Americas Data Center H2 2024 Update

COLUMBUS AMERICAS PRIMARY MARKET

NEW ALBANY

HILLIARD

KEY INDICATORS*

COLUMBUS CBD

1,829MW In Operation

425MW 2024 Colo Leasing

546MW Under Construction

6.3% Colo Vacancy

SCIOTO

LANCASTER

Colo

*Definition: Key indicators are based on operational Hyperscale Cloud, Colo, Edge & Telco data centre facilities in the market and excludes Captive & ICT.

Hyperscale Self-build

MARKET OVERVIEW Columbus has quickly become an established hyperscaler hub in the United States, as reflected by its operational data center inventory. The colocation market currently accounts for 94MW of operational commissioned capacity. As such, the 6.3% vacancy rate translates to a total 6MW of available capacity in operational data centers. The growth of the hyperscale market is expected to continue, while market composition is expected to change as colocation providers look to Columbus as a strategic market where their offerings can supplement or complement hyperscalers. Colocation leasing figures for 2024 support this trend, with colocation occupiers leasing total 425MW for the year — more than 10 times the amount seen in 2023. Like other more established colocation markets, most of this activity is preleasing for projects that are either under construction or planned. While the 154MW of colocation space currently under construction is not as high as in other markets, it is 88% preleased and would more than double the current amount of operational colocation space in the Columbus market. The planned pipeline, now grown to more than 2.6GW, is even more telling, with well-known wholesalers such as Cologix, CyrusOne, QTS, Stack Infrastructure, and Vantage Data Centers planning projects in Columbus. Much of what has made the area attractive to hyperscalers has also drawn interest from colocation providers looking to deploy large scale developments, especially multi-building data center campuses. Power and transmission constraints, along with land availability, have become frequent topics of discussion in Columbus, as they have in nearly every other data center market in the United States. New guidelines for power procurement from AEP Ohio, the state’s primary utility provider, aim to ensure the delivery of the immense amount of power being requested, similar to policies implemented by other utilities facing similar challenges.

ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENTS • Google is committing $2.3 billion to develop three Columbus-area data center campuses near Lancaster. This follows an already substantial $4.4 billion investment. • Microsoft received approvals for its latest campus across over 200 acres in Licking County. In January, the hyperscaler acquired nearly 300 acres from local owners and the Village of Hebron. Additionally, Microsoft continued to move forward with plans to develop its properties in the New Albany cluster on Beech Road. Previously, Microsoft signed a 125MW solar PPA with Apex Clean Energy. • QTS secured city approvals to add six buildings to its New Albany campus, adding 200MW and over 1 msf of data center space, after acquiring 93 acres in October 2023. • Cologix opened a fourth data center in the market, a 33MW facility spanning 256,000 sf to support AI use cases. • CyrusOne acquired 94 acres from DBT Data for approximately $50 million and plans to invest an additional $100 million to develop a facility on Jug Street in the New Albany Business Park. • Vantage Data Centers proposed a $185 million data center facility on Lincoln Rackhouse’s campus at the Silicon Heartland Innovation Park. Construction has already begun on the data center portion of the industrial park, which promises to deliver up to 216MW across 1.5 msf of space. The industrial park received financing from Harrison Street Capital. • 5C Data Centers purchased a 39-acre site with an existing 66,000 sf data center. The Montreal-based data center operator plans to add an additional 320,000 sf to the initial data center build followed by further expansion. Ultimately, the campus is set to support a total of 200MW dedicated to the site in the coming years.

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD | AMERICAS DATA CENTER MARKET OVERVIEW