Colocation Data Center Construction in Texas

A colocation building is sold twice: first to the developer who finances it and then, hall by hall, to the tenants who fill it. That second sale is what shapes the construction. Each suite has to be deliverable on its own, with its own power feed, cooling loop and security boundary, while the base building keeps running for tenants already inside. We build colocation facilities with that sequence in mind from the first sketch.

The design question we ask most often is how much to build at once. Building the whole shell and central plant up front shortens every later fit-out. Building in smaller steps keeps capital low until leases are signed. A builder cannot answer that for an owner, but a builder can price both and show where the break-even sits. We do that before the structural grid is fixed.

One reported example in Taylor, in central Texas, puts a 135,000-square-foot data center on a tract of just under 88 acres. We read a ratio like that as a reminder that colocation sites leave room for generator yards, cooling plant and future expansion, not only for the building.

The scope divides into three layers. The base building covers the shell, the loading dock, the meet-me and fiber entrance rooms, the shared electrical rooms and the security core. The shared plant covers the generators, the cooling equipment, the fuel system and the utility service. The tenant layer covers data halls, caged suites or private rooms, each with its own distribution and metering. We price and schedule these layers separately so the first tenant does not wait on the last.

Fiber is a real part of the scope. Carrier entrances need diverse paths into the building, and trenching, conduit, manholes and the entrance room itself have to be in place before the carriers can light service. We coordinate that work with the electrical underground, and the same trenching crews often serve both. Our pages on fiber and telecom trenching and data hall fit-out describe those pieces in detail.

A colocation data center shares DNA with several neighboring types. It has the dense power of a hyperscale building at a smaller scale, the multi-tenant security of a carrier hotel, and the phased growth of a campus. Where a site is near a major network exchange, the colocation building may also include a carrier hotel and meet-me room as its connectivity heart.

Developers sometimes ask whether a colocation building can double as a wholesale shell for a single large tenant. It can, if the base building is designed with tenant-suite flexibility: wider structural bays, a floor with capacity for different densities, and a mechanical plant that can be expanded without shutting down running halls. We design for that flexibility only when the owner wants it, because it costs money and unused flexibility is a waste.

Our colocation clients fall into two groups. Colocation and wholesale operators own and run the facility and want a builder who understands uptime, tenant onboarding and expansion. Developers and landowners build for a future operator and want a builder who can document the building so the buyer's engineers accept it.

In both cases the tenant fit-out comes later and may be done by a different contractor. We write our turnover documents with that in mind: clear as-built records, pad and conduit locations, and the commissioning results that prove the base building performs. Real estate developers and site owners in particular tell us the documentation is what lets them close with a buyer or lender.

For a colocation developer, the date the first suite can accept a tenant is the date revenue starts. We therefore plan the schedule backward from the first suite: its power feed, its cooling loop, its commissioning level and its security acceptance. Everything on that path gets protected, and everything off it can slip without harming the first-suite date. That discipline sometimes means building the second and third suites' shells but leaving their fit-out for later.

Weather and ground conditions interrupt even a well-planned schedule. Texas led the nation with 878 hail events in 2024, according to the Insurance Council of Texas market report, which is why we schedule roofing and envelope close-in early and protect open roof penetrations. The same planning applies to the yard work: pads and ducts are staged so a storm does not flood an open trench full of conduit.

Cost in a colocation project concentrates in the shared plant and the electrical distribution. The more tenant flexibility the building offers, the more distribution equipment is installed before any tenant has signed. Redundancy topology, generator count and the cooling system type determine the balance. We provide pricing options at preconstruction so the owner can see the cost of each redundancy choice and the cost of leaving room to add it later.

Energy code is a smaller but real driver. The State Energy Conservation Office continues to use the International Energy Conservation Code as the adopted energy code for the state. Data centers are usually engineered well beyond what that code requires for efficiency, but the code still frames the envelope and lighting scope, and we confirm with the local building department how it is enforced. Our work on battery and UPS rooms is another place where cost and code intersect.

Send us the site, the target first-suite date and the redundancy level you plan to sell. We will return a phasing plan, a base-building versus tenant-layer scope split and a list of utility decisions that need answers first. Operators who already have a tenant can share the suite requirements and we will tune the plan to them.

Should we build the whole shell at the start?

It depends on how quickly you expect to lease. A full shell and central plant make later suite fit-outs faster and cheaper per suite, but they commit more capital early. A smaller first phase keeps cost down and leaves room for expansion. We price both so you can compare capital spent, time to each suite and the disruption of building next to running tenants.

How do you keep tenant suites separate during construction?

We separate them physically and electrically. Each suite has its own feed, its own cooling branch and its own access control, so one tenant's fit-out does not touch another's power. During construction we control dust, vibration and shared corridors, and we schedule noisy work away from halls that are in commissioning or in use.

Who coordinates the carriers?

We coordinate the trenching, conduit, manholes and entrance room, and the carriers handle their own equipment and lighting. Carrier schedules are often a surprise, so we begin conversations with the network providers early and plan for diverse entrance paths into the building. The meet-me room should be finished and clean well before carrier equipment shows up.

What does commissioning mean for a colocation owner?

It is the evidence that the building works as designed, produced in levels: factory testing of equipment, site installation checks, startup, functional testing of each system and integrated testing of power and cooling together under load. We coordinate that sequence and the documentation, which tenants and lenders often ask to see.

Does our tenant mix change the structure?

It can. Higher-density tenants need more cooling and heavier floor loading, while a mix of densities favors a flexible structural grid and a mechanical plant that can add capacity in steps. If you do not yet know your tenant mix, we design to a plan that can accept more density later without cutting into the structure.