Prologis is planning to develop an industrial warehouse park on the site of an NTT Data services data center and office complex.
The Dallas Morning News reports that the logistics giant is planning a 64-acre, eight-building warehouse project on Bush Turnpike at Custer Road spanning almost 1 million square feet (92,900 sqm). Plano’s planning and zoning commission has approved the plans.
Prologis has told DCD that NTT will remain a tenant of the site, but didn't say if the existing data centers would be retained or replaced.
NTT sold the 1 million-square-foot office and tech complex at 2300 W. Plano Parkway to GI Partners in early 2019. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but NTT Data was due to lease back the property – including two data center buildings – on a ‘long-term basis’.
NTT Data acquired the complex in 2016 when it bought the former Perot Systems IT services operation from Dell in a deal valued at more than $3 billion. Dell had acquired the company in 2009 for $3.9 billion.
Parts of the original campus at 2300 W. Plano Parkway were demolished in 2021, and a Prologis affiliate purchased the more than 64-acre site at the end of 2021, according to DMN.
Google Maps imagery shows some buildings have been cleared but a number of the NTT buildings are still standing. However, the DMN report suggests the site is set to be cleared entirely. DCD has reached out to NTT for more information.
A Prologis spokesperson said: "NTT Data Services will continue to operate as a customer of Prologis on-site, through a lease agreement. We are excited about the unique opportunities presented at this location, and we will continue to work with the community in the planning process."
The site was a scene of a shooting incident in 2017. James Frazier, a data center technician who was not an NTT Data employee but did have access to the building, was arrested after shots were fired. He was reportedly carrying an automatic rifle. No one was reported injured.
Industrial real estate including warehouse and distribution centers are seeing a development boom amid increased eCommerce customers. As such real estate often shares similar qualities to data centers, so it's not uncommon to see one turned into the other.
A former Speedcast data center in New York was bought for $21 million last year by a Blackstone-backed logistics firm that plans to demolish the facility to build a new distribution center. In Staffordshire in the UK, a former Royal Bank of Scotland data center is due to be demolished and replaced with a new warehouse by logistics firm PLP. A former Fidelity Investments data center in Irving, Texas, was last year turned into an industrial space and sold.
Many logistics real estate players are also moving into data centers, either developing their own or partnering with operators. In the US Prologis has partnered with Skybox to retrofit existing warehouse space and develop greenfield land owned by the real estate firm.
