Data Center Construction in Farmers Branch, Texas

A data hall in Farmers Branch is only as dependable as its cooling plant, so we start with the chilled-water loop, the towers or dry coolers that reject its heat, the makeup water supply and the yard that holds all of it. The shell comes after those decisions, sized around the plant it will serve. We work for owners who want the mechanical side settled before the architecture hardens, and we put the heat balance, the water demand and the pad layout on the table in the first week.

The parcels here sit inside a ring of roadway, with the Dallas North Tollway forming the eastern edge, Interstate 635 the southern edge and Interstate 35E the western one. That frame makes equipment deliveries straightforward and also puts a sound and appearance burden on any exposed yard, so we plan screening and equipment orientation with the site plan. A light rail station, which opened with the Green Line in December 2010 near the northeast corner of I-635 and I-35E, adds a transit edge that some buyers use for staff access.

Water is the second constraint. Evaporative cooling needs a dependable cooling water supply and reuse line with storage, treatment and a blowdown path that the city will accept. Closed-loop and dry systems trade that demand for more electrical load and more pad area. We carry both options through early pricing so the owner decides with real numbers. Commissioning, which proves the plant under load, is written into the same schedule from the start.

Chillers, cooling towers, pumps, piping, water treatment and storage tanks usually represent a larger share of site work than the shell itself. Redundancy multiplies each of them: an N+1 plant carries a spare chiller, a spare pump and a second pipe path, and each spare needs its own foundation, power feed and controls. We price the cooling plant as a separate package so an owner can compare an air-cooled option with a water-cooled one on identical assumptions.

Less obvious items matter as well. Freeze protection for exposed piping, insulation, screen walls, sound attenuation, spill containment around treatment chemicals and site drainage under the pads all show up late if no one lists them. Our chiller and cooling plant pad estimates include them, and we flag any item the design has not yet resolved.

We lay out the yard first, then the building. That sequence sets pipe routes, tower approach distances and service clearances, and it prevents a common failure in which the hall footprint takes the space the plant needed. Access for a crane, a tanker and a technician carrying a pump motor is shown on the plan before any concrete is poured.

For high-density halls we also coordinate with the design team on direct-to-chip and rear-door loops, as covered in our liquid cooling coordination work. Those loops change pipe sizes, leak detection and cleanliness requirements inside the hall, and the earlier we know about them, the less rework appears at the first fill and flush.

Operators running dense compute, such as AI and GPU cloud operators, are limited by how much heat the plant can move rather than by floor area. They ask early about water availability, loop temperature and the room to add chillers in a second phase, and we answer with yard sketches and phased pad layouts.

Enterprise and colocation owners care about cooling too, but mostly as a reliability question. They want to see the failure modes of each plant type and a plan for maintaining it without shutting down the hall, and we draft the maintenance access and isolation valves with that in mind.

A cooling plant can live in a yard, in an enclosure or in its own building. A freestanding central utility plant serves several halls from one location and lets us phase capacity, while a yard beside a single hall keeps pipe runs short. We help owners pick the arrangement that suits their growth plan.

The halls themselves range from enterprise rooms to larger colocation suites. Each needs different clear heights, slab loading and ceiling space for pipe, and we confirm those with the structural engineer before the plant is sized.

The city reviews mechanical, plumbing, electrical and fire submittals for a project like this, and tower and tank installations draw particular attention. We ask the building department which documents it expects for water treatment, backflow prevention and equipment sound levels, and we assemble those packages in parallel with the structural drawings.

Any generator fuel storage near the plant is reviewed under separate fire provisions, and we keep those submittals distinct so that a comment on one does not stall the others. Utility service requests for water and power go in as early as the design allows.

Farmers Branch has seen major development land close to its industrial areas. The Mercer Crossing district, a billion-dollar blend of homes, offices and retail spread over 370 acres at the junction of Luna Road and Whittington Lane, started construction in 2017 with over 2,250 apartments, an office park, a hotel and an amphitheater, and a five-acre office site holding 103,000 square feet sits inside it. A data center near neighbors of that kind needs sound-conscious equipment choices and a visual plan that suits the street.

We use that context when advising on tower noise, plume visibility and construction traffic. The city's largest employers, which include a federal agency and several industrial companies with jobs in the thousands, also tell us that the area has enterprise demand and a skilled labor pool for mechanical trades. Owners comparing nearby Irving parcels get the same plant analysis.

Trade partners and equipment reach Farmers Branch quickly from the surrounding interstates, and we staff projects for the full ring of nearby cities. Owners expanding from Lewisville or consolidating toward Dallas can use the same plant standards on both sides of a move.

We schedule regular site walks with the owner's facilities team, including a walk of the finished plant before turnover so that operators learn where each valve, strainer and drain sits.

Tell us the load, the target cooling method and the water situation at your parcel. We will respond with a plant layout, a water and power question list for the utilities and a budget range for the mechanical yard.

Does a data center in Farmers Branch need a large water supply?

It depends on the cooling method. Evaporative towers use makeup water continuously and need storage and treatment, while closed-loop dry coolers use little water but consume more electricity and more pad area. We estimate both approaches and ask the utility early what flow and pressure it can commit.

How much land should be set aside for the mechanical yard?

Plan for the yard to rival the building footprint on dense designs. Chillers, towers, pumps, tanks and generator areas all need service clearance, and an expansion phase needs reserved room. We test the layout against growth scenarios before the owner commits to a parcel.

Can the cooling plant be built in phases?

Yes. Pads, headers and electrical stubs for later chillers can be installed in the first phase so that adding capacity does not require opening live piping. We design isolation points so the new equipment can be connected and tested without interrupting the operating plant.

How do you handle noise near mixed-use neighbors?

We choose lower-sound equipment where the budget allows, orient fans away from sensitive edges, add barrier walls and check predicted levels with the acoustic consultant. The city's review will ask for the same information, so doing the work early shortens plan review.

What does commissioning of a cooling plant involve?

Component start-up, controls verification, flushing and filling, then tests under simulated load and failure. We schedule these steps in the master schedule and keep records the owner can use for operations. Insufficient time here is a frequent cause of late handover, so we protect it.