Texas data center services provider Data Foundry announced a plan to add hundreds of thousands of square feet of new data center space in the Austin market. The company has acquired a four-acre property, where it plans to build a 250,000 sq ft green-field data center. Data Foundry expects to launch phase one in the second quarter of next year.

"We performed extensive site research to locate an existing building in Austin that might suit the needs for our next site," Data Foundry CTO Ed Henigin said in a statement. "It became clear that retrofitting an existing building would not allow us to deliver the high level of service that we envision for our new data center, so we have chosen to build from the ground up."

Austin is a desirable data center market because of relatively cheap power ÔÇô served over the state's own electrical grid that's independent of the reportedly strained US national power grid ÔÇô low incidence of natural disasters and a good pool of qualified labor.

First phase of the future data center will provide 130,000 sq ft of space and the second phase will add another 120,000 sq ft.

The new facility will be designed by Gensler;engineering services will be provided by CCG Facilities Integration;and construction will be handled by Holder Construction Company.

Data Foundry built its first 6,000 sq ft data center in 1999 in downtown Austin, after spending five years in the ISP business as Texas.net. Its newer, flagship facility is also located in Austin and provides 40,000 sq ft. The company also has a data center in Houston, whose ownership it gained when it acquired Reliant Energy in 2002.