Data Center Construction in Sherman, Texas

Semiconductor fabrication plants and data centers have more in common than they seem: both need large, steady electrical service, stable cooling, clean construction and a utility that plans years ahead. In Sherman we build for owners who want a mission-critical building near that cluster, covering shell and core, central plants, substations and the underground that connects them. We also work with owners whose business supports the fabs, such as equipment suppliers and engineering firms that need private compute near their customers.

The investment around the city is large by any standard. One published account describes a $30 billion, 3,000-job, 300-millimeter wafer fabrication facility near Sherman's southern city limits that began operations in late 2025. Another says a wafer maker opened a plant near Sherman with a $5 billion investment and about 1,500 jobs, billing it as the first of three planned fabs there. Both accounts come from published sources and should be confirmed by anyone relying on them, but they establish the scale of industrial load that the local utility and the regional grid are working with.

For a data center owner, large neighbors are a signal and a constraint. The signal is that the grid is being strengthened in this part of North Texas. The constraint is that capacity is shared, and the utility will study new large loads with care.

Fabs are heavy users of power, water and skilled labor, and they attract a supply chain of gas suppliers, chemical vendors, cleanroom installers and equipment servicers. The city lists several manufacturers among its top employers, together with a food processor, a laser and materials company, the county and the city itself. That mix suggests steady demand for local technology infrastructure.

The cluster also raises competition for construction trades. Electricians, pipefitters, concrete crews and crane operators are in demand, and we plan labor early. For owners who want to compare nearby options, Denison sits next door on the same highways and McKinney lies to the south along US 75.

Every project we build begins with two questions: how many megawatts will the utility deliver and when, and how will the heat be removed. In a market with large industrial loads, the answer to the first often depends on a transmission upgrade, and the answer to the second depends on water. We ask the owner's engineer to share the utility correspondence and then build a schedule that treats the energization date as fixed.

From there we work back to the building and the site. The substation yard, duct banks and generator yard are laid out first, then the hall, then the support spaces. Our utility and substation site work is organized to meet the utility's construction requirements, including inspections and tie-in outages.

Owners who serve the semiconductor industry tend to be particular about cleanliness and documentation. We prepare written plans for dust control, material protection and room closure, and we keep logs of inspections. The same discipline helps any mission-critical hall, since dust and moisture that enter during construction reappear later as equipment failures.

We manage slab pours to the flatness and levelness the equipment calls for, seal them as soon as they cure, and close the building envelope before interior work begins. The practices follow the guidance in our work on construction cleanliness and safety.

U.S. Highway 75 (Sam Rayburn Freeway) and U.S. Highway 82 (Buck Owens Freeway) serve Sherman, along with State Highways 11, 56 and 91, and SH 91 extends to Lake Texoma. General aviation uses Sherman Municipal Airport and North Texas Regional Airport/Perrin Field in Denison. The mix of freeways and state highways supports heavy hauling, and the airports are useful for owner and engineering visits.

Permitting follows the city's process for a commercial building and, if the project is large, the utility's interconnection requirements. Texas Senate Bill 6 sets a 75 megawatt threshold for large-load standards in ERCOT, and we advise owners near that figure to read the rules early. Our description of permitting and utility interconnection covers the practical steps.

Large construction sites near each other share roads, utilities and sometimes labor. We coordinate truck routes, avoid peak hours on shared roads and agree with neighbors on laydown areas. A site meeting among contractors early in the project prevents conflicts that could stop a crane or block a delivery.

As for schedules, we usually propose a phased approach: the first hall and yard built and energized, followed by later phases on a plan the owner can accelerate or slow. That structure fits the market's uncertainty and lets owners respond to tenant demand.

Three kinds of owner are most likely to pursue a Sherman site. The first is the supply chain around the fabs, from gas and chemical vendors to engineering firms, which want private compute close to their customers. The second is the group covered under utilities and power developers, who see industrial growth as a reason to build or to sell capacity into the region. The third is a colocation or enterprise operator looking for land along US 75 north of the Dallas suburbs, where parcels are larger than those near the northern Dallas suburbs and the highway still offers a direct path to the metro.

We talk through each of these cases in a working session, and the result is a short document that states the load, the phasing, the cooling approach and the questions that remain open. Owners often find that writing down the open questions saves more time than any single design choice, because it points the preconstruction work at the items that can still change the outcome.

Share the load, the utility status and your timeline, and we will outline the structure, the underground and the labor plan for a project near the fabs.

Are the reported fab investments confirmed?

They come from published accounts that describe the plants, the investment amounts and the job counts. We cite them as market context and recommend that anyone using them in a business case confirm the figures with the companies or public records.

Will nearby fabs make it harder to get power?

They may. Large loads share transmission and substation capacity, and the utility will study new requests together. The grid is also being reinforced where large customers locate, which can help. Only the utility can say what applies to your site.

Do you build cleanrooms?

We build mission-critical data halls and support spaces, with strict cleanliness controls during construction. Semiconductor cleanrooms are a separate specialty, and we would coordinate with a specialist contractor if one is needed for a related project.

What roads help with deliveries?

US 75 and US 82 are the main freeways, with State Highways 11, 56 and 91 providing cross links. We choose routes by load size and survey the last stretch for clearance.

Can I build a hall in Sherman and a backup near the Dallas metro?

Yes. The distance is enough to avoid shared local hazards and short enough for good network performance. We would design both sites to a common standard to ease operations.