Data center construction builds secure facilities for servers, power, and cooling systems. Get costs, timelines, key steps, and tips to manage your project.
Use this data center project plan template to organize infrastructure phases and coordinate MEP installation. Track equipment procurement, testing milestones, and dependencies to prevent coordination failures that delay commissioning by months.
Data center construction means building a secure space for servers, power systems, cooling, and network gear. It’s a capital project with high stakes, tight specs, and zero room for delays.
This guide walks you through what makes these builds unique, what they cost, how long they take, and how to keep your team on track. We'll cover real-world issues, such as permitting, long-lead items, testing, and handover, without using technical jargon.
Data center construction delivers purpose-built facilities that support large-scale IT infrastructure. These capital project buildings are engineered from the ground up for uptime, resilience, and performance.
If you’re planning a data center build, here’s what’s in scope:
Some owners are starting to combine IT and construction into a single contract. That move helps teams avoid last-minute surprises during commissioning and keeps everyone accountable to the same go-live date.
You can build four common types of data centers depending on power requirements, site conditions, and user needs. Here are the main types of data centers you can build, each with unique design and delivery needs:
These are massive facilities that support cloud platforms, AI systems, and heavy computing loads. Most projects span multiple buildings, requiring significant utility coordination.
Key traits of hyper scale builds include:
Colos are shared buildings where tenants lease racks or suites for their IT. You build the core capital infrastructure and deliver space that meets strict uptime and access rules.
Core characteristics for colocation builds include:
These facilities serve one organization with specific internal policies and risk thresholds. Construction often requires tailored solutions for compliance, security, and capacity.
Enterprise builds typically include:
Edge builds bring compute power closer to users and devices. These sites are fast, compact, and built for speed-to-market.
Most edge builds are defined by:
Building a data center gives you full control over the infrastructure, layout, and long-term performance. Leasing one gets you online faster but locks you into someone else’s design, terms, and limitations.
Use this table to weigh construction impact, control, and program budget planning:
If your data center project demands tight uptime targets, data sovereignty, or future scalability, building usually pays off. Leasing might suit shorter-term workloads or early-stage expansions while you plan for a long-term build.
Each phase of data center construction comes with distinct design, procurement, and risk and opportunity management demands. Here’s the full construction workflow for data centers, from early planning to final commissioning:
This stage confirms if the data center site, power, and business case are strong enough to proceed.
You translate operational goals into engineered blueprints and data center infrastructure layouts.
You lock in the backbone systems that often delay data center construction projects if left too late.
This is when you break ground and raise the physical data center structure on site.
You bring in the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems (MEP) that keep the data center facility online.
This is where every system is verified and the data center is prepped for occupancy.
One of the most common mistakes in data center construction is delaying equipment orders. Fast-moving teams place procurement in construction milestones inside the design phase, not after it, which helps keep timelines tight and delivery smooth.
💡 Pro Tip: Prevent thousands of Level 5 commissioning logs from stalling your handover by using Mastt's AI document analysis to instantly flag missing signatures, failed thermal thresholds, and incomplete O&M manuals.
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Most data center construction projects fall between $600 and $1,100 per gross square foot or $8 million to $12 million per megawatt of IT load, depending on site conditions, utility access, and infrastructure requirements. Costs scale with design complexity and redundancy levels, especially for Tier III and Tier IV builds.
Here’s how the budget typically breaks down for a new greenfield data center:
Here’s the key drivers that shape final construction cost:
Markets such as Dallas and Reno offer more predictable construction costs, often 10-18% lower than Tier 1 cities. But they may come with trade-offs in fiber access or labor availability, which should be factored into your TCO analysis.
Sources: Dgtl Infra, Cushman & Wakefield Development Cost Guide 2024
Uptime Institute, ASHRAE, ISO, NFPA, IEC, and PCI DSS set the main standards for data center design and construction. These frameworks define how to build systems that meet strict requirements for uptime, energy efficiency, fire safety, electrical integrity, and physical security.
Each one supports a specific part of the infrastructure and reduces the risk of failure, downtime, or non-compliance.
Here are the key standards that apply to most data center builds:
Defines four levels of infrastructure resilience:
Sets temperature and humidity ranges for safe IT operation. These limits shape HVAC design and help achieve ideal power usage effectiveness (PUE) without overcooling.
Establishes methods for monitoring and improving energy performance. Used to reduce PUE over time with data-driven system adjustments.
Covers fire risk in critical areas. It includes guidance on detection, suppression, and protecting IT equipment from smoke and heat.
Ensures safe installation and maintenance of electrical systems. It supports fault isolation and protects key gear like UPS, switchboards, and PDUs.
Outline how to manage and restrict physical access. Facilities must use badge controls, secure rooms, surveillance, and clear audit trails.
Different countries apply additional regional codes, but most enterprise, colocation, and hyperscale projects use these international benchmarks.
In some cases, clients demand dual compliance (Uptime Tier certification and ISO frameworks) to meet SLA requirements or support financial, healthcare, or government workloads.
These standards also influence decisions around redundancy, cooling tech, monitoring systems, and fire zones early in the design process.
The best place to build a data center depends on five key factors: power availability, network access, climate conditions, government incentives, and land suitability. Site decisions affect project cost, uptime potential, delivery speed, and long-term scalability.
Choosing the wrong location can delay permits, limit capacity, or increase operating costs.
Here’s what to look for when selecting a data center site:
In high-demand regions, developers often evaluate dozens of sites before selecting one. Some project owners pre-negotiate power supply agreements or dark fiber routes before land purchase.
Others prioritize energy mix: choosing sites near renewables to meet ESG goals. Location affects not just the build, but long-term operational cost, resilience, and service performance.
A data center project is led by the owner’s representative and supported by a team of specialists. Each role focuses on a specific part of the build: scope, schedule, design, safety, or system performance.
Clear responsibility prevents delays, cost overruns, and quality issues during construction. Here are the key roles involved in delivering a data center:
Larger projects often include other roles like cost managers, legal advisors, ICT engineers, or security consultants. The project structure depends on the delivery model: design-bid-build, design-build, or EPCM, and the owner’s internal capability.
A strong core team with clearly defined roles is essential for hitting deadlines, controlling risk, and achieving certification targets.
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A full data center build typically takes 18 to 30 months from concept to commissioning. Timelines depend on project scale, site conditions, equipment lead times, and how early your team locks in key packages.
Here’s how the timeline for data center construction usually breaks down:
Some data construction projects expedite the process by overlapping design and procurement. That approach locks in long-lead items earlier and maintains steady momentum.
Data center builds face risks that can delay schedules and drive up costs. Knowing what’s coming helps you stay ahead and keep delivery smooth.
Here are the primary data center construction risks and how project teams can respond to each one:
Tie risk reviews to funding gates rather than just timeline checkpoints. It keeps decisions grounded in the real health of the project, not in hope.
💡 Pro Tip: Prevent resource bottlenecks across complex hyperscale or enterprise builds by centralizing schedules and costs in construction program management software. This allows you to instantly shift funds and contractors across sites the moment a delay threatens the portfolio.
Data center construction is changing fast. New projects must support AI workloads, hit energy targets, and scale without delay. That’s pushing builders to adopt modular designs, better cooling, and smarter tools.
These trends are reshaping how hyperscale, colocation, and enterprise data centers get designed and delivered.
Here are the biggest trends shaping data center construction now:
OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, and Google are all driving demand for denser, more efficient data center infrastructure. To keep up, developers are shifting toward designs that deliver faster, run cleaner, and scale smarter across every region.
Some of the most advanced data center projects today are being built to support AI infrastructure, large-scale cloud services, and regional digital expansion. These projects show how developers are combining speed, power, and sustainability at a massive scale.
Here are five of the most impactful data center builds around the world:
1. OpenAI & Oracle’s Stargate Data Center - Abilene, Texas, USA
This project marks one of the largest AI-focused infrastructure builds to date, targeting next-generation compute demands.
2. Meta AI Data Center - Temple, Texas, USA
Meta is redesigning its data centers from the ground up to support large AI models like Llama and other internal workloads.
3. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Expansion - Ohio, USA
AWS continues to scale its U.S. presence with one of its largest regional investments, aimed at cloud and AI demand.
4. YTL Green Data Center Park - Johor, Malaysia
Malaysia’s largest green data center campus is setting the benchmark for renewable-powered hyperscale infrastructure in Southeast Asia.
5. CoreWeave Supercomputing Facility - Plano, Texas, USA
One of the fastest-deployed AI-focused data centers, built to meet demand for GPU-intensive workloads.
Delivering a data center is high-stakes work, but it’s also a chance to lead critical infrastructure from the ground up. Every decision you make shapes how the facility performs long after the handover.
Utilize construction project management software designed for data center delivery to maintain a tight scope, track risks, and keep costs under control. With the right systems, you’ll move faster, solve problems early, and build something that keeps the digital world running.
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Arlene is a content marketing expert with over a decade of experience helping construction project management professionals build authority. She creates impactful content that simplifies complex concepts, engages stakeholders, and highlights industry expertise. Her work ensures your projects, insights, and innovations stand out in the competitive construction landscape.
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