Digital Realty Trust has moved ahead with expansion at the data center site in the Phoenix market that was part of its acquisition of a five-property portfolio from Rockwood Capital, formerly managed by 365 Main.

"We started moving the dirt," Digital CEO Mike Foust told DatacenterDynamics FOCUS about the company’s activity at the Arizona location Friday. "The site has approval for another 250,000 gross square feet of structure. We’re moving ahead with our plans for that and finalizing the more detailed construction plans right now."

The data center property, located in Chandler, is the company’s fourth in the Phoenix region, which has historically been a good market for the provider. "We like the Phoenix market," Foust said. "We have a lot of internal demand from customers in Phoenix as well as existing customers in other markets."

The expansion, adjacent to the existing 315,000-sq-ft data center at 2121 S. Price Rd., will be built out in phases and will be a combination of Digital’s traditional powered-base shells and fully built-out POD’s. No major tenant had been secured as of Friday afternoon.

The data center provider closed its $725m acquisition of properties from Rockwood in July. The other sites are in California (San Francisco, Oakland and El Segundo) and Chantilly, Virginia. The portfolio, totaling 919,000 sq ft, was 94 percent leased when Digital bought it, according to Foust.