Plans surface for $200 million data center in far north Fort Worth

A multinational data center developer plans to construct a $200 million facility in far north Fort Worth, according to public project filings submitted to state officials this week.

CyrusOne, headquartered in Dallas , hopes to start construction on its new complex in October. The data center and accompanying office space would span almost 2 million square feet of now-empty industrial land hugging U.S. 287, about six miles from the shores of Eagle Mountain Lake.

The project, slated for completion by February 2026, is the latest drop in a stream of data storage proposals to rush through the Metroplex in recent months. Fort Worth city council members last week gave a provisional approval to 121-acre center near Crowley after months of resistance from nearby homeowners. This past May, Prime Data Centers, another Dallas-based IT infrastructure outfit, shared early plans for a $1.6 billion complex near Benbrook.

The nation’s surging appetite for digital information has fed feverish demand for places to store it. JLL, a commercial real estate firm, estimates that data center construction across the country has multiplied sevenfold since 2021, a scramble to stave off a growing scarcity of repositories.

DFW, boasting ample space and a tech-savvy workforce, has steadily cemented its status as a national hub for data depots. The Metroplex’ storage capacity (966 megawatts) ranks third in the nation, according to JLL analysis, trailing only the pacific northwest and northern Virginia; developers are piecing together another 339 megawatts of power.

Fort Worth has gradually carved out its own corner of the market. Meta, Facebook’s parent company and one of Tarrant County’s biggest tax payers, runs a $1 billion data center in the Alliance Corridor. CyrusOne’s latest proposal would be its first data facility in Fort Worth (and its fourth in the Metroplex).

The sustainability of the burgeoning data center industry will hinge, experts warn, on the capacities of the local electrical grid. Analysts expect data centers to guzzle at least 11% of the country’s electrical power within the next decade.

“The reshoring of manufacturing and electric vehicle adoption are also challenging the grid. Aging infrastructure, the impacts of extreme weather and increasing power outages are concerns as well,” JLL experts observe. “Innovation is born from challenges, and now is an opportune time for technological advances in power generation and power consumption.”