With a proposed USD 2.5bn data center campus in Chandler, Arizona set to go before City Council for approval, Active Infrastructure CEO Jeff Zygler elaborated in an interview with NPM about the challenges in developing the project to attract offtakers and, eventually, financing.

Active Infrastructure’s Chandler project, the Price Road Innovation Campus, is not only unique in that it’s a technology park with an AI data center, a substation and non-data center buildings purposed for research and development/flex/office uses, but also because of the requirements the municipality has, along with the effects of the Salt River Project (SRP) Load Cluster Studies.

Chandler’s requirements included a ban on overhead power lines, limiting data center buildings to part of the property and high standards for noise, water use and community engagement.

The SRP study grouped several projects (the Chandler project was in a group of 24) to assess how multiple large developments would affect the local power grid and determine necessary upgrades. As a result, Active Infrastructure was assigned an estimated cost of roughly USD 242m to provide sufficient power for its campus — USD 72m of which is due in January — all of which the developer will pay.

Zygler said he was hopeful that SRP would implement changes to streamline the electrical interconnection process.

Active Infrastructure has built its pipeline with projects that present challenges.

“We don’t do easy projects,” Zygler explained. “I’ve never done easy projects because, quite frankly, the easy projects, anyone can do them. … (For) this Chandler one, according to the city staff, prior data center groups that came in, the answer was no, and we are figuring out a way to collaborate to get a yes.”

Active Infrastructure did what Zygler called “being a good neighbor” in Chandler by holding extra neighborhood meetings, openly sharing plans and contact information, diversifying site uses beyond solely data centers, limiting construction hours and more.

Water use was another hurdle: legacy cooling towers drew more than 12 million gallons annually. Active Infrastructure will cap the draw within 60 days and convert the site to a closed-loop system.

Further, under the project’s phasing plan, the developer committed to building one of the non-data center buildings simultaneously with the AI data center, then obtaining permits for two more buildings within 12 months of the data center’s certificate of occupancy and another within 36 months.

Another project is Active Infrastructure’s 1.3 GW, 362 acre, up to 13 building Loudoun County campus in Virginia. The developer is addressing strict setback rules and local concerns over dense development by preserving buffers, undergrounding power lines and spreading buildings to limit neighborhood impact.

Clearing entitlement hurdles is paramount to securing an end user and obtaining financing.

“In today’s market, the end users are only focused on certainty,” Zygler said.

He added that he believed the financing market is primed for non-speculative projects with secured entitlements.

Referring to the Chandler project, he said, “We would get this approved, we’d finish the design, we go out to the capital markets, and typically we’ll hire a bank to issue the loan or they syndicate it, but I’m agnostic to who owns the paper in the end, as long as the terms are market.”

Active Infrastructure also has land in Canton and Columbus, Ohio and the Northern Virginia area, for potential future developments.

Chandler City Council will consider Active Infrastructure’s rezoning and preliminary development plan requests Nov. 13. Earlier this month, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of both items.