Google has acquired nearly 85 acres of land outside Columbus, Ohio, for a potential data center development.

The company confirmed to BizJournal this week that is had paid $63 million for the property at 2565 Harrison Road NW in New Albany.

The search giant purchased the land from DBT-Data, a real estate investment firm that develops data centers. DBT bought the parcel for nearly $1.6m in January 2023, according to the Licking County property records.

Development plans for the site have not been finalized.

"Google has acquired property in New Albany for a potential data center," a Google spokesperson told the publication. "While we do not have a confirmed timeline for development for the site, we want to ensure we have the option to further grow, should our business demand it."

Google has an existing data center campus at 1101 Beech Road SW., some four miles south of the acquired property.

Washington DC-based real estate development company DBT Development Group acquired the site in the New Albany International Business Park, close to Intel's upcoming chip fab site, in 2022. At the time, the company said the site could host up to to 1 million square feet (92,900 sqm) of powered shell facilities.

The New Albany site was DBT’s first in Ohio, with the company traditionally focusing on acquiring and/or developing in Virginia’s Loudoun County. The company has been involved in projects in Sterling, Ashburn, Harrisonburg, and Thornburg.

Google first entered Ohio in 2019 when the company broke ground on its first New Albany data center worth $600m. That year, the company added an additional $1 billion commitment for the construction of the Columbus and Lancaster data centers. In 2021, the company planned a $1 billion data center expansion at the New Albany site.

In 2023 the company Google committed a further $1.7bn to the Buckeye State, followed by another $2.3bn last year.