Colo giant Digital Realty has filed to develop a data center campus outside Atlanta, Georgia.

Via its Digital Fort Gillem LLC affiliate, Digital Realty this month filed a Development of Regional Impact application with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a new data center development.

The company is aiming to develop a two-building campus in Clayton County’s Forest Park, a city approximately nine miles south of Atlanta.

The ATL 15 and 16 site will total around 1.9 million sq ft (176,515 sqm) across 97 acres. DCD understands the campus will total around 200MW.

The development, located on what was previously Fort Gillem property, was part of the 1048-acre Gillem Logistics center, but requires a new DRI review due to a “significant change” in use.

DCD understands the company aims to invest around $2 billion in the project, which will be linked to Digital’s existing Atlanta footprint.

Per the company's website, Digital Realty's Atlanta footprint totals 44,900 sqm (484,000 sq ft) across three facilities: ATL11 at 101 Aquila Way in Lithia Springs, ATL13 at the 56 Marietta Street carrier hotel in downtown Atlanta, and ATL14 at 250 Williams Street NW.

Founded in 1941, US Army base Fort Gillem was a satellite installation of nearby Fort McPherson. It was closed in 2011 – minus a small enclave – after which the City of Forest Park purchased the majority of the site and converted to a business park. Robinson Weeks Partners said the Gillem Logistics Center can accommodate more than eight million sq ft (743,000 sqm) of e-commerce and distribution facilities.

Atlanta is becoming a major data center hub, with the likes of Digital Realty, CoreSite, Switch, Google, Microsoft, Flexential, H5, and QTS developing or operating data centers in the Atlanta area – largely around Lithia Springs or Douglasville.

The Peach State looks set to grow quickly in the coming years. DRI applications for more than a dozen campuses, totaling tens of millions of square feet across dozens of buildings, have been filed over the last couple of years. While many are in Atlanta’s traditional data center heartland around Fulton County, applications have been filed for projects across the region.