Serverfarm is seeking to develop a new natural gas-powered data center in Georgia.

First reported by The Covington News, Covington city council this week approved the final reading of an ordinance that annexes a warehouse property into the city ahead of a data center development project.

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Serverfarm looks to develop a data center in Covington, Georgia – Google Maps

The 97-acre site, located at 10835 Hazelbrand Road, has been redesignated from the Newton County jurisdiction to be inside the city of Covington after a 5-1 vote. The first reading happened in December, with the Covington Planning Commission recommending approval of the annexation.

The county does not allow for data centers to be built outside of Stanton Springs, and annexing the land removes such restrictions.

The site currently houses a 498,960-square-foot (46,355 sqm) warehouse/distribution facility. The owner aims to sell the property to Serverfarm, which wants to convert the site into a data center.

Details of the scope of the data center the company is planning haven’t been shared, but Josh Volk of Serverfarm told the council last month the air-cooled facility will use initially natural gas as a primary power source.

Volk said the data center would use “about as much (gas) as you can pump through the existing pipes — in fact, upgrades will be required." He added: “(Gas) is going to provide primary power generation to the site for a number of years [later clarified up to three],” until Georgia Power can develop a substation to serve the site.

Volk added the company has four potential customers for the facility, “all of which you are all very familiar with.”

Covington, some 40 miles east of Atlanta in Newton County, is already home to Meta’s Georgia data center campus. The social media firm broke ground on the site in 2018. Amazon has also acquired land in the area.

According to its website, Manulife-owned Serverfarm operates seven data centers in North America. It currently runs one other data center in the Atlanta area, in Suwanee. It acquired the 153,000 sq ft (14,200 sqm), 14MW building at 305 Satellite Blvd from AMD in 2017.