A cloud data center near Fort Gordon is inching toward fruition. On May 2, the Richmond County Planning Commission voted to approve rezoning a more than 200-acre tract of land on 2111 Powell Rd. from Agricultural and Manufactured Home Residential to General Business, so that Atlanta-based T5 could develop it.
“They have to do a DRI study,” said Cal Wray, president of the Augusta Economic Development Authority, referring to the Developments of Regional Impact study on the prospective site before construction. “That is probably a 30-to-45-day process.”
The proposed development includes a two-story, 350,000-square foot data warehouse building situated near the entrance of Fort Gordon. The DRI review would evaluate the effect the proposed structure would have on the region.
The planning staff report on the request notes that T5’s plan initially had four buildings comprised of 198,000 square feet of warehousing space. The report also notes that if the property is rezoned and T5 aims to develop there based on its original concept, it would require a DRI review coordinated with the CSRA Regional Commission.
Wray says the data center project is more poised to bring large investment numbers to Richmond County, counteracting the relatively low number of jobs comparative to square footage.
“If they do four buildings, you’re probably talking 200 jobs,” said Wray, as the structures will mostly house rows and rows of data servers. The jobs, he notes, would be six-figure salary roles. “Those four buildings could equate to $2 billion in investment, depending on what goes in them.”
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Wray estimates ground will break on the development sometime after the area is formally rezoned in late June or early July, and that the data center would be open approximately 15 months from when the site plan is approved.
Wray says he believes the significance of the T5 center is not its investment numbers or even the high-paying jobs it will bring to Augusta, but its contribution to the local and regional “cyber ecosystem.”
“We’ve got the U.S. Army Cyber Command; we’ve got the Army Cyber Center of Excellence; we’ve got the private contractors who are in the market,” he said. “Now we’re soon to have the data center piece which is necessary as well.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering education in Columbia County and business-related topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
