Tract has broken ground on a data center campus outside Reno, Nevada.

The data center park developer has, however, withdrawn an application for another campus in Phoenix, Arizona.

Tract breaks ground in Reno

The company, which develops data center parks on which companies can build their own data centers, announced this week it had broken ground on its Peru Shelf Technology Park project in Storey County.

The master-planned site is designed to support hyperscale data center campuses, with Tract’s development plans including NV Energy switch stations, new access roads, and wet utility infrastructure.

The Peru Shelf Technology Park, spanning 686 acres within the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, will support up to 810MW of utility capacity at full build-out. Tract also has 510 acres adjacent to the Peru Shelf project currently in the planning stages. The Peru Shelf development is expected to receive initial power delivery in late 2026 or early 2027.

Tract’s previously unannounced South Valley Technology Park, located seven miles southeast along USA Parkway, is a planned 1,500-acre, 1,200MW project it says can potentially support up to seven individual campuses.

“The commencement of construction at Peru Shelf launches the first of Tract’s projects in Northern Nevada and I am pleased to see the physical manifestation of our planning,” said Grant van Rooyen, CEO of Tract.

“We see long-term potential for the greater Reno data center cluster to support rapid deployment of cloud and AI data centers. Our investment in master-planned digital infrastructure will continue to scale significantly in the coming years.”

Tract is led by van Rooyen, president of the van Rooyen Group and founder of US data center firm Cologix. Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners acquired a majority stake in the company in 2017.

News of the company surfaced in 2022 – at the time, it had reportedly identified 40,000 acres of potential investment sites.

Tract officially launched last year with plans for a 2GW, 2,200-acre development in Reno, Nevada. The company initially acquired 686 acres along Peru Drive, before buying an additional 517 acres inside the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC).

Tract says it owns or is under contract on more than 20,000 acres across the United States, which are in various stages of rezoning, design, or horizontal construction.

As well as Reno, the company has announced plans for a 668-acre campus in Eagle Mountain, Utah, and a 46-building data center campus outside Richmond, Virginia, is also in the works.

After several delays, the Hanover Board of Supervisors recently granted zoning approval for Tract’s Virginia campus.

Tract pulls application in Phoenix

In Arizona, Tract has reportedly pulled an application to develop a large campus in the Buckeye area of Phoenix.

Reports Tract was planning a $14 billion master-planned data center complex across 1,000 acres in the Buckeye area of Maricopa County surfaced earlier this year.

Known as Project Range, the development was set to span nearly 30 buildings totaling 5.6 million square feet on land north and south of Yuma Road between Jackrabbit Trail and Perryville Road. Buildings would range from 149,000 square feet to 260,000 square feet each.

However, YourValley reports Tract withdrew the application from Maricopa County’s planning and development queue after opposition from local residents and other stakeholders.

Work on the project was set to start in 2025 and continue over the next 15 to 18 years.

BizJournal reports Jessica Bennett, chief legal officer for Tract, sent a letter to Maricopa County's planning department on April 18 requesting to withdraw its four applications for rezoning and comprehensive plan amendments for the project.

The project received pushback from both Goodyear and Buckeye staff because of its "incompatibility" with the designated land uses for the site along with concerns around building heights and noise. The site is currently designated for residential uses and is surrounded by neighborhoods.

Tract had already submitted revised applications reducing the proposed heights of the data centers and increasing the setbacks, before withdrawing the application altogether.

It's unclear if and when Tract plans to refile the application. DCD reached out to Tract, but the company declined to comment.

Tract's applications have been withdrawn and closed, a spokesperson for Maricopa County told BJ.

"No further action will be taken by the county," the spokesperson said.