named “Project Galway,” would be on a nearly 43-acre parcel. The company purchased the land in 2013, according to Maricopa County documents. Another data center project planned by NTT Global Data CentersPH LLC is planned north of the Amazon-owned parcel and another data center to the west under the code name Project Huckleberry has received its permit from the city to build.
Amazon had previously filed site plans for an industrial warehouse in 2021 for the location it is now proposing as a data center campus.
Plans for the Pecos Road location would be on a 71-acre parcel and city documents show similar plans as the Elliot Road proposal. The land, bought in 2021, is south of State Route 24 and has vacant land to the east, west and south.
Developers will meet with city staff on Oct. 10 to review the initial proposals.
Data centers in Mesa have become the new common as announcements for development in the southeast area have ramped up.
That includes Google’s recent groundbreaking of a $600 million center and the land purchase of Utah-based data center developer. Meta and Apple are also slated to build data centers in the area.
Among the concerns for the data center boom is water usage. Some developers are pivoting towards waterless cooling technology, including Google.
Amazon operates 20 data centers across the world using recycled water for cooling to preserve “valuable drinking water for communities and the environment.” The company was working towards the goal to be “water positive” by 2030, meaning it will return more water to its communities than it uses in data center operations.