By Paul Schwedelson – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
In a change of strategy, NorthPoint Development plans to incorporate a 2 million-square-foot data center at its massive Keystone Trade Center in Bucks County.
The $1.5 billion industrial project at a former U.S. Steel site in Fairless Hills is entering its third phase.
Billed as a “digital infrastructure campus” by NorthPoint, the planned data center will span 247 acres and be spread across 10 buildings ranging in size from 112,000 square feet to 217,000 square feet. Each building is planned to be one or two stories tall.
The Kansas City-based developer received approvals from Falls Township’s Board of Supervisors for construction of the data center buildings.
NorthPoint’s previous plans for the 247-acre parcel called for four distribution warehouses made up of a 1 million-square-foot building at 1 Ben Fairless Drive and more than 3 million square feet of warehousing space at 700 S. Port Road.
“This is in the spirit of diversification of this site,” NorthPoint attorney Mike Meginniss said in a Falls Township news release announcing the approvals.
NorthPoint did not respond to a request for comment.
The developer has already completed and leased the first two phases of the Keystone Trade Center, which totals 5.5 million square feet of industrial space, according to marketing materials.
In January, the Business Journal reported that Monroe, New Jersey-based US Elogistics signed a lease for 518,000 square feet at a recently completed 1.04 million-square-foot building on the industrial campus.
The 1,800-acre Keystone Trade Center development could be built out to 20-plus industrial warehouses, distribution centers and data centers totaling between 10 million square feet and 15 million square feet.
NorthPoint's shift to a data center represents the changing dynamic of the market. While demand for industrial warehouse space spiked earlier this decade, it’s cooled off significantly in the past two years.
It’s another example of how NorthPoint has exhibited flexibility while building out the mega project. Two years ago, NorthPoint sold a 69-acre pad-ready site with entitlements, mass excavation and some utility work already completed to German grocer Lidl for $144.6 million. NorthPoint originally planned to build a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse on the site.
Full story: http://tiny.cc/ktpe001
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