Skybox Datacenters broke ground for construction of Skybox Legacy, a 21-acre data center campus, on March 29, at 6800 Communications Parkway in Plano. The 150,000 square foot first phase of the project is expected to be complete by November.

The construction is on a speculative basis and will follow the wholesale model, in which a large company can host its data out of the new facility, said Rob Morris, managing partner for Skybox Datacenters.

“What we will be building here will be on a speculative basis because of the belief we have in this [data center] industry, the belief that we have in this community and the belief that we have in everyone working together with us,” he said. “We think Skybox Legacy will be a great home for a large company in the not-so-distant future.”

The facility will have a six-inch concrete roof that can withstand up to 190-mph winds, Morris said. The geographic location of Plano in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and easy access to major highways, as well as cheaper electricity costs made the area an ideal location for a data center like Skybox Legacy, he added.

The campus can be expanded to 350,000 square foot capacity to host servers and provide 60 megawatts of power in later phases.

Skybox Legacy also qualifies for House Bill 1223, which gives tax abatements in sales and use tax for data centers that meet the requirements under the house bill, one of which includes investing $200 million over a period of five years and creating no less than 20 new jobs.

Plano City Council Member Rick Grady said Plano is an ideal place for a data centers because of its connectivity and the capacity to create multiple backups in order to store data in a secure manner. With big corporations like Toyota Motor North America moving its operations to Plano and the increasing number of electronic devices used by people, Grady said the need for data centers is also on the rise.

“High tech jobs mean high income for a lot of people and those are excellent jobs for us to have in the city,” Grady said.