North Tyneside Council has approved planning consent for a new state-of-the-art, 'green' data center campus at Highbridge Properties Cobalt Park near Newcastle in the north of England.
The developer intends to deliver 10,262 m² of Tier III technical space on the UK's largest office park, providing an unusually high standard of specification for bespoke data center space anywhere outside of London and the South East.
The campus comprises two data center facilities, incorporating the new build DC1 center which offers four autonomous 1,000-m² data halls under one roof on a leasehold basis, and DC2 which is an existing technical facility and comprises three separate 1,000-m² data halls.
The new DC1 center is being developed entirely speculatively, and represents a significant investment by Highbridge Properties in the data infrastructure of North East England. The facility also represents the only new build data center currently under development in the UK outside of London and the South East.
The Data Centre Campus is also on track to be awarded a BREEAM Excellent rating, and will constitute one of the UK's greenest technical facilities as a result.
Guy Marsden, Highbridge Properties, said: "Having established a successful business destination in the North East, Highbridge are now keen to add to the facilities on offer by developing what will amount to the highest standard of technical real estate in the region.
"We are bucking the trend on so many levels with this new data center campus. We are developing speculatively, when many developers are halting construction. We are planning to deliver one of the greenest technical facilities to a market where sustainability is not often associated with the product. We will be providing top quality inexpensive date center space with 25% lower rents than London schemes of the same specification. Finally, we are going to be providing a minimum of Tier III standard accommodation with the potential for space to be designed up to Tier IV to a regional market that currently has rudimentary data center stock at best".
Work on DC1 will commence on site at the beginning of October 2009, with the new Campus due for completion by September 2010.
DC1 has been designed by Architects Woods Bagot, with Cundall providing M&E and Structural Services, and EC Harris the employers agent. CB Richard Ellis is the agent on the scheme.
Source: FD
