Compass Datacenters has begun construction on the first two data centers in its Goodyear, Arizona hyperscale campus.

The two buildings will have a combined power capacity of 72MW, construction on the project is expected to be completed by the end the fourth quarter of 2019.

Re-zoning and tax exemptions

These two data centers mark the first phase of development for Compass’ campus. The company has said that the campus may grow to 350MW once fully completed.

Planning documents for the site show that eight 227,000 sq ft data centers are planned along with one Compass-owned 230kV substation and two 69kV substations, one owned by Compass and the other owned by Arizona public services.

It was reported in January that Compass bought this 200 acre land parcel in Goodyear, a suburb of Phoenix. Compass designs, builds and operates data centers to order, though the customer(s) for this project has not been named.

Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass, said: "Greater Phoenix is a natural next step for Compass since it's an important location for cloud and hyperscale customers, due to its geographic location, availability of fiber connectivity, affordable cost of data center operations, and the rarity of natural disasters

"We have been working closely with a number of cloud, colocation, and hyperscale customers on data center projects on our campuses."

Georgia Lord, Goodyear, Arizona Mayor said: "The city has worked tirelessly with Compass on this multi-parcel, multi-owner land transaction in an effort to provide our community with high-end jobs and high-tech solutions. Goodyear is quickly becoming a dynamic location for tech companies and knowledge workers. We are excited to have Compass as a valued partner in this red hot market."

In March of this year, the city of Goodyear agreed to rezone the land Compass bought from a light industrial zone into a light industrial park. A small change that allowed compass to use air cooled chillers on site.

As Goodyear is part of Maricopa County, the data center operator could be exempt from transaction privilege tax (a form of sales tax used in Arizona state) on any purchase of data center equipment for ten years. To qualify for the tax exemption a company has to invest $50 million into the county in a five-year period.

Goodyear looks popular with data center builders: Microsoft is building two data centers there, Stream is planning a 50MW campus there and Vantage has bought land there.