Jim WeikerThe Columbus Dispatch
Amazon appears to be considering a massive technology complex that could contain more than 30 buildings on property it is buying near the Intel site in Licking County.
The Amazon development would be included in a technology park that would extend hundreds of acres from west of Beech Road to Mink Street in New Albany.
Amazon has not commented on its plans for the property, which include nearly 400 acres it bought along Beech Road NW this month for $116.6 million. But plans filed with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency by the New Albany Co. show proposals for enormous data center complexes on both sides of Beech Road near Miller Road, on the new Amazon land. The plans call for:
- 18 buildings, each 414,724 square feet, along with a 52,272-square-foot office building and 28 acres for a substation, on the west side of Beech Road across from Miller Road.
- 11 buildings, also each 414,724 square feet, along with a 52,272-square-foot office building and 11 acres for a substation, on the east side of Beech Road, straddling Miller Road.
In addition, the New Albany Co. included an alternative to the first plan that calls for a similar configuration of 18 data centers, also each 414,724 square feet, along with an office building and 28-acre substation, on the east side of Beech Road between Miller and Green Chapel roads north of Bermuda Drive. According to the paperwork filed with the application, that alternative site would cost $4.2 billion to develop.
Amazon's new land purchases are just north of 113 acres the tech company bought three years ago for $21.8 million on the east side of Beech Road south of Miller Road. The purchase is also in addition to 93 acres Amazon purchased in September for $16 million on the southeast corner of Jug Street and Harrison Road, where it planned to build a 170,000-square-foot data center.
The Amazon site is adjacent to land the New Albany Co. bought in November along Johnstown Road in Franklin County.
The Licking County Amazon parcels are in land that New Albany is annexing from Jersey Township for Intel and other projects. Intel announced a year ago that it will build two semi-conductor factories in Licking County, at an estimated cost of $20 billion.
In December, the New Albany Co., which is developing the land, requested that the Amazon sites be rezoned from agricultural to technology manufacturing. The New Albany Co. also is requesting a permit to develop the sites, which contain wetlands. The EPA has scheduled a hearing on Feb. 6 in New Albany for the request.
The New Albany Co. did not respond to requests for comment.
Data centers expanding across central Ohio
Amazon now operates a 459,000-square-foot data center nearby at 2570 Beech Road NW in New Albany, in addition to data centers in Hilliard and Dublin, and a distribution center at 1245 Beech Road SW. Amazon is also seeking to develop nine data centers on the west side of Interstate 270, north of Scioto Darby Creek Road in Hilliard.
If the company moves forward with both plans, it would mark a major expansion of the growing data center industry in central Ohio.
The region now contains 4.6 million square feet of data center space, ranking ninth among the country's metro areas.Nearly 2 million square feet of that space was added between 2012 and 2021, trailing only Washington, D.C., and Dallas in new data space over that period.
jweiker@dispatch.com
@JimWeiker
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