Compass Datacenters Invests Another $300M South of Dallas

Compass Datacenters, one of Inc. Magazine’s 5000 fastest growing companies, is continuing its expansion in Ellis County with the addition of three facilities at its Red Oak campus.

The facilities, named DFW III-III Buildings 5-7, will span over 750,000 square feet along Austin Boulevard near Interstate 35, adding to the Dallas-based firm’s growing footprint in the area, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The project is estimated to cost $300 million and is slated for completion in 2026. Work on Building 5 kicked off in 2022 and construction on Buildings 6 and 7 began earlier this year.

This is not the first time Compass Datacenters has made a substantial investment in Red Oak. Earlier this year, the company, led by founder and CEO Chris Crosby, made plans for two others — DFW III-II Building 3 and DFW III-II Building 4 — covering a combined 500,000 square feet. That project, with an estimated cost of $200 million, is slated for delivery next year.

The Dallas-based firm has also expanded its land holdings in Red Oak, acquiring an additional 375 acres in recent years. Originally purchasing 165 acres in 2019, the company is clearly committed to long-term growth in the area.

Compass has partnered with Schneider Electric to open a 105,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in June as part of a $3 billion data center technology agreement. This facility will manufacture critical components for data centers, further strengthening Compass’ operational capabilities.

Red Oak is rapidly becoming a hotspot for data center developments. In addition to Compass’ projects, Google is developing a $600 million data center adjacent to Compass’ site. Furthermore, Dallas-based DataBank is developing a 480-megawatt data center campus on 292 acres, with plans for eight data centers totaling 3.4 million square feet.

Datacenters isn’t just targeting Red Oak. The firm is also building a data center complex in the 273-acre former Sears world headquarters at 3333 Beverly Road in northwest suburban Chicago.

— Andrew Terrell