EdgeCore Gains Zoning Approval For Scaled-Back Mesa Data Center

EdgeCore, a Denver-based data center developer, has gained approval from Mesa, Arizona's planning and zoning board to build a scaled-back 1.2 million square foot data center project in the city. The original proposal had called for a 2.1 million square foot center, but EdgeCore agreed to reduce the size to 1.2 million square feet in response to new restrictions implemented by Mesa officials on data center development. The project will now go before the Mesa City Council for final approval. EdgeCore's data center project will cover half of an approximately 90-acre site the company already owns in the Eastmark community along Mesa's technology corridor. The revised plan calls for two 618,000 square foot multi-story buildings, generators, and 197 parking spaces. The original proposal had included a third building as well as a 350,000 square foot SRP substation with an additional 250 megawatts of capacity, but those elements were removed. Last summer, Mesa's planning and zoning board voted to implement new regulations restricting future data center projects to land zoned for industrial use, amid concerns about losing land that could be used by aerospace, bioscience, and other innovation companies. However, EdgeCore's project is not affected by the new ordinance since its initial application was submitted prior to the changes.