Tract Drops $14B Plan to Build Data Centers Outside Phoenix

Tract has spiked a $14 billion plan to build a data center complex across 1,000 acres outside Phoenix, after pushback from adjacent cities.

The Denver-based developer has withdrawn its request to rezone land to build 30 industrial buildings containing 5.6 million square feet near Yuma and Perryville roads in unincorporated Maricopa County, west of Phoenix, the Phoenix Business Journal reported.

The project, dubbed Project Range, was expected to be among the largest data centers in greater Phoenix, and the first Tract foray into the Grand Canyon State.

Jessica Bennett, chief legal officer for Tract, asked the county’s Planning & Development Department to withdraw four applications for rezoning and comprehensive plan amendments for the project.

The withdrawal follows opposition from the adjacent cities of Goodyear and Buckeye, which cited the data center’s “incompatibility” with the designated land use of a site surrounded by neighborhoods and zoned for homes.

Both cities had sent letters to Maricopa County saying the megaproject was not a good fit, with city staff outlining concerns about building heights, noise and emergency resources.

The pullout by Tract comes a month after the company filed revised plans reducing the proposed heights of the data centers and increasing the setbacks, or distance from the project to surrounding neighbors.

The status of the project is not clear. Tract did not respond to a request for comment from the Business Journal.

Tract’s applications have been withdrawn and closed, a spokesperson for Maricopa County declared in an email to the newspaper. “No further action will be taken by the county,” the unidentified spokesperson said.

Metropolitan Phoenix is the second-largest data center market in the U.S., with only a 2.2 percent vacancy, or 156,556 square feet of available inventory in the second half of last year, according to JLL.

Data center developers have flocked to Phoenix to keep up with demand generated by emerging tech such as artificial intelligence, and drawn by competitive power rates, low latency and lack of natural disasters, according to the Business Journal.

Tract, founded last year to buy land and build infrastructure for data center development sites, has 20,000 acres under contract across the U.S.

The firm just leased a 20,700-square-foot office for a new headquarters at The Citadel at 3200 South Cherry Creek Drive, in Denver, according to a news release. The lease, from CAC Partners, expires in 2031. Financial terms were not disclosed.

— Dana Bartholomew