Two more mall-sized data centers proposed for metro Atlanta

One of the latest such proposals is a five-building computer storage farm along I-20 near Covington, roughly 45 minutes east of downtown Atlanta, according to a Development of Regional Impact filing. The $5.7 billion project site is next to a 430-acre data center campus being built by Amazon Web Services, a division of the e-commerce giant.

Eric Johansen, vice president of development for Universal Planning & Development LLC, is pitching the new data center campus and is trying to get the 213-acre property annexed into Covington’s city limits. He said the neighboring Amazon property, which his firm previously helped get zoned for a data center use, has “set the precedent for industrial land and data center presence” along that section of I-20.

“With the presence of Amazon, which is under construction now, this property has a great opportunity to be used as a data center property,” Johansen said. An end-user or developer has not joined the project.

So far this year, there have been at least six DRI filings for multibillion-dollar data center proposals in Atlanta’s orbit. That does not include Amazon’s pledge to spend at least $11 billion on new computer server farms on Atlanta’s Southside and Westside. Nor does it account for the dozens of data center proposals that were submitted over the past two years, thrusting Atlanta into the national spotlight as the country’s hottest market for computer-storage warehouses.

DRIs are filed when a project is large enough to impact multiple jurisdictions and triggers a government infrastructure and traffic review. They are early-stage filings that are often scant on specific details, typically spurred by a rezoning or annexation request.

Called the Gregory Road Data Center, Johansen’s proposal includes up to 1.4 million square feet of data center space, slightly more floor space than Atlanta’s tallest tower Bank of America Plaza and slightly smaller than Lenox Square mall. The entire campus is expected to have a power capacity of 360 megawatts.

Universal Planning & Development LLC is the development arm of John B. Williams, who has real estate holdings across Alabama and Georgia. Johansen said Williams has properties in Athens, Buford, Conyers and Covington with projects underway, including the Amazon data center campus next to the Gregory Road site.

Credit: Courtesy Universal Planning & Development LLC

Credit: Courtesy Universal Planning & Development LLC

Data centers are often criticized for their substantial water and power demands and for creating relatively few permanent jobs.

The site is near the Lake Varner Reservoir and will have to be rezoned and annexed into Covington to move forward, Johansen said. He said the proximity to the reservoir allows for multiple options to reuse water, a resource data centers need to keep computer equipment from overheating.

“We are trying to be sensitive to the water reuse on the property, given that water, sewer and power are in high demand for all these projects,” he said. “… We want to present that there’s multiple options on how you can have water reuse.”

The project is estimated to employ about 100 to 120 workers when complete and generate an additional $19 million in annual property taxes, according to the DRI. It’s proposed to be built across three phases from 2027 to 2036.

Data centers are often measured by the amount of power they consume.

The Atlanta region emerged as the country’s top data center market for leasing activity in 2024, dethroning Northern Virginia for the first time, according to new data from real estate services firm CBRE. The net amount of leased data center space in Atlanta increased by 706 megawatts in 2024, 56% more than Northern Virginia during the same year.

Nearly 2,160 megawatts worth of data center development is under construction across metro Atlanta, more than double the size of data centers currently operating in the area. That’s roughly equal to the maximum electricity output of both of Plant Vogtle’s two new nuclear reactors. No other major market in the U.S. comes close to matching that projected wave of computer server farms.

And the looming wave continues to get larger.

On Friday, a day after the Gregory Road proposal, another DRI was filed for a mammoth data center campus, this time in Spalding County.

The DRI included scant details, but it proposes a nearly 2.6-million-square-foot data center campus on an 133-acre property off High Falls Road near Griffin, roughly an hour south of downtown Atlanta. An attorney representing the project’s applicant, Montana Property Group LLC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.