A 96MW data center has been proposed for Blacktown in West Sydney, Australia.

The application with New South Wales for Honeman Close Data Centre was submitted by Lehr Consultants International Pty Ltd (LCI), and will see a data center developed at 6 Honeman Close in the Huntingwood industrial suburb.

According to the documents submitted alongside the application, the data center project will feature a six-story data canter with a roof-mounted plant, administration areas, generator, and battery rooms.

In addition, the applicant intends to build a 132kV substation with three oil-filled transformers and seeks permission for 47 diesel generators.

The data center is proposed to "provide data storage for corporate and government entities within the Sydney Metropolitan Area," and will be connected to other facilities worldwide to increase the volume and redundancy of data storage.

In one of the application documents, LCI estimates that the capital investment value of the project will be AU$200 million (US$132m). The facility is expected to generate around 300 construction jobs, and 50 long-term jobs once operational.

The application is currently in the "response to submissions" phase and still needs to be assessed and given a recommendation by the planning commission before a decision will be made.

LCI is an engineering consulting practice in Australia and has previously worked on a data center for insurance firm ANZ located in Tullamarine, Victoria, and a data center for Melbourne Airport. LCI lists AirTrunk as one of its customers.

AirTrunk already has two data center developments in Sydney, with a third underway. In February 2024, the company proposed a 45MW data center next to its SYD2 site.

Other data center companies either operating or developing in the area include Macquarie DC, Keppel, Goodman, CDC Data Centres, and NextDC among others.